Ireland’s first Fan Engagement Conference took place in the wonderful surroundings of the Butler House in Kilkenny this week.
FECKK16 attracted speakers from across the sports and marketing spectrum to share what turned out to be some great insight into the mechanics behind locking fans into a team or a sponsor, the numbers you need to measure to monitor success and the importance of emotion in capturing a moment that will long outlive the fire of excitement from being there.
Alan Milton from the GAA and Barry Cunningham from the IRFU told of the importance that each of the big guns in Irish sporting engagement put on making sure the fans are engaged.
It is rarely a straight linear path in terms of communication and Milton was quick to accept that the amateur nature of the GAA meant there was less contractual obligation on players to play their part in promotion.
That said it still delivers to a combined aggregate audience of over three million fans through social, video and online channels away altogether from the mainstream press.
Cunningham relived the moment when Luke Fitzgerald’s golf club flew out of his hands at a pre World Cup session with Rory McIlroy.
“I turned to the video guy and asked, did you get that?”
“Thankfully he did and the video was picked up by international media as well as being viewed over four million times on the IRFU’s you tube and Facebook channels.”
The Worcester Warriors and West Bromwich Albion brought an international dimension to the event and spoke of how they have teams trailing players to capture the moments that they can store to use as content throughout the build up to a match or on game day.
Conor Sharkey from Leinster Rugby and Mark Brooks from the Belfast Giants spoke of the importance of listening too the fans and of switching tack if things weren’t working as well in the stands as they had on paper.
Doubling the attendance for an extra game by giving free tickets as a reward to season ticket holders created a great atmosphere, a real appreciation from the most loyal fans and a win win result for the Giants as opposed to the upset that would have been created by merely giving away the tickets.
Mario Leo from the Results Agency, a major player with German Bundesliga and other European teams produces a weekly report and planning session for some of the biggest names in professional sport.
He shared the key metric that 80 per cent of social content in the run up to a game day should be information and entertainment with only twenty per cent given over to commercial messages. This can rise to 70/30 on game day when the appetite and the demand is strongest but going beyond that split risks alienating fans and becomes counter productive.
Mary Maguire of Paralympics Ireland shared the ‘More than Sport’ campaign which they are building out on the Road to Rio while there were also elements from behind the planning process at the Ulster Grand Prix with Geoff Wilson and the Dutch them SC Heerenveen.
Mick O’Keefe from PSG and Michael Corcoran from EightyTwenty revealed some of the work that goes on at agency level with compere for the day Damien O’Meara and there was talk of some of the technical tools that can help sporting bodies to engage from Ciaran O’Raghallaigh of Fandom, Karl Mulligan of Fanaticus and Colm O’Mealoid of Sportego.
Rob Hartnett of Sport for Business gave a presentation on the heartbeat of great engagement, focusing on the four elements that every winning campaign needed to feature – Feeling, Precision, Personality and Partnership. He also got everybody in the room giving each other hugs which was no mean feat and rounded off his presentation with this great ad from Chile and the 2014 World Cup…
The day was organised brilliantly by Trevor Keane of Sportego who had the courage to go with his home town, the connections to pull in support from Bank of Ireland and Sport for Business to make it happen, and the persuasive ability to fill the room with people who are on the leading edge of fan engagement.
We are already looking forward to FECKK17.
