Highly engaged fans possess the potential to significantly impact ticket and merchandise sales, enhance the performance of athletes or artists, and attract additional sponsorships as well as boost sales of refreshments. Overall, fans are your most powerful marketing asset. But how do you turn visitors into super fans? We’ve got you covered!
Step 1. Get them in the right mood
You’ve got a big game coming up and you want your stadium bursting with excitement. You don’t just want visitors arriving and taking their seats. You want highly engaged fans that immerse themselves by wearing the official club merch, singing the home team’s anthem and buying drinks and food before the game.
Get your fans in the perfect mood by offering them personalized pre-match content and information. Get them excited about ways they can contribute to the game. Feed songs and show videos of heatmaps in the stadium while the crowd is singing and cheering. More about that in step 2.
Step 2. Make fans part of the game
It’s game day! Your fans have been informed about the pre-game information on where to park and team’s formation. You’ve also been posting videos of last week’s heatmap on your website, in the app and on social media. It’s now time to make it all part of the game. Keep your fans on the edge of their seats before the game and during half time by playing their favourite team songs or by holding gamification to see which block is the loudest.
Acoustic monitors will provide additional insights into the sound of your fans. Make them sing, make them cheer and then give the fans’ acoustical data back in the form of an interactive heatmap on the big screens. Bright red is the area your most engaged fans are. By showing their voices on a heatmap, you really make them part of the game.
You can also show the heatmaps when a team has scored. Which team will be the loudest? And more precisely: who is your loudest fan and how can you reward them?
Step 3. Content they will love
Club apps and social media are a great way to keep your fans engaged even after the game. Post new and engaging content within minutes after the game. Make them part of the game by showing them the goals as if they are watching from the sideline. Show the roaring crowd they were a part of or even better: share heatmaps of the stadium right after the team has scored.
Sound heat maps from Dutch football champion PSV club (Eredivisie 2023-2024) have gone viral, because fans were so proud of the noise they created. The engagement continued online with a highly positive sentiment, especially when famous international players started to repost the content. Learn more about the solution at PSV here.
Bonus step: Take the game outside the stadium
Sharing an acoustic heat map in your app, offers many engagement opportunities. People can tune in from home and listen to the event as if they were there. Studies show that the younger generation prefers to watch a match at home rather than in a stadium. By offering real time videos and heatmaps you get highly engaged fans even if they’re not in the stadium. By showing them what they’re missing, they’re more likely to get tickets for the next match.
Active participation
Human interaction is evolving from passively observing to active participation, with an increasing emphasis on influencing and shaping memorable experiences. The focus is no longer solely on watching an athlete perform. Instead, it revolves around the comprehensive encounter encompassing the event. So basically, the significance of authenticity is on the rise in the world of sports. If you want to learn more about how fan engagement can boost a stadium, download our e-book today.
