As Sports Marketers were constantly challenged with the task
of making sure our “Brand” stays relevant no matter what the time of year;
pre-season, during the season and off-season. Over the past several years, the
social media world has become a sports fans playground and a great way to
extend fan engagement beyond just in-game experiences. Social Media is the
perfect platform for fans to extend their love, passion and loyalty for the
teams they love in a much more open and exposed environment. All in all, Social
Media is a place booming with fans who log-on to be consistently engaged,
encouraged and educated around their favorite sports brands. Now, in a perfect
world all sports teams would leverage their digital presence in a way that
successfully utilizes sponsorship activation and fan engagement to its fullest…but
unfortunately we don’t live in a perfect world. In this discussion I’m going to
identify my favorite sports team and discuss the ways in which they leverage
their digital presence to engage fans.
It’s hard to distinguish one team as a favorite, but if I
had to pin point one, it would be the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers have used
many platforms to increase fan engagement but the two methods that stood out to
me last season were done so though mobile marketing and twitter.
The Flyers wanted to create excitement for fans during “down
times” when the puck wasn't in play on the ice, in order to do so they came up
with an interactive experience using text message marketing. During this
campaign fans were encouraged to participate in two separate promotions. During
one campaign Flyers fans were told to send text messages supporting their team
to a specific “short code” and the approved messages would appear on a live
scroll across large screens at the stadium. The second campaign was sponsored
by XM radio; the fans were asked to choose between two bands they wanted to
hear during the next intermission. Some of their text results would appear in
real time on large screens. The whole idea around the messages appearing on
screen was to supply the fan with instant gratification while boosting fan
engagement and participation. Interaction and instant gratification can help
strengthen the relationship between the fans and a team. As an added bonus,
fans that participated in the mobile campaign were also given the opportunity
to sign up for the Flyers SMS alert program that alerts fans with information
about scores, injuries and other facts. I think it was a smart decision to
throw the “SMS Alert Program” at consumers that were already utilizing their
mobile phones as a form of interaction and engagement. I would assume that
someone interacting in a “mobile manner” would be more inclined to sign up for
services offered on that same platform. The campaigns proved successful with
participation rates near 15%, more than 70,000 text message were received from
30,000 unique mobile users and several thousand fans signed up for the Flyers
SMS campaign.
Hartnell Down!!! If you’re a Flyers fan, chances are you've hash tagged that phrase once or twice on twitter. It’s nothing new to Flyers
fans that Scott Hartnell falls down and one fan managed to start a movement
unlike any other by counting the number of times Scott hit the ice during a
game. The phrase was quickly adopted by the franchise and Scott himself and the
movement got bigger and bigger as the season wore on. The flyers took a look at
the attention this negative phrase was generating and decided that if anything,
they were going to encourage positive fan engagement around the new catch
phrase. What once started as a “twitter cult following” now exists as an
official Hartnell Down website that sells merchandise with the proceeds going
to charity. Scott Hartnell took the movement to another level when he pledged to
donate $1,000 to charity for each time he fell down during the all-star game. The
Flyers have been taking advantage of this opportunity by giving away free
HartnellDown merchandise at events, encouraging tweets during games and evoking
excitement around up-coming games encouraging fans to tune in to witness how
many times Hartnell will actually fall down. This movement added unexpected
exposure not only to Scott Hartnell but also to the Flyers franchise. This is
the type of advertising and fan engagement you can’t plan, but it’s something
that you can embrace. Not only are the Flyers encouraging fan engagement within
the brand, but they are also encouraging engagement through charities. Fan
engagement is extremely successful especially when it’s done so though
meaningful experiences. When fans purchase this merchandise they get the sense
of “helping out” in the hockey community and it’s something that has become a
meaningful experience tied to the Flyers brand. Through this digital presence,
the Flyers are able to consistently engage fans and encourage them to not only
grow the foundation but their brand loyalty as well. Hartnell Down allowed the
brands most valuable assets to be a conversation opener on a platform engulfed
with sports fanatics, leading the organization to leverage their digital
presence in a way no other franchise as yet to do.
When looking at the entire digital presence of the Flyers, I
feel confident enough in saying I think they are on track. The Philadelphia Flyers Facebook Page has over 800,000 likes and
delivers content that’s crucial for fan engagement. Photos are posted of summer
hockey schools, contests with rare flyers autographed merchandise are promoted,
exclusive stories around contract extensions and injury updates are displayed,
great deals for Xfinity Live are offered, and birthday shout outs to players,
giveaways and promotions are frequently shared. The Flyers clearly know that
they need to provide a constant flow of valuable and interesting information to
keep their fans engaged.
Something I would like to see more of is contests and
giveaways that are interactive and fun for the audience. Games that engage fans
like “scavenger hunts” using or contests like “show us your game face” would be
great ways to engage the fans using a platform like Instagram.
I would also like to see the franchise to encourage more
followers on Twitter and YouTube. The current twitter account has 187,000
followers and the official Philadelphia Flyers Channel on YouTube only has 959
subscribers. I feel like the franchise would have no problem gaining more
followers on both platforms though incentives like promotions and giveaways.
@NHLFlyers could announce giveaways including free merchandise or tickets to
the first 1,000 fans who become new followers to all of their digital
platforms.
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