#5 Guide to engaging fans across owned channels

Fans are a loyal bunch

We’ve covered how to grow brand awareness and buying intent among fans. But how can brands tap into that famous loyalty among sports fans and the teams they follow?

Keeping this audience engaged in the long-term comes back to the need to personalize. But not in the traditional sense. When it comes to your owned channels, we’re talking about the need to personalise with context. You have to retain sporting authenticity. 

Whether it’s on your app, website or via email, sports fans respond best to marketing that connects your brand to what they care about. Tailoring content based on purchase history is great, but it becomes far more compelling when you link it to the team or league you know they love most.

It starts with your database

There are number of ways to capture first-party data but one of the most popular methods right now for brands targeting fans is gamification. By launching a fantasy contest, predictor or quiz game, you’ll attract fans to your brand, but also deliver a sports-centric experience that they are happy to sign-up to and exchange their data for. This is commonly known as “zero-party data”.

Knowing things like which team each fan supports and which leagues they follow allows you to throw in a sports angle when promoting your products across your owned channels.

Last year, sandwich chain Jersey Mike’s launched a branded sports game to build a database of 185k fans, using the audience data gathered to push fans along the buying funnel faster.

Contextualize your promotions

Your special discount code or “Black Friday” offer becomes even more attractive when you link it to the big sporting events.

If John is a Broncos fan who loves Russel Wilson, serving him an individual code based on his last purchase, with a message about Wilson’s performance on the back of a Broncos victory guarantees to set you apart.

You can contextualize your messaging like this across any of your owned channels, whether it’s a push notification, in-app interstitial message or email. But your ability to do so first stems from your customer database, and it works.

Deliver 1:1 videos via email

For British Airways, personalized 1:1 videos increased email click-through rates by 100%.

The airline created tailored videos for different customer segments. And by combining your new sports-related CRM data with purchase history and contextual live sports data, you can achieve similar results.

You’ll be able to send a personalized video via email to all NFL fans who bought one of your products, and a separate video to fans who bought another. It’s easy, automated and takes just minutes.

Fans buy from dozens of brands and receive emails from even more. 1:1 videos, with a sports twist, are proven to give you a clear advantage.

Customer story:
British Airways

The airline wanted to reengage its customers with personalized travel guides delivered via CRM channels, to drive bookings ahead of the travel season.

How Genius helps you win

Our Genius 1:1 solution allows you to maximize your database by combining context with personalization when marketing across your owned channels.

Live sports data from our official league partnerships feeds into our adtech, helping you automate data-driven content and messaging via email, push messaging and many more CRM channels.

Meanwhile, our Genius Games tools empower you to build your own database of “Zero-party data”. You can grow, own and monetize an audience of sports fans with a custom branded sports game.

Start engaging sports fans