Sports Clubs and Data Marketing

At Kudos, we are proud of our client list, ranging from the Government to Charities, B2B to B2C, National to International. But the brands that everyone recognises tend to be our Sports clients, with the likes of Everton FC, The Rugby Football League, Sky Sports, BT Sports and Amer (owners of brands including Salomon, Wilson, Atomic and Precor).The use of data within the Sports sector and clubs is becoming more common. Player performance analysis has been publicised in the Press and through books and films such as Moneyball. All 20 clubs in the Premier League – and many in the lower divisions – now employ data analysts to make sense of this information. Manchester City has 11 of them. In 2012, Liverpool caused a stir by creating a new position, Director of Research, for Ian Graham, who has a PhD in theoretical physics. The analysts are involved in pre-match preparation and post-game debriefs; they help to identify transfer targets and devise strategies for nurturing young players through the ranks.Less well known is the use of data and insights for commercial use – marketing, tickets sales, merchandising, corporate hospitality, sponsorship and more.Recent projects we have undertaken for the sector are widespread and include:·       Targeting of regional catchment areas to promote individual key games (such as a local team derby);·       Targeting of businesses such as pubs, recreational providers and the hospitality sector to promote subscription TV services;·       Creation of niche, bespoke lists and leads via the Kudos Research team;·       Developing an integrated data strategy for Sports sector clients;·       Catchment area and geospatial analysis;·       Profiling and targeting of supporters and season ticket holders / propensity modelling to identify best prospects;·       Targeting and sourcing of Corporate sponsorship and hospitality prospectsWhy can Kudos successfully deliver these projects? Because we understand the sector and we have the datasets, skills, experience and partnerships. Most of all we share the passion that our teams show on field, track or court! Our Consumer Universe of 40 million individuals and over 100 demographic fields can be linked to our Business Universe of 2.2 million companies and 2.5 million contacts. This includes Directors and their home addresses. So once we understand the target profile (be that consumers or businesses) we can score an audience to enable ranking of the prospects.We can also identify where a high value supporter may be a business Director or Shareholder and then target their company for Corporate hospitality, sponsorship or box usage.Then we have our Web Research Team. We are regularly commissioned to build a database of people or companies who fit a particular criteria. The team are experienced at undertaking these projects and it is a low cost way of owning your own niche dataset.Despite the growing evidence of how data marketing can provide growth opportunities for the Sports sector, the use of data marketing is still lower than in other industries. This is often due to the traditional culture of many teams. Relatively few owners, managers, coaches, and players pursued careers in professional sports because of their interest in data! Gut feel and intuition are still key drivers for decision making.So if you are in the Sports sector, drop Kudos an email or give us a call. We will help you create a data-based solution that will be rigorous, detailed and successful!Contact Us!For more information, please contact Jane Baddeley on 0330 043 1583 or jane.baddeley@kudos-data.com or visit www.kudos-data.com