The Atlanta Braves @ SunTrust Park

Esme Carpenter, Kyle Pickett, Elizabeth Stokes, Kendall Ragatz, Meghan Gilmartin

Agenda

- Goals & Objectives

- Secondary Research

- Primary Research

- Recommendations

- Conclusion

Goals

Content Commerce Convenience

Secondary Research Conducted

- Consumers are looking for technology that helps them be more efficient throughout the day- Female sports fans are under-targeted and under-engaged - Millennials are much more likely to watch games outside of their homes

- ½ of sports fans say watching sports is more about socializing than anything else

- ½ of sports fans say that being an avid fan is just too expensive; a reason to watch at home

“70% of fans bring a mobile device to the stadium or

arena and expect to use it during a game there as well”

-Mark Craig, Cisco Systems Sports

Marketing to Millennials

More likely to watch with a group of

friends, crave experiences

Enthusiastic for technology; social media

brings a sense of connection

More likely to interact with apps; express

an interest in rewards programs

Marketing to Moms

Put emphasis on spending family time

together, want to bond and get out of the

house

Respond well to healthy options; Run the

Bases at Turner Field, healthy snacks

More inclined to ‘make a day of it’

Marketing to Moms

“It’s all about the experience of attending a sporting event, I would want to go early and take advantage of

the stadium, shopping, attractions, and eating out. “

- Gina Pickett, mother of two

- Moms are more inclined to use an app to check for seating availability, events for kids, restaurant specials, and wait times- Target postings to them for batting cages, pitching events, “kids eat free”- Highlight convenience and quality time

Primary Research Methodology

- 14 in-depth interviews

- 1 focus group

- Created a 17-question survey - Conducted through Qualtrics- Distributed via Facebook & Groupme (from April 14-19)

- 147 respondents: - Majority UGA students, 18-23 years old- 43 males- 104 females

- Population we sought to generalize: - College students & millennial consumers

In-Depth Interviews

“I use apps for notifications for deals, specials, and

socializing.”

“...to make my life a little bit easier,

convenience, provide a service that allows me to not

have to do something on my own”

“Wi-fi would be nice to have at the

stadium. In today’s age, in sports for any

game, there is always a network tweeting

out stats, news, and highlights.

What is something not at the stadium

currently that you wish they had?

What do you look for in an app?

In-Depth Interviews

If you have apps for restaurants

what do you use them for?

“I use it for promotions, like pie day,

coupons, deals, and rewards

points”

“I have three. Watch ESPN to see highlights when

not at home to keep up with games, ESPN app for

breaking news, to see if someone gets traded

or if someone gets hurt, and for score updates.

And I have the Basketball tournament app for the

competitive aspect.”

If you have a sports app what do you

use it for?

Survey Respondent Demographics

71% of respondents surveyed were female and 29% were male.

The majority of respondents fall into the college and young professional demographic with 52% of respondents aged 18-20 and 39% aged 21-30.

Over 75% of our respondents are students without jobs. 15% of our respondents are employed full-time.

Games Attended per Season

Over 64% of our respondents attend 1-3 Braves games per season.

Excitement

The results varied for the most exciting aspect of attending games. 33% reported socializing. 25% responded Stadium atmosphere and 21% said tailgating.

Viewing Choice

35% of respondents reported Turner Field and their homes as their primary viewing locations for Braves Games. 22% of respondents did not view Braves games.

Viewing Choice (cont’d)

The reasons for viewing choice varied. 36% of respondents stated convenience and comfort to be the main reason behind their viewing choice. 26% reported atmosphere and 21% stated socializing. Only 13% of respondents cited price as the main reason behind viewing choice

Deals

A majority of respondents most want to receive promotional deals from restaurants and clothing stores. Only 6% of respondents want to receive promotions from sports arenas.

Food & Beverages

Around 70% of respondents purchase concessions while attending sporting events.

Food & Beverages (cont’d)

81% of respondents cited high prices as the main reason they do not purchase concessions during sporting events. 12% of respondents also attributed a lack of purchase to long concession lines.

Annoyance

Over half of respondents reported parking and traffic as the most annoying aspect of attending games. The second most popular response was costs.

Phone Usage

61% of respondents reported taking pictures as the primary attribute they use their phones for during a game. 22% reported social media usage and 15% responded texting.

Do you use sports apps?

A slight majority of respondents do not currently use sports applications.

Purpose of Sports Apps

The majority of our respondents use sports applications in order to see updates. Over 70% of respondents utilize sports applications in order to check scores, while over 20% use them to read sports news.

Notifications Limit

Respondents’ feedback on notification limits were split between a few per day and none at all. 38% of our respondents want to receive a few per day while 34% would prefer to receive none.

Interaction with Friends

Around half of our respondents said being able to interact with friends through the application would make no difference in whether or not they would download the application. 37% of respondents stated it would make them more likely to download.

