More than a logo – why experiences are the new impressions

DILLY DILLY!

Yes, you’ve probably heard it everywhere. It has rapidly gained traction as a celebratory phrase worth yelling at almost any social event. From a Saturday afternoon in the pub to the Augusta National Golf Club where “Dilly Dilly” was banned from being shouted by golf fans at the Masters this month.

AB InBev’s recent Bud Light campaign has echoes of their famous Budweiser “Whassup” campaign from 1999, which achieved ‘‘talk value’’ – the elusive quality that converts advertising campaigns and phrases into cultural touchstones. Just like the “Whassup” campaign, “Dilly Dilly” launched during TV spots in the USA around the NFL, building towards the brands 2018 Super Bowl slot.

By January 2018 Dilly Dilly was being mentioned 175,000 times a month on social media. The term alone searched over 300,000 times on average per month.

So, what does Dilly Dilly mean?

“It doesn’t mean anything…and that’s the beauty of it” confessed Miguel Patricio, AB InBev’s CMO. “I think we all need our moments of nonsense and fun, and in a way Dilly Dilly represents that”. Love it or hate it, in a world where billions of advertising spend is invested into sales focused SEO and programmatic campaigns, Dilly Dilly provides a refreshing example of a campaign focused on being fun and improving consumer experiences with the brand.

For those Masters fans who were banned from shouting Dilly Dilly, Bud Light distributed Dilly Dilly caps at the event. They announced on social media that “if thou cannot say Dilly Dilly, thou can still wear Dilly Dilly!”.

Experiences is a key aspect of AB InBev’s brand communications. This is no more apparent than in how they are approaching their new and existing sponsorship agreements. A recent article in Forbes, which caused a stir on LinkedIn, outlined how AB InBev were launching a new incentive-based sponsorship model. True, on field incentive-based sponsorship models are certainly nothing new. But what stood out was how off field incentives, such as a new rights holder digital platform that engages fans or increases awareness, might spur larger pay outs.

So why is this?

Ricardo Marques, VP of Budweiser explained that “it’s no longer about the signage or the size of a logo in the stadium anymore. It’s about what people talk about and the experience they take away and talk about later”. Whether at the stadium, at the pub or at home alcohol brands have the perfect opportunity to provide a passionate sports fan a great experience that, at a relatively low customer acquisition cost, has the potential to capture incremental retail sales from engaged fans.

Within the alcohol sponsorship sector, technology is the key driver to improving fan experiences and ensuring vital brand affinity. Budweiser used ‘Touchdown Glasses’ to bring the NFL stadium experience to all fans, whilst XXXX Gold launched their tech enabled Goldie caps during last winters Ashes series. Both these cases highlight that enhancing fan experiences and driving engagement is far more important than logo badging.

And technology is the key.

Find out more about how InCrowd works with alcohol brands and rightsholders to improve fan experiences through technology. Please email enquiries@incrowdsports.com or head to www.incrowdsports.com

Dilly Dilly!

InCrowd appoint Dan Lipman as Business Director of FanScore

Fan engagement specialists, InCrowd, have appointed fan marketing expert, Dan Lipman, as Business Director of FanScore. Dan is joining from leading mass participation event organisers, Human Race Ltd.

Dan joins InCrowd with over 10 years of fan marketing experience and having specialised in driving and monetising customer acquisition and engagement for major rights holders including British Athletics, the Lawn Tennis Association and Tough Mudder.

Most recently Dan has been Commercial Director of Human Race where he was responsible for managing the marketing, digital and sponsor activation teams, as well as strategically advising the development of a new market-leading ticketing and CRM platform for parent company and organisers of Le Tour de France, Amaury Sport Organisation.

Dan will head-up the FanScore business division, which uses technology and data solutions to help some of the world’s leading sports audience owners, to better know, understand and monetise their audiences.

FanScore sits at the intersection where Brands, Media and Rights Holders meet, creating digital fan engagement tools and platforms that harness the 360 degree spend and attention of the sports fan and provide ROI focused digital sponsorship solutions.

Aidan Cooney, InCrowd’s co-founder and CEO stated “InCrowd have built a fantastic and profitable fan marketing platform and with Dan now coming aboard, we are going to progress our development for our clients in order to produce the most rewarding fan experience no matter where they are.”

