Although this sports season is delayed, sports teams are finding ways to connect with their fans through social media. While teams are reaching out to fans beyond the stadium, they still need to consider how to get fans excited for the next season. This is where location analytics come into play. Location analytics refers to the process of gaining consumer insights from location data. This methodology can provide valuable insights into sports fans. It’s incredibly important for teams to gather historical information to inform how they engage with fans. This information allows the team to engage with fans on a personal level in order to create an exceptional fan experience that entices them to visit the stadium in the future. 

Here are three ways location analytics help decipher fan behavior:

Mobile avenues have revamped the ways in which fans can engage with sports teams – bringing important game information to their fingertips. The media channels that broadcast sporting events are now able to use technology to share information at a pace quicker than ever before seen. Scores and standings are quickly sent to smartphones the moment an event occurs.   

Additionally, social media is creating opportunities that would not have been deemed possible even a decade ago. As a storytelling medium, social media has proven incredibly successful in helping products and brands market themselves to a heavily sports-infused culture. It can be used to narrate the evolution of an underdog, share team success stories, or to heighten the rivalry between certain teams.

By using historical location-based insights, teams can understand where committed fans like to go and how they spend their time when they’re not at a sporting event. Teams can use this data to refine their marketing strategies and add value to sponsorships.

For example, a jewelry store is a major sponsor of a professional baseball team. They have ads around the stadium and want to know if those ads are drawing fans to their store. The team can provide them with location-based insights that show how many fans visit their store locations, and this can give the jewelry store assurance that their sponsorship with the team is worth continuing in the future.

Gravy Analytics took an in-depth look at sports fan audiences to learn more about where these fans go when they’re not attending games. With this data, teams can determine potential sponsors and partners to work with for the upcoming season.

In order to effectively target their marketing initiatives, teams need to understand who their fans are. Targeting in marketing breaks a large market into smaller parts, or segments, based on specific characteristics as designated by the marketer. For example, MLB fans have different brand and purchasing preferences depending on the team and city. Gravy found that visitors of Boston’s Fenway Park are more likely to be frequent air travelers than visitors to any of the other stadiums studied, putting primary sponsor JetBlue in front of more potential customers. 

Additional insights from the study found that visitors to PNC Park in Pittsburgh are much more likely to visit PNC Bank than visitors to any other stadium. Similarly, visitors to the New York Mets’ Citi Field are far more likely to have recently visited a Citibank location, signaling that both brands’ sponsorships are a good fit.

It has become crucial for teams to have a deep understanding of their fans. In order to refine their marketing strategy, teams must recognize what channels and content sports fans engage with. 

To further understand how extensive a role data and analytics play in the sports industry, download Gravy’s Sports Marketing guide. Gravy Analytics is the leading provider of real-world location intelligence for marketers, and our in-depth research on the sports industry provides unprecedented visibility into the offline buying journey of fans.

https://www.mobilemarketer.com/news/mlb-fan-data-signals-power-of-location-marketing/526540/