Fan Loyalty & Engagement

The importance of fan loyalty and engagement is extremely important for an organization, for the exact same reason that the question asks, revenue generation. When thinking about fan loyalty and how today’s professional teams engage with them, you must first know how your fans interact. It is the simple questions of, who are our fans? What is our demographic? How do they interact? And what are their purchasing habits? You of course know they are fans of our team by various methods such as purchasing tickets, coming to events, or subscribing to team related advertisements. Outside of that, how you engage with them and maintain their loyalty affects generation.

How this affects revenue generation, is making sure that you understand what it is your fans are buying and how often. Just as the post from the Sports Networker says, “Thanks to the social media and the increasing presence of sports teams in the digital space, loyal fans are ‘closer‘ to their teams than ever before.” I began to notice this many years ago myself and it has become extremely prevalent as of recently. Due to the use of social networks and media, fans are closer to their favorite players and teams than they ever were before. This causes for added revenue streams for the professional teams because now they have other ways to charge fans for more inside access to their favorite players.

            The most intriguing example that I saw of a team that is looking to increase fan loyalty is of the Miami Dolphins. Introducing their new initiative the Fin Club program, they are incorporating a way to interact with their fans in across multiple medias. Eric Fisher from the Sports Business Journal says, “The Fin Club assigns fan points for virtually any Dolphins-related activity, such as buying tickets and merchandise, following the team on Facebook and Twitter, and visiting the team website”. I think this is a very good way to reach out to these fans especially given the extreme consistent usage of social networks. During their launch phase, the team generated nearly 5,000 sign-ups from their fans. I think that eventually this will lead to an even greater success for the Dolphins down the road.

            Before a game, a way to engage fans to increase attendance can be through any to of partnership for a community event. I believe that one-time partnerships with other larger companies that are not usual sponsors are a great way to initially gain new fans. During a game, there could be special events that specifically are designated to those first time fans. For instance there could be a special event held during halftime for those people who are first time season ticket holders. Lastly, post game activities to increase fan attendance could include an event that is held for all fans after the game is over in a designated area of the stadium. There could be a meet and greet of coaches and players, or rewards and prizes for those who enter into a raffle during the game.