A Different Ball Game: The Benefits of Seamless Mobile Experiences

Sports teams have some of the most passionate audiences; whether they’re 5 or 50, they’re hooked on a team until the end. But, despite their relentless commitment, audiences remain untapped. For marketers to get the most out of their fan relationships, they need to use every mobile micro-moment with a fan to their advantage – learning more about them, capturing more emails, finding potential season ticket holders, and even expanding sponsorship opportunities. Interactive experiences boost fan engagement, increase lead capture, and expand team’s knowledge of fans, powering personalized remarketing.

The Mobile Revolution

It isn’t just the big screens on the field anymore… fans are repeatedly pulling out their phones during games to text their friends about that crazy play, record the madness for their Snapchat story, check Instagram at halftime, and post their team’s winning score as their Facebook status.

If they aren’t engaging with the team on social, then they’re probably found in the app; watching video recaps, checking scores, and reading new content.

But no matter how diligently these fans post or how often they check the team app, it can be hard to get them to hand over their emails when trying to connect with them. We help sports teams get the most out of their relationships with their fans – something that can only be achieved through continuous connection and relevant content and offers. Providing value to the fans, whether it’s through an interactive video recap of the most recent game, custom, exclusive merchandise deals, or contests for tickets, increases their willingness to engage with your branded content and give you their email.

Increasing cross-channel lead capture

One of our NBA partners launched a “Which Player Are You?” personality quiz on several channels, including Snapchat and Instagram Stories, with the aim of engaging their fans before a big game, finding out if they’d been to a game before, and boosting their email capture on top channels. Their personality quiz saw a 98% completion rate and engaged 3x the stadium’s capacity. They also saw a 3x higher lead capture rate from Snapchat versus other social channels, opening up significant opportunities for capturing highly engaged leads via Snapchat’s platform.

Learning about your fans

Jebbit-powered experiences stand out to consumers; they’re not only built for mobile, but they personalize each individual experience in real-time, allowing for a seamless experience. These experiences stand out to corporate sponsorship partners for its ability to capture self-declared data and qualified leads. One of our NFL partners, the Buffalo Bills, launched a sponsored interactive schedule challenge for the season. Fans who completed the challenge were entered into the chance to win two season tickets, two on-field passes for home opener, and an autographed helmet, courtesy of their sponsor. They launched the challenge on Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and their app. Through it, they captured tens of thousands of leads for their corporate sponsorships partner, and with an average of 1 minutes and 32 seconds for individual user engagement!

Fans are on the go, checking their phones in short 1-2 minute intervals in between their busy schedules. The key to sustaining their attention, however short, is through these personalized, relevant experiences that entice the consumer to stick with the experience and not get distracted by a notification on their phone.

Keeping up with consumer demands

The mobile revolution is not going to stop here – we’ve got to keep up with fans in all arenas and all consumer devices. Whether it’s wearable tech or a voice activated technology like Amazon Alexa, it’s more demanding more than ever before. It’s up to sports teams and tech providers to step up their game in order to ensure fans are having a good time, whether they’re watching the game live, tweeting about it from their couch, or following along via the app, they need to have equally engaging fan experiences.