College and professional football teams kick off their seasons in September. But for some sports marketers, it’s already four-down territory. The Hail Mary? Twitter marketing software SocialCentiv. The platform works to keep teams connected digitally to their fans in order to engage them with special discounts and deals at the moment those fans are ready to buy.
SocialCentiv’s patented technology, which provides a software-based lead generation and revenue traction service that helps companies find new customers on Twitter, announces that it has achieved an 80-percent growth rate in its sports marketing business, helping clients with tickets and merchandise sales, and sweepstakes entries. In fact, SocialCentiv’s CPC, or cost-per-click as it’s known in the industry, for some sporting events clients is under $1.
“By one measure, 83 percent of fans check social media while watching games on television, and 63 percent check updates while at the stadium,” says Bernard Perrine, co-founder and CEO of SocialCentiv. “A third of all people have used social media for sports information during meetings at work. Another nine percent have even taken a glance at the score during church.”
Unfortunately, many sports marketers still lack proven methods for mining social media for revenue, Perrine noted. “If that group fails to get help, they are looking at third down and forever.”
Industry analysts agree that online marketing is huge for sports and how efforts in those areas impact fans’ buying habits. On average in the U.S., 25 – 35 percent of tickets to professional sporting events routinely go unsold. What’s sadder is that 30 percent of the fans who would fill those seats would have gone if they had been aware of the event. (sloansportsconverence.com)
SocialCentiv tackles the problem by mining Twitter for words and phrases that sports fans frequently use in Tweets, such as “we need a win.” The client can then “@” respond directly with an offer of discounted products or services, such as “@Twitteruser who wants a win, why don’t you cheer us on in person! Here’s a coupon for 20 percent off your seats for the next home game!”
Wondering how much fans Tweet about their teams?
- Nearly 5 million fans Tweeted about their favorite teams during the 2014 Nation Football League season.
- Nearly 5 million Tweets went out from fans to their teams during the 2015 Major League Baseball season.
- More than 10 million fans Tweeted about their favorite National Basketball Association team during the 2015 season.
- Nearly 5 million fans Tweeted about their favorite teams during the 2014 National Hockey League season.
Each of those is a captured lead, representing a fan who is thinking about sports and might be motivated to buy tickets, or a team cap or shirt, or enter a sweepstakes. SocialCentiv pulls those tweets into a stream feed where a team can “@” direct reply to the Tweet with a discount “nudge” to make a purchase: “@NFLfan, we’re with you – football season can’t start soon enough. To make sure you’re ready for your first tailgate, how about 15% off something in our fan store? Click here for the offer.”
As any sales person will tell you, 25 million motivated, potential consumers spells o-p-p-o-r-t-u-n-i-t-y. Analysts calculate the value for the 2014 sporting events market was around $80 billion with impressive growth projected for the foreseeable future. (AT Kearney.com) So even a small fraction of that industry offers huge returns.
“SocialCentiv gives sports marketers a unique way to capture those dollars through the underutilized Twitter marketing channel,” Perrine says. “We offer managed services, where SocialCentiv handles the outreach and follow-up with fans on Twitter, along with a do-it-yourself version for companies that prefer to take care of that themselves. Either way, our customers get a powerful but affordable tool that helps them reach consumers with marketing messages at the moment those folks are most receptive to receiving them.”
Winning big
From ticket sales and distribution companies, to major networks and college sports programs, SocialCentiv’s technology has helped sports-related organizations score major victories, according to Jason Dove, the company’s senior VP of sales and marketing.
“Last spring one of the major networks signed on to help promote March Madness, and during the Final 4, they saw a 47 percent click through rate (CTR) on the apparel campaign and a 24 percent CTR on a sweepstakes promotion,” Dove says. “And we are about to launch promising fall football campaigns for two Atlantic Coast Conference universities that have campaigns focused on ticket sales, merchandise and sweepstakes promotions.”
Other successes: A large ticket distributor was able to boost sales to selected East Coast college basketball games. And a major broadcast network partnership with SocialCentiv yielded conversion rates of 47 percent on a Twitter campaign to sell collegiate athletic apparel in early 2015.
SocialCentiv’s conversion rates for the network were also outstanding on Twitter marketing efforts related to baseball (35 percent,) hockey (47 percent) and a college basketball-based sweepstakes (24 percent.)
“On average, when presented with advertising messages in SocialCentiv-run campaigns, Twitter users click on the marketing links 34 percent of the time,” Dove notes. “That’s phenomenal. But in our sports marketing business, we have achieved click-through rates of as much as 42 – 52 percent.”
And as football season gets underway, SocialCentiv clients are poised for even bigger gains, he adds.
“For sports marketers, social media is the granddaddy of them all,” he concludes. The uninitiated can find learning the nuances of social marketing to be frustrating and time-consuming. But by leaving the heavy lifting to us, businesses can have the confidence that we will execute the game plan and deliver a win.”
About SocialCentiv
In August 2014, HipLogiq integrated its portfolio of Twitter marketing applications under a single product line, SocialCentiv. The Twitter-certified, powerful, patented software manages Twitter campaigns that search for keywords in order to reach relevant consumers in real time, with greater precision by targeting local Tweets. The software also boasts Spanish-language capabilities to engage the Hispanic market. Now, businesses can sign up for a managed account or opt to manage the account themselves with the online user-friendly, do-it-yourself tool at www.SocialCentiv.com. Businesses can be part of the most relevant Tweets as they happen, spot opportunities first, and make a name for themselves with SocialCentiv.
Since May 2013, SocialCentiv has received $12 million in two rounds of funding. For more information, go to www.SocialCentiv.com, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
For more information, contact Karen Carrera, TrizCom, 972-207-1935, [email protected] or @kjcarrera.
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