Leafs Nation Opportunity Assessment

LEAFS NATION

Opportunity Assessment

Summer 2014

Kris Bruynson [email protected]

416-333-8878

What is This?

Kris Bruynson Phone: 416-333-8878 | email: [email protected]

When strategies that drive creative direction are considered proprietary, it can be hard to illustrate the type of work that strategic planners are capable of. This is a fictitious problem that I created to illustrate the work I do. I picked the Toronto Maple Leafs as inspiration from a rumor that they were furthering a loyalty program.

Why we are here BRIEF The TML are developing a loyalty program that will increase revenue SCOPE This opportunity assessment is limited to the resources available ASSUMPTIONS •  The loyalty program is leafs nation •  The loyalty program is looking for new opportunities

OBJECTIVE To maximize merchandise sales for existing fans GOALS •  Generate awareness of the program •  Engage users with compelling content for the TML fans’

lifestyle •  Motivate consumers to purchase


My Approach


Consumer Interest Discovery •  What does social listening tell us about our consumers? What can it tell us about the types of things they are interested in? •  What does social listening tell us about consumers wanting to learn about our products? •  What are consumers interested in on social media platforms and what other interests do they have that relate to the brand?

Landscape Review and Customer Motivations •  Where do consumers go for hockey content and learning? •  What are other sites talking about? Competitive Landscape •  How are other brands engaging their consumers? •  What tools do they use to sell their brand?

What we are going to talk about


Current Situation •  Leafs Nation is not an MLSE property and exists autonomously through its fans. •  A large amount of content is created by Leafs fans. •  Leafs Fans don’t only talk about the Leafs, they talk about all sports. •  Fans are far more likely to visit a site where there is a variety of sports information with top sports writers and opinions.

What are Other Brands Doing? •  Pepsi. •  Intel. •  Coca-Cola. •  The Nation Network. How do We get There? •  One third of fans make more than 100k compared to 19% of the general population •  Content Curation has many Benefits •  Inspiration

•  Content Curation Tools •  MyNewsDesk •  Flipboard •  5by

Current Situation What is the lay of the Land and what types of things do TML fans talk about?

[

I


SUMMARY

•  Leafs Nation is not an MLSE property and exists autonomously through its fans.

•  A large amount of content is created by Leafs fans •  Leafs Fans don’t only talk about the Leafs •  Fans are far more likely to visit a site where there is a variety

of sports information with top sports writers and opinions.

Leafs 65%

Blackhawks 9%

Kings 9%

Rangers 8%

Canadiens 4%

Buffalo 3%

Senators 2%

Loyalty Program Mentions (Not Exhaustive)

Leafs Nation Dominates

•  Leafs Nation has much more participation than competitors’ loyalty programs.

•  Most of the conversation is curated by fans since “Leafs Nation” is not an official twitter handle.


Source: Radian6, Sample Size: 1,410 mentions- 30 Days

“Leafs Nation” is made up of fans

Leafs Nation

The Leafs Nation @TLNdc Official account for theleafsnation dot Com. Providers of fine maple leaf and Toronto hockey analysis. Tweets usually from Cam Charron. 2,269 Followers

Maple Leafs Nation @leafnation A fan of the best game on earth

728 Followers

Leafs Nation Network @LeafsNationNet Your#1 source for Toronto Maple Leafs News, Interviews, Rumors and Gamday News 6,916 Followers

Jamie TML

@LeafsNationFan Offering healthy servings of LEAFS & Marlies chatter. Join me for live tweets 1,426 followers

Leafs Nation

@_LEAFSNATION Bleed that Blue and White #seaofblue

553 Followers

Joffrey Lupul

@Jlupul Leafs Nation 19

264,012 Followers


What are Fans Talking About?

1

3

4

5

12

21

46

52

Baseball

Buffalo

Ottawa

Soccer

Canadiens

Rangers

Hockey

Toronto

Loyalty Program Conversation Topics


•  Consumers use Leafs Nation as a forum to talk about all aspects of sports.

•  The lifestyle of a Leafs fan involves all sports, not just hockey, and they use “Leafs Nation” to discuss these topics.

•  These are the breadth of topics that can be discussed with Leafs Fans.

Source: Radian6, Sample Size: 1,410 mentions- 30 Days

Where do Fans go for Their Information?

1,289,952 1,394,346 1,480,984

3,642,242 3,970,442

4,921,928 5,259,437 5,838,260

8,781,423 14,389,046

21,751,063 25,290,045

36,075,054

Fansided Sporting

Deadspin NHL.com The Post

Sports SB Nation

CBS Sports NBC Sports

Bleacher Fox Sports

ESPN Yahoo

Sports Site Visits


•  Fans are far more likely to visit a site where there is a variety of sports information with top sports writers and opinions.