Dan Lipman stated “I’ve witnessed first-hand how digital and social media has influenced the way in which brands look to activate to sports audiences, and the subsequent challenges this has created for Rights Holders in their ambitions to commercialise their assets.

I believe with our FanScore proposition we provide a genuine solution that will transform the ability for our partners to compete in a modern digital world. InCrowd have an unrivalled proposition and team to lead the way in revolutionising this space and I am delighted to have come on board to build on the great success the team have already achieved.”

InCrowd work with some of the biggest names in the sports industry including Premiership Rugby, 16 individual clubs, Toyota, Rugby Football League, Heineken and the ICC. To find out more information on InCrowd, please visit their website www.incrowdsports.com or contact us now via enquiries@incrowdsports.com

About InCrowd:

InCrowd provide a fan engagement & sponsorship activation platform. Our understanding of the avid and emotional mindset of a fan is combined with in-depth data analysis and ground-breaking digital technology to offer rights holders and brands a unique opportunity to reach out to sports fans in the moments that really matter. Many of the world‘s top rights holders & brands use InCrowd’s fan marketing platform to collect more fan data, sell more tickets and increase sponsorship revenue. We also help sponsors connect with new customers and convert fan interaction into revenue & advocacy. Find out more – www.incrowdsports.com

Rugby League – A Sport Like No Other.

In my 10 years working in the sports industry I have been lucky enough to work on a variety of sports including football, motorsport, rugby union, tennis and cricket. One sport that had evaded me until last year was rugby league, a sport that I only had a passing knowledge of. Since June ’17 I have immersed myself in all things rugby league through InCrowd’s relationship with the Rugby Football League (RFL). I’ve attended the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup Final, Betfred Super League Grand Final, visited most of the grounds in the Super League and met some great people along the way.

To say this sport has been a breath of fresh air to me would be an understatement. Rugby League can boast an enviably diverse fan base, competitiveness & entertainment, passion & pride and down to earth, approachable players invested in growing their sport.

So what makes rugby league so special, and how are we working with the RFL to engage their already voracious and loyal fans? Let me tell you about my most recent experiences with the sport….

Membership

I project managed InCrowd’s development of the RFL’s free membership platform and app, named Our League. The platform that encapsulates all things Rugby League, launched on the 16th October 2017. Our League evolved quickly providing a second screen experience during the Rugby League World Cup 2017 with exclusive live streaming and behind the scenes footage. It also produced over 1,000 winners via the “predict & win” competition including tickets, signed shirts and a trip to Australia to watch the World Cup final between England and Australia.

Since then, the benefits have extended to loyalty schemes, ticket discounts, more exclusive content and a recently created a player dashboard for players to see their stats and compared themselves with others in their league. The successful predict and win competition has extended in to the Betfred Super League season with nearly 14,000 players to date, while Our League members have control of the Betfred Man of the Match vote as presented during live Sky Sports broadcasts. Development is also underway to extend the match centre to include community leagues and there is far more to come in the near future to engage all corners of the Rugby League audience.

Season Launch

In January this year, I was lucky enough to attend the RFL season launch. Our League, and its importance in growing the sport between now and the UK hosted 2021 Rugby League World Cup featured in Interim CEO Ralph Rimmer’s keynote speech. Super League representatives from all clubs were in attendance. Players and coaches from all clubs were in attendance including 2017 Man of Steel Luke Gale, England World Cup star Jermaine McGillvary and Harry Sunderland Trophy winning Danny McGuire. After photos and press interviews the players took part in sponsor led challenges whilst coaches were quizzed on their hopes and expectations for the coming season.

I got the chance to speak to some of the World Cup predictor winners; Rob, James  and Antony. They told me that they had played for fun and love of the game. They were extremely surprised to hear that their engagement in the predictor had culminated in such an amazing prize. That prize was 2 premium tickets to every major event this year including the England vs New Zealand series. The guys also recalled several pieces of content and polls that were published during the World Cup and spoke highly of the app’s user experience.

Antony said “my wife didn’t believe I had won and thought it was a scam. It’s a good job I didn’t win trip to Brisbane. I’d have had to choose between my wife and son!”