Reason for Download

Respondents ranked discounts and promotions as the most valued attribute in an mobile application. A majority of respondents also value convenience in ordering and payment.

Survey Limitations

Possible causes for skewed data:

- Majority female respondents- Careless completion of survey- Various age groups- Geographic locations of respondents

- Given more time we would use stratified sampling to make sure the survey had a balanced distribution of respondents

Marketing Strategy

Content Commerce Convenience

What are others doing?

New England Patriots: Gameday Live

- Uses its own stadium WiFi

- Includes everything from weather forecasts, to traffic avoidance, optimized parking, seat

location, food and beverage concessions, near instant replay of every play and new field

camera angles

- ability to replay any and every play in the game instantly or later, from their smartphone

while on stadium wifi

- Option to pre-pay for food using the app

- “Smart phones are almost as common as the home team's Jerseys”

Content

Rewards Program- Incentivize fans to not only come to games but

the whole battery- Number of points earned depends on the

classification of the game- Option to utilise bonus points to encourage

attendance- The app will be able to recognize when users

are on The Battery Wi-Fi

Game Type Point Value

Battery Elements Point Value

Diamond 30 Live 30

Marquee 25 Work 25

Premier 20 Stay 20

Select 15 Shop 15

Value 10 Play 10

Super Value 5 Dining 5

Content

Reward Points Needed

Throw out the first pitch 1,500

Receive an autographed baseball 1,250

Picture with the team 1,000

50% off Braves Apparel 500

30% off Braves Apparel 300

20% off Braves Apparel 200

Two free drinks when you buy a ticket to a show at the Roxy 100

20% off participating retail and dining locations 100

Content

- Implementing Social Media into the app will help drive engagement

- Allow fans to interact with team and players and even have their tweets or post featured on the app during games or on the big screen

- Snapchat geotags - Selfie competitions and other

competitions using social media

Content

- 70% of our respondents said the main reason they have a sports app is to check the scores

- Baseball fans love statistics (team stats, standings, league leaders, box scores, etc.)

- You can quickly access the latest standings and news making it easier to stay informed

Scores, Standings, Stats and News

Polls and Trivia

- Put up polls, trivia and prediction competitions throughout the game to enhance the fan interaction and post some on the big screen

- Poll: What was the last year that the braves won over 100 games?

a) 2015 b) 2010 c) 2000 d) 2003

- Have people cast their votes and show results on screen

- Can you predict how many home runs the braves will hit today?

Content

- Fans don’t want to miss a second of the game

- Allow “instant replays” of each play to be viewed straight from the app on demand so that fans don’t have to worry about not seeing all the action

- App only feature - only a few plays are reshown on the big screen

- Help keep even the general admission fans engaged and focused on the game

- 39% of fans say that sitting too far from

the action limits their engagement

Convenience

Fast Seating- Restaurants in The Battery and

SunTrust Park will participate- Allow for quicker seating and

customers being served more quickly

Commerce

- Order food and have it delivered to your seat directly off the app or pre-order and go pick it up in an express line

- Mobile ticket purchase - Mobile pay options for souvenirs- Promotions and coupon section for the

restaurants and shops around the stadium

- Groupons- Example: Tapingo

Commerce

- “Tomahawk Ten,” ten minute flash-deals through the app

- Could be based on previous purchases, ie; 45 minute interval since the last beer you ordered through the app

- Free peanuts or ‘swag’ for app-holders for home runs or W’s

Commerce and Engagement

- Family Game Nights- Happy hours at local restaurants and

bars before games for app-holders- Free appetizer for fans with in-app points

- Mixers and date nights- Points for money spent at local venues,

for attending the game, for concessions in the game, for attending ‘specials’ nights

Convenience

Stress-Free Parking- Show open lots- Offer pre-pay and reserved parking

- Example, ParkWhiz

- Offer directions to the decks and available parking- Include a geo-location of the shuttle at surrounding lots,

estimating wait times

Questions?

References

Mintel. (2015). Marketing to Sports Fans – US – August 2015. Retrieved from Mintel Academic database.

Mintel. (2013). Shopping Malls – US – March 2013. Retrieved from Mintel Academic database.

Mintel. (2014). Stadium Technology Can Do More Than Just Make Fast Food Faster – US – May 2014. Retrieved from Mintel Academic database.

Mooney, L. (2014). Five Key Trends That Are Driving the Business of Sports. Retrieved from Stanford Business database.

Nielsen. (2013) Brick by Brick: The State of the Shopping Center – US – May 2013. Retrieved from The Nielsen Company database.

Nielsen. (2012) Retail USA: What’s in Store? – US – March 2013. Retrieved from The Nielsen Company database.

Reddy, T. (2015). 10 Ways Stadiums & Venues Are Using Technology to Delight Fans & Keep Them Coming Back. Retrieved from The Umbel Corporation database.