The ReGroup: April ’20

May 14, 2020

Over the past month, all of you have been exceptionally creative and we are excited to share some of your unique offers to keep fans engaged! Keep reading for ideas and best practices around fan engagement, hosting virtual events, building and supporting community partnerships, and conducting virtual fundraisers.

As you brainstorm ways to engage fans virtually, prepare for events to start again, and manage sponsorships or partnerships, we’d like to hear what discussions and ideas you’re having so we can develop the best solutions to meet your needs. Please complete this 5-minute survey to share your feedback and get more information on the new, unique product Groupmatics is building for virtual events.

All-Stars

Huge congratulations to our trivia winners from Weeks 1 and 2: The Atlanta Hawks and The Houston Astros!

Game Plans

Over the last few weeks, we’ve heard some creative ideas from our partners that we wanted to share! If you are looking for ways to continue to engage fans, generate incremental revenue and support your local communities, we have a few ideas:

Virtual Events – Virtual events are a great way to keep fans engaged and excited! Some event ideas to try are: virtual happy hours, trivia nights, Q&A interviews with players or front office staff, coach interviews and tips for youth sports teams/leagues, behind-the-scenes tours and events for season ticket holders and groups, and tailgates or watch parties for past big games! Some teams are recommending fans get takeout from partner restaurants or promoting the event as “presented by” a sponsor to give your sponsors and local partners visibility! Check out a few examples here: Trivia and Happy Hour, Q&A, and Virtual 5k

Donations and Fundraisers – So many of you are working with your community to support local businesses, healthcare workers, and more during this time! For a lot of teams, this looks like fundraising for donation tickets, providing complimentary tickets for healthcare or teacher or supermarket appreciation nights, rolling over season ticket memberships and deposits to free tickets for nurses rather than refunding, and donation matching. We also recommend checking out MiLB’s CommUNITYFirst campaign!

Social Media – Running social media campaigns like spirit weeks, social media challenges, trivia, behind-the-scenes content, and giveaways are a great way to keep your fanbase strong. You can work with your sponsors or local businesses to promote these as “presented by” content and highlight those sponsors on social media, as well. For more content ideas, check out these teams who are using social media to keep their fans involved: Peoria Chiefs, Chicago Red Stars

Fan Experiences – Leveraging FEPs is an excellent way to retain groups and season ticket holders, and encourage attendance when games return. While you can promote your typical fan experiences (fan tunnels, halftime performances, etc.), we’ve also heard of some unique FEPs like standing ovations during halftime for nurses, teachers or supermarket workers, graduation ceremonies for graduated seniors, and access to non-game day events for sponsors or partner organizations.

Non-Ticketed Items – Merchandise and gift cards are a great way to drive incremental revenue right now! Teams are promoting their team stores and creating a ticket + non-ticketed item package so fans can buy bundles for ticket vouchers, merchandise, and gift cards to local partner businesses! You can also auction off team memorabilia, exclusive merchandise, fan experiences, or run enter-to-win giveaways of non-ticketed items. Check out these non-ticketed offers: Custom Jerseys, Gift Cards, Enter-to-Win Contests

Refund Alternatives – Rather than refunding buyers, teams are creating flexible discount codes redeemable for the same amount of tickets for a future game, exchanging tickets to another game, or issuing non-dated ticket vouchers redeemable later.