James took to Twitter to post the following:

 The Future of Rugby League

I feel that one of the biggest challenges facing rugby league in the UK is the lack of awareness and engagement in the south. Rugby union dominates there and the annual Challenge Cup Final provides only a glimpse of what this sport has to offer. I took my 10-year-old nephew to the Challenge Cup Final, teaching him the rules on the journey and he thoroughly enjoyed the whole occasion. However, without my involvement he would not have known that this event, or maybe even the sport even existed.

The road ahead is challenging but I think that rugby league is on the cusp of grabbing more attention from media and commercial partners. This will be rewarding to see for the players and fans of this entertaining and inclusive sport and I am excited to join the RFL on this journey. 2018 is already shaping up to be an incredible season with entertaining matches and some unexpected results already. I’m very much looking forward to the remainder of the season complete with drama, passion and an ever growing audience.

To get involved in the action, you can download the Our League app now:

Google Play:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.incrowdsports.rugby.rfl

App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/ourleague/id1292250629?ls=1&mt=8

OurLeague Website: https://membership.rugby-league.com

The Rugby Football League partner with InCrowd to launch their Our League membership platform

In 2017, InCrowd partnered with the Rugby Football League (RFL) in order to build, launch and deliver priceless experiences for fans in time for the 2017 Rugby League World Cup and the 2018 rugby league season.

The Rugby Football League (RFL) approached InCrowd to realise their ambitions to build a world leading membership platform for spectators, viewers and participants of rugby league. Plans for a membership website and mobile apps included exclusive content, member benefits, participation features, a ticketing integration, gamification and polls to help drive fan experience and return on investment for the RFL. The launch was planned to perfectly coincide with the 2017 Rugby League World Cup (RLWC2017) in Australia, giving new members the chance to support England in their quest for glory.

InCrowd provided the necessary resource and expertise to ensure the deadline was met, resulting in the on time launch of the official Our League app and website. InCrowd worked with many of the RFL’s partners integrating Tickethour, and a loyalty scheme via Rewards4 Rugby League. Working with StreamAMG, the platform also saw live streaming of a match 4 days post launch, which proved a successful addition to increase registrations with over 40,000 live views of England’s warm up fixture against Affiliated States. Live streaming was also delivered for the Women’s Rugby League World Cup (WRLWC2017).

Fans were able to fully immerse themselves in the RLWC2017 and WRLWC2017 for free, including behind the scenes content and huge prizes, including Ladbrokes Challenge Cup Final ticket discounts, signed England shirts and premium tickets to all major UK rugby league events in 2018. The Grand Prize was an all expenses paid trip for two to Australia, to watch the RLWC2017 final. One lucky member, Neil Cunliffe, and is wife were flown to watch England in the final in Australia as a result of finishing top of the membership leaderboard after the Quarter Finals.

 

2018 Rugby League Season

After RLWC2017, work was extended to the 2018 Rugby League season. In the first seven weeks of the season the Our League platforms powered by FanScore had already seen nearly 12,000 participants in the Betfred Super League predictor game and consistently receives 3,000 – 4,000 Betfred Man of the Match votes, thanks to InCrowd’s first live participation TV initiative with Sky Sports. Since launch, over 12k Our League members have voted for their Man of the Match.

Membership is a significant step forward for the Rugby Football League. In September we didn’t have anything and now in February we have a membership system with over 36,000 active members.

Richard Donlon, Systems Manager, The RFL

Working with Sports Technology Group (STG) and FluidCM we have been able to deliver a rugby league player dashboard showing stats and comparison to other players within a player’s division.In addition to this, InCrowd and the RFL have big plans for the future of Our League. These plans include a wider ranging comparisons within the player dashboard, a Betfred Super League to community leagues match centre, private predictor leagues, head-to-heads, coaching content and personalised membership experiences. We are excited about our continuing work with the RFL to engage the rugby league audience.

For more information, or for details on how InCrowd can help you reach out to your fans, please contact enquiries@incrowdsports.com

Visit the Our League website here

Download the iOS app

Download the Android app

 

About InCrowd

InCrowd provide a fan engagement & sponsorship activation platform. Our understanding of the avid and emotional mindset of a fan is combined with in-depth data analysis and ground-breaking digital technology to offer rights holders and brands a unique opportunity to reach out to sports fans in the moments that really matter. Many of the world‘s top rights holders & brands use InCrowd’s fan marketing platform to collect more fan data, sell more tickets and increase sponsorship revenue. We also help sponsors connect with new customers and convert fan interaction into revenue & advocacy.