Flyers: Renewal Marketing Leads to Deeper Interest Profiling

In the case study on the 76ers, we'd talked about using a multi-channel campaign to build upon the emotional excitement of an NBA franchise. In doing so, however, the opportunity to build a much deeper understanding of exactly what each fan is most passionate about was not overlooked. In this case study, from Digital Body Language, the Flyers leveraged the digital body language insights to better understand which player each fan was most enthusiastic about.

This insight will be leveraged to deepen the emotional tie in future marketing campaigns by focusing communications on what each individual fan is most interested in. I hope you enjoy the read:

Flyers: Renewal Marketing Leads to Deeper Interest Profiling

The Philadelphia Flyers wanted deeper relationships with fans while also driving the highest possible rates of renewal for season-ticket holders. With careful planning, they were able to achieve both of these goals at once.

The team created personal URLs (PURLs) for each season ticket holder (such as http://www.myflyerstickets.com/johnsmith) and invited each customer to his/her personal site to complete the renewal process. On the personal page, personalized content and offers enticed the ticket holder to renew. But just as importantly, the Flyers began to build the basis for a direct online relationship with each fan.

The Flyers’s site contains rich information (including video) on players, stats, schedules, and the draft, and through the direct relationship with each season ticket holder that they have now built, the Flyers better understand each fan. By observing each customer’s unique digital body language as they look at stats, read up on players, and watch highlights, the Flyers can identify things such as favorite players and whether they prefer stats or highlight reel footage.
In upcoming seasons, the Flyers plan to leverage this rich base of knowledge based on the fans’ digital body language to continually strengthen and hone the message. Personalized video and audio messages from each fan’s favorite player and RSS feeds of stats and highlights tailored will deepen the team bond.

The Flyers increased online season-ticket renewals from 1% the previous year to 18%. Renewing online also allowed real-time processing so these numbers were available immediately to senior management opposed to the time lag that occurs with processing renewals manually. Of course, the Flyers were also able to deepen their understanding of their fan base and strengthen those relationships significantly. Read More...

76ers: Multi-Channel Campaign To Win Back Season Ticket Holders

Last week's case study was on Bella Pictures use of direct mail as part of their nurturing campaigns. Multi-channel campaigns give us some interesting options as they open up new angles of communication and, when well coordinated, reinforce messages we've seen in other channels.

I greatly enjoyed chatting with Mark Di Maurizio and the team running marketing for the Philadelphia 76ers as they market a product with a great emotional tie - the basketball team. They used a multi-channel campaign to enhance the emotional tie their fans had with the team and drive renewals. Here's the case study from Digital Body Language:

76ers: Multi-Channel Campaign To Win Back Season Ticket Holders


The purchase of seasons tickets for the Philadelphia 76ers is a purchase decision driven by the excitement and emotion that a basketball team brings its fans. It is also a purchase decision that involves a significant financial outlay, however, so the 76ers marketing team needed to ensure that they made the right emotional connections as they communicated with their audience.

A campaign to reconnect with past season ticket holders who had not renewed was initiated. A multi-channel campaign brought the excitement of the basketball experience to the target audience. First, a direct mail piece and a postcard were sent, inviting the recipients to a Select-A-Seat event. A follow-up email campaign shared the creative of the direct mail pieces, and both media types provided a personal URL (PURL) to each recipient that provided highly personalized content and introduced the recipient to their sales representative.

An outbound IVR-based phone campaign recorded by the 76ers president and general manager Ed Stefanski again invited recipients to the Select-A-Seat campaign. At each step, an option to jump straight to purchasing tickets was provided, and for those who showed interest by interacting with the marketing campaign, but either did not attend or did not purchase, the sales team followed up with directly.

The campaign was a great success, with numerous people rejoining the Sixers family as season ticket holders. The resulting revenue generated was more than 35 times the cost of the campaign. By using a variety of media types to bring the emotional experience of basketball into a marketing campaign, the 76ers were able to better connect with their audience.

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