Using Data to Enhance Fan Experience and Drive Revenue

Football clubs now have the opportunity to use data to monetize their fan base (with marketing engagement) and enhance the fan experience by providing better relationships with their fans.

They now have the opportunity to join the retail media explosion by employing that same data (1PD) in sales activities. This is the fan 360°:

Football clubs have realized that, like supermarkets, they have a loyal customer base with similar behaviors and shopping habits. They can leverage these similarities to create a retail media business model.
Football clubs gather data about fans from sources such as season ticket purchases and attendance at player events to offer targeted promotions and incentives. For example, clubs could incentivize fans who have attended specific player events to buy signed merchandise or promotional shirts.
By understanding their fans’ wants and needs, clubs can provide a platform for engagement (for the fans) that will give them a 360° view of the customer journey. This includes providing fans with a platform that allows them to engage with the club (Apps, TV, Social Media, and web), purchase merchandise, and manage tickets.
Using CRM platforms like Salesforce to drive fan engagement and provide a complete customer 360° view of all activities, from marketing to sales.

Monetizing Data

The streams for sports clubs to generate revenue are now so much broader than Matchday:
- TV – Apps – Social
- Digital
- Digital out-of-home
- Sponsorship
- Print
Data collected from fan interactions, like ticket purchases, merchandise sales, and app usage, can be used to create targeted advertising and promotions. This data is valuable to brands because it can be used to target fans with personalized content and offers.
Clubs can monetize this data by selling targeted advertising space on their digital platforms and stadiums. For example, a kit maker could be targeted to sponsor the merchandising pages of a club’s website.
Clubs can also use this data to develop new revenue streams, such as selling fan data to third-party companies and brands.

ADvendio Platform

Many football clubs are investing in 360° solutions such as ADvendio to manage and monetize their fan data.
ADvendio is a Salesforce-managed app that can be used to link to Salesforce Marketing and Data Cloud.
It has pre-existing connections to Google Ad Manager, Meta, Pinterest, and TikTok, which enables clubs to join their social media following with their in-store and on-site audiences.
The ADvendio platform can help clubs monetize their audiences with digital advertising, both on-site and off-site, as well as non-digital inventory. It can also help clubs optimize digital revenues and harmonize data for analysis and reporting.

Conclusion

By using data to better understand their fans, football clubs can enhance the fan experience while increasing revenue. They can achieve this by investing in platforms like ADvendio and leveraging their data to create targeted advertising and promotions.