Interactive Tools for Building Fan Relationships – A Soccerex London Session Preview by Kevin Dwinnell

A conference session at the upcoming Soccerex London Forum is titled “Fans – Interacting with footballs’ number one stakeholder.” Since this topic hits directly in the market Brand Thunder serves with it Booms (branded browsers), I thought we should offer our take. Also, Brand Thunder will have a representative, Boyd Butler, at the Forum. If you’re attending, please contact us to arrange a time to continue this discussion in person.

The description of the session is: “In the modern era, developments in marketing and technology have dramatically increased the number of ways for football clubs and their fans to interact. However, does this increased interaction truly benefit the fans?”

Yes, and in a more meaningful way than one might expect. At its core, the purpose of an interactive marketing tool is to build the team/fan relationship and a healthy relationship is beneficial to all parties.

Interactive tools, like a Brand Thunder Boom or other web apps, are communication devices. Sure, many offer branding capabilities that play to social identification factors – a nice bonus. To create a deep and ongoing relationship, however, you’ve got to have communication. And for communication, style matters.

Consider this:

1. There are steps an organization can take to create a healthy relationship with their fans
2. There are strategies to move that relationship toward increased fan identification
3. Strong identification with a specific sports team provides a buffer from feelings of depression and alienation

Wow. Pretty powerful, right? (See. That time watching football really is therapeutic.) That’s why the increased interaction is a benefit to the fans as well as the organization. When you consider how a tool like a Boom elevates the awareness of that communication and increases the frequency of engagement, its value beyond just looking really cool becomes apparent.

The following gets into the data that backs it up the claims above and practical uses for a Boom. The sources, all listed, are interesting as well because so much of the information is applicable across relationships (personal, professional and social).

First, Jim Mastrich has a nice summary on his site. It states:
The four primary qualities that ensure a positive and constructive relationship are:

• Creating an atmosphere of mutual respect and acceptance.
• Honest and direct communication.
• Accepting responsibility for one’s actions.
• Staying intellectually and emotionally engaged with the other.

These are elements of positive interactions that have proven vital in personal (Gottman) and professional (Frederickson, Losada) relationships. (Gottman really has groundbreaking research.)

By using the real-time communication capabilities in the browser, teams are respecting their fans, providing direct communication and engaging them on an intellectual level. These are positive exchanges between team and fan. A team honors the fan by getting them news as soon, if not before, the media receives it. Then add the emotional engagement driven by the visual capabilities within the Boom, and it’s even more powerful.

When looking at what content to leverage and how to use it, explore options using the four strategies suggested for increasing fan identification proposed by researchers from the University of Massachusetts – Amherst.

• Increase team/player accessibility
• Increase community involvement
• Reinforce the team’s history and tradition
• Create opportunities for group affiliation and participation

If applying this results in a more successful business and a less depressed world, then we’ve done our jobs.

Here are some of the studies and articles referenced above:

What Predicts Divorce? The Relationship Between Marital Processes and Marital Outcomes
John Mordechai Gottman

Positive Affect and the Complex Dynamics of Human Flourishing
Barbara Fredrickson, Marcial Losada

Creating and Fostering Fan Identification in Professional Sports
William A. Sutton, Mark A. McDonald, George R. Milne, John Cimperman

The Positive Social and Self Concept Consequences of Sports Team Identification
Nyla R. Branscombe, Daniel L. Wann

Posted in Commentary | Tags: brand thunder, Branded Browser, browser boom, custom browser, Research, soccerex, sports marketing | No Comments »

First Trade Show Preparations – Brand Thunder Heads to National Sports Forum by Kevin Dwinnell

It would be easy to think heading to Phoenix at the end of January is a simple case of escaping the mid-west winter. That’s only partially true. Brand Thunder is attending its first trade show, the National Sports Forum, January 26 – 28, to show off our branded browsers.

So, how does a startup that’s trying to preserve cash decide to attend a trade show? It wasn’t an easy decision. We’re frugal in many respects and the cost of attending a tradeshow is no small matter. In the interest of sharing, here are the decision points and discoveries we made in this process.

1. Know your target audience.

We’re a growing company trying to reach critical mass. Our data suggests sports teams understand the value of our branded browsers, move from prospect to client at a reasonable rate and have audiences that adopt our product at a rate that satisfy our clients and our business model.

2. Know the show’s audience.

The show’s sales staff told us that major teams and their decision makers attend. We researched this claim. And while past results are not an indicator of future performance – the odds looked good. Based on the attendee list we just received, this has borne out.

3. Cost effective booth design.

Elegant doesn’t need to be expensive. Through Guru.com we found Pixl Designs who gave a very reasonable estimate, and outstanding results, despite the design challenge of communicating the visual power of our browser themes in a vertical format. We wanted banners to hang from the curtained framing provided by the show creating a booth feel without a booth expense.

4. Cost effective banner production.

We chose to use 2’x6’ banners due to the low, online prices we found. Prices were so low, we ordered early anticipating the potential need to reorder. The truth was Just4Banners.com delivered excellent results, at an amazing price. The order was placed late on a Monday and in hand by Wednesday – despite choosing 3-day shipping.

5. Getting attendees to stop.

We have a range of tactics to generate booth traffic including video loops demonstrating the transformation from standard Firefox to immersive branded browser (also produced by Pixl). Monitors showing the video will be positioned to attract passersby and “sell” on their own or act as real-time examples for our sales staff to discuss. We’ll also have useful information from our other sports team partners as “leave behinds” and a contingency plan for a daily giveaway – just in case. This show has such a focused audience for us, we can’t risk missing this lead generation opportunity.

6. Have a full schedule prior to the show.

We’re now in process of using our network to help arrange as many meetings as possible prior to the show. The goal is to have the off-show hours filled with appointments – at least as much as possible.

We’re optimistic about this event, and in a few weeks will discuss our learning from it. And if you have any suggestions for us to act on before we travel, please share them!

Posted in Commentary | Tags: Branded Browser, custom browser, firefox, Lead generation, Mozilla Firefox, sports marketing, startup, Target audience, trade show | 3 Comments »