11. Fan Engagement from a Sponsorship perspective

In our previous articles, we have already talked about what fan engagement is, it’s importance and its types. And as mentioned earlier, every club will have its own definition of fan engagement, they will have their own methods and goals for the same as well. Some might use them simply as a means to grow their fan base, some might use it to make sure they retain their fan base. And some might not use any fan engagement tools or activities simply because they feel they don’t need it.

The sports industry today is more technologically advanced than it has ever been and the emphasis on data analytics is more than ever. Data is everywhere, not just within the game or players performance, but also how fans behave within the arena or other team-related places, how they interact with the team and players on social media and other official platforms and how they consume their favourite team and its various content.

Even sponsors are now becoming more aware of the latest trends and they now understand that sponsorships no longer effectively work the way they did maybe a couple of decades ago. It’s no longer about just having your logo on the club t-shirt or on a few locations within the stadium. And more importantly, you cannot simply sell your product’ to the fans just because you sponsor their favourite team or the competition that their team plays in. As time progressed, customers (in this case fans) have evolved and become smarter which has forced sponsorships to evolve themselves. Modern-day sponsorships are not just about buying the sponsorship rights for a fixed sum of money and expecting to generate returns for it, it’s about creating meaningful activations around the sponsorship rights that you have bought. It’s no longer about selling your products to the fans, rather creating exclusive experiences and selling those experiences to them.

And here is where Fan Engagement plays a very crucial role in modern-day sponsorships. Clubs when they undertake various fan engagement activities are generating a good amount of data about the fan behaviour patterns. If this data is analysed efficiently, a lot of information and patterns can be generated and eventually put to work to create these exclusive experiences for sponsor activations. Not only can the data be used, but simply new fan engagement exercises can also act as good sponsorship activations for smaller sponsors with comparatively lesser budgets. Lastly, fan engagement activities can also help understand the efficiency of various sponsorship activations and help measure the outcomes of various such campaigns.

Gamedayz is our very own engagement tool designed for a sports club to convert their unknown fans into known fans and maximize their social media efficiency while creating meaningful returns to your sponsors.

Check out our Gamedayz product and see how it can enhance the fan experience, improve the sponsorship and increasing your revenues