By Paul Nicholson
October 10 – Turning connections into cash is the holy grail for most companies in social media. But big numbers of likes and followers are often just that, big numbers. Digital is more than just social media and clubs are increasingly looking for a financial return from their digital investment.
So where is the money going to come from? The topic was addressed at the Leaders conference this week with differing answers but common themes depending where you are on the digital journey.
Michael Leavey, Media, Marketing and CRM director at Arsenal FC was fairly unequivocal: “The convergence of data and content is the key thing.”
Digital has been focused on building around content. Now the emphasis is on building where data has value to partners – customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing.
“Data and digital are combining around CRM and digital execution. It impacts on every single department – ticketing, retail and obviously media and commercial. Everyone has to understand the digital role throughout the club,” said Leavey.
Digital consultant Craig Howe who is consulting head of digital and social media at the San Francisco 49ers and the Chicago Bulls says that when defining your digital strategy “you have to be proactive rather than reactive. You need to make digital lead the conversation.”
With digital now the primary way clubs communicate with their fans, the quality of content is crucial. “First you have to look at how we create great content. Second we have to have the analytics and this leads to CRM and data.”
At the 49ers NFL team, which has just opened its new 80,000 seat Levy Stadium, the head of digital reports directly to the president.
“The 49ers have a new stadium. When you get an eight figure cheque from a sponsor that expects to be heavily involved in your digital engagement, it is tempting (to just take the money)…you need to balance the big cheque against the digital at the table when you have the sales conversation,” said Howe. “You must be careful you don’t devalue the sales proposition.”
Arsenal had a digital target of £50 million in revenue, a chunky number by anyone’s standards. But that number probably shouldn’t be viewed as a standalone activity – every deal into the club has a digital value.
“We are now looking at the value of data,” said Levy. “CRM put at the centre of the business can create value.”
Arsenal used to charge fans for its digital broadcast content but has now changed policy to turn those paying, and new sign-ups, into digital club members. There are now 1.3 million members who receive the digital offering free in exchange for data on themselves (age, sex, preferences). 70% of these members are outside the UK. Value to the club has not been capped at the 60,000 who can attend a match.
The value of the data and how it can be used is greater than a, say £5.99, subscription to a digital TV feed.
While Arsenal are into the next stage of their digital development and turning it into revenue, others aren’t so advanced on the journey, but are coming up fast.
David Gorges, head of new media and CRM at Borussia Dortmund, said: “Connecting our stadium to our wider fans we see as a major opportunity. We are still a developing brand so the first thing for us is to create awareness. The second step is for people to like us and the third step is our commercial rights.
“80,000 in our stadium is our maximum capacity… We must now transport that intense Borussia Dortmund experience outside the stadium.”
Taking the club experience beyond the stadium via digital platforms is an echoing theme in the battle to create value from expanding fan bases in the digital universe. That battle for fans worldwide is entering a new phase. The strong feeling from the panel at Leaders was that the clubs who have invested in quality content and have integrated the digital platform across their business will be early money winners.
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