By John Huang
Did you know? It took only 5 years for smartphone devices to reach 1 BILLION users? The smartphone devices are so useful and reliable. Users can use it to discover, learn and share. Google refer this as micro-moments, which suggest users are increasingly relying on their mobile devices for entertainment and to make better decisions in their lives. Since users are living in a now and on-the-go moment.
According to 2015 Sensis Social Media Report, 79% of Australians access the internet daily. (Figure 1) 70% of users access via a mobile device. (Figure 2). While many organisations are investing in multi-channel marketing campaigns such as print, tv, radio to reach consumers, mobile is still largely under value.
So, What is mobile marketing?
Mobile marketing is about connecting & engaging with customers through and with mobile. Also, mobile marketing is different to traditional marketing because it is more personal, interactive, time relevant and location independent.
Mobile marketing can enhance the communication between sporting teams and their fans. In return, help their fans to maintain interest on and off-season, attend games, and buy club merchandise and memberships. For sports organisations having a large fan base will attract more and bigger sponsors, thus more revenue for the club.
Currently, fans are increasingly accessing their mobile devices to enhance their match-day experience. Throughout the game, fans are tuning in for real-time updates, social media, and live stats. This can turn into business opportunities for marketers and advertisers. By putting information at fan’s fingertips, it helps fans to develop a better relationship with their club.
An example of mobile marketing is to send club news to supporters via text or notification via club app. Club news on the latest team schedule/signings, injury news, player stats, contests, giveaway and ticket promotions.
Here’s my example of Ticket Promotions
One way to increase match attendance is to run an opt-in text message in their home stadium programs or on their social media sites “text Victory” to 131313 for a 5% discount to this week’s game plus a chance to win TWO free tickets for the next home game!
Besides ticket promotions, teams have games and live polls in the stadium to enhance the match day experience. Ultimately, sporting teams use mobile marketing to provide an interactive experience for fans and spectators. Give them extra opportunities to become more involvement with their team, to become active participants in stadiums rather than just a bystander.
Lastly, sports teams can analyse these data to gain more knowledge on what their fans and spectators want and what levels of engagement they seek.
Thank you for reading my blog,
Comment below, if you know/heard any successful or very bad mobile marketing done by sporting clubs.
Click here to read how Cleveland Cavs generated $200,000 in revenue after implementing a mobile marketing program.
Figure 1
Figure 2
John Huang 
A brief but detailed blog which accurately describes how sport businesses can take advantage of society’s use of technology through marketing.
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I really enjoyed the application of theory to something relatable, like sports. The only thing that I would do different is maybe not have a text in. I would use a platform, like Facebook; specifically, I would you Facebook Places. This is because something like a sports event is something specific to space and time, which we learned is called a “Space-timer”. Since, the discount is specific to that game at that time, it is important to have something that can track both. Facebook places fits these criteria perfectly.
Also, I’d like to add on to what you concluded with. When they use the data that they gathered, what they are finding is the consumers’ intent. This is really important in distinguishing between consumers to find a common purpose. A lot of times, at sporting events, there are people with different demographics, but similar intent. It could go from an old woman supporting the city she lives in, to a young man from another country that doesn’t even know either team (usually myself). At the end, we both have the same intention of seeing a competitive match. Analysis of digital marketing data can make the intent clear, making it easier to market the correct information to the correct people.
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I had a great read through your article. However I have a different feeling once I finished reading, particularly on the ticket promotion example. According to Kaplan, this type of mobile marketing is classified as Strangers because marketers know about the strangers and pushing notifications of games to them. At first, it will be interesting to get these messages, but give it a year where other businesses start doing the same thing. I bet ya that people will not even bother opening the text, they will just delete it. Like what I do with texts from businesses nowadays. So I reckon marketers need to be smart about their mobile marketing, so they are able to get peoples’ attention and get them to convert!
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I really enjoyed your article as it is about sports especially basketball. Totally agreed with you on how sports clubs could use ticket promotion to attract more match attendance. Usually in sports, such as in NBA, sponsors would sponsor a specific section of the game. For example, Gatorade sponsoring the replay of best Dunk of the night, and fans has to vote for it.
The gap between advertisement spent and time spent on a smartphone present this huge opportunity for these organizations as well.
With easy access via mobile devices, and many people are on it, it provides a huge opportunity for companies and sports club to get onto this platform and expose their brand to the mass audience. However, some organizations are not app based firms, hence they might not be able to fully optimized this platform to get their targeted audience. Hence getting back lesser than what they have invested.
Regards with capturing audience who decides on micro-moments, companies can use the following to grab their attention.
How to broaden your reach and increase engagement in micro-moments?
– Be there: when your customer grabs their phone in their moments of need, make sure you are there.
o To help understand what customers are looking for, use Google Trends to explore the search queries consumers are increasingly using.
– Be useful: when you know where to be, then find ways to be useful in each moment. Otherwise they’ll simply move on to another brand.
o Provide local inventory information so they can see what’s in stock nearby.
o Develop how-to videos.
o Offer the ability for consumers to seamlessly check out with an “instant buy” button.
Companies should aim at micro-moments as Decisions are made in micro-moments based on intentions, not demographics, framed in context and played out on the small screen. Solely focusing on demographics hinders marketers from connecting with mobile customers in the moments that matter.
Overall i enjoyed your post! 🙂
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