Crafting Unforgettable Fan Experiences: The Power of Fan Journey and Experiential Marketing
The relationship between customer and company has always been a subject of study over the years. This leads to the concept of the customer journey, the process involving all interactions between a company and a potential customer in the process of purchasing a product and/or service. Mapping the customer journey becomes essential to understanding potential consumers, identifying what obstacles and doubts a user must overcome before purchasing in order to break them down, from a customer-centric perspective.
Fan Journey: The Customer Journey of The Sports World
The sports industry is characterised by two key aspects: its high competitiveness among companies and the sense of belonging of the fans involved.
Organisations are constantly looking for ways to engage fans and improve their overall experience across every available touchpoint, virtual and physical, such as apps, social media, streaming, and in-venue. A key aspect is understanding and mapping the fan journey, which is practically the sporting equivalent of the customer journey.
Sports companies must focus their efforts on these three key aspects of the fan journey:
- The anticipation of the sporting event.
During the pre-event phase, fans have expectations, seek information, and develop emotions. Companies must be able to seize these moments, creating quality content for fans so that they can become fully involved. In this phase, brands can develop a sense of community, create anticipation, and strengthen fans’ loyalty to emotionally tie them to the brand. - The live sport event.
In this phase, brands must be able to provide fans with an immersive and unforgettable experience, including using technology to offer additional, interactive, and exclusive services. - Post-event involvement.
Regardless of the sporting outcome, brands must be able to harness the emotions afterward to maintain a lasting relationship with fans and continue to engage them. Post-event highlights, interviews, and analysis, for example, are just some of the content that increase social media interactions and strengthen the sense of community.
The fan journey is a dynamic process that requires a deep understanding of fans. Through it, sports clubs can implement effective strategies based on technology, personalisation of the experience, and community engagement. The result will be the building of a long-term loyal fan base.
Experiential Marketing to Increase Perceived Value and Brand Loyalty
Experiential marketing aims to create unique experiences for people so as to create an emotional, personal, and lasting bond between these people and the brand.
The intensity of the experience is built to be engaging, relevant, and personalised to promote a lifestyle that goes beyond the mere product and service sold. Experiential marketing allows consumers to ‘live’ the brand through an event that connects them to the brand and its products.
Experiential marketing can be used in any context but is particularly effective in sports. With this technique, people share, via word of mouth and social media, the experiences they have had. This positive sharing reinforces brand affinity, because the consumer feels close to the brand and its philosophy, building a more lasting relationship with the brand based on the emotional factor.
Combining Fan Journey and Experiential Marketing: The Most Effective Strategy for Creating Memorable Fan Experiences
A first example concerns the use of experiential marketing in the fan journey phase before the sporting event. The brand can think about creating an immersive atmosphere for fans, using music, lighting, and special effects.
A second example is when the brand decides to offer fans exclusive experiences after the sporting event. The brand may decide to create unique experiential moments for fans, such as giving them the chance to meet their sporting idols, giving them a tour of changing rooms and sporting facilities, as well as thinking about other customised experiences.
The digital revolution has highlighted the importance of technology in shaping the future of sport, redefining not only the game, but also the player, the fan, and the industry in general. The vital role of technology in sport is unequivocal and is revolutionising the way audiences are reached in new ways, developing significant connections that will drive the sports industry towards a future of boundless potential.
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