•  The opportunity is for Leafs Nation to curate some of this information to attract users to its web properties.

Source: compete

What are other brands doing?

II SUMMARY

•  Pepsi •  Intel •  Coca-Cola •  The Nation Network

Example | Pepsi Pulse

•  Lo


Source:http://www.pepsi.com/en-us/d

EXAMPLE | PEPSI PULSE

•  Pepsi Pulse curates pop culture content and merges it with original content to create a website that hosts all the latest trends that its demographic is interested in.

•  The content attracts consumers to the site where consumers can buy merchandise.


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EXAMPLE | INTEL IQ

•  Intel IQ takes the posts from around the world and combines them to give a snapshot of what is happening in the IT sector.

•  It is combined with posts from Intel employees and other major IT sources like Mashable


EXAMPLE | COKE - The Newsroom

•  Many brands are creating their own newsroom where they curate, edit, create, and monitor current news that fits the lifestyle for their brand.

•  These teams are made up of journalists, editors, reporters, copywriters, etc

•  Every year Coke brings all their content specialists together to discuss what makes a good story.

Source: http://contently.com/strategist/2014/05/01/a-deep-look-inside-the-coca-cola-newsroom-if-this-wasnt-successful-we-would-pull-the-plug/


•  Lo



EXAMPLE | THE NATION NETWORK

•  The Nation network is riding the coattails of the “Leafs Nation”

•  There is no content hub for “Leafs Nation” so The Nation network is benefiting from all the branding from TML.

•  The Nation Network draws fans to the website with the latest content then provides Leafs Nation merchandise for sale.

How do we get there? And have a pulse on the ever-changing needs of our fans

III

a

SUMMARY

•  Everyday, huge amounts of content are created. •  Content Curation has many Benefits •  Inspiration

•  Content Curation Tools •  MyNewsDesk •  Flipboard •  5by

"Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003.” – Eric Schmidt, Google CEO

Source: http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/Why_every_brand_should_curate_content_15371.aspx



Top Reasons Brands Use Content Curation

Content Created Constantly There is always content being created about every topic Inexpensive All of this content is offered for free on Twitter, Youtube, Tumblr, Facebook, Blogs, Forums, Instagram, Etc.

Garner Thought Leadership Some of the most involved fans are very knowledgeable about the strategy to running the Toronto sports teams. Increase Brand Visibility Brand visibility is increased when users start arriving at your site as their first destination to learn the latest news about the Leafs.

INSPIRATION | Tools to Help with Content Curation http://relevance.com/stop-talking-new-tools-content-curation/


•  These tools help find, organize, customize, and post content that is created from other users.

•  With most of these tools, brands can set the topics they are interested in and pick and choose the content that appears.



INSPIRATION | MY NEWS DESK

•  MyNewsDesk presents content about your brand in a social media news room. All information published is search optimized and instantly updated and synched to social media.

•  MND also allows brands to find and connect with key influencers who are interested in the brand.


INSPIRATION | FLIPBOARD

•  Flipboard is an app that allows users to collect and share content that they care about.

•  The content comes from blogs, forums, news sites, social media, and other properties that they user has defined.



INSPIRATION | 5by

•  5by calls itself a “video concierge” that guides users to a stream of back to back videos based on the users interests at the time.

•  Similar to Flipboard, it aggregates all the best videos on the Internet and provides them to users for streaming.

Talk about Broad Topics Start talking about all MLSE sports franchises within Leafs Nation. Toronto sports fans are not partial to talking about just Leafs. To truly embrace the lifestyle of the Leafs fan, we should consider other interests. TML isn’t just a sports team; to many, it is an identity and much like other great brands like Apple and Nike, when you own the identity, fans refuse to look at other options.

Content Curation A large portion of the content created about Leafs Nation is created by the fans. The brand virtually lives autonomously within the conversations of the fans. There is a opportunity to curate existing fan content and host the conversation on a MLSE owned property that has ecommerce objectives.

Leafs Nation Conclusion

YOU THANK FOR WATCHING

A Appendix

Attract Users to MLSE eCommerce Websites.

•  One third of fans make more than 100k compared to 19% of the general population

•  This illustrates the spending power of an NHL fan on tickets and merchandise and the opportunity to attract fans to Leafs Nation properties


Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/02/which-sports-have-the-whitest-richest-oldest-fans/283626/

B Appendix

About Me

I’ve always been an ambitious person. I constantly strive for feedback and believe that the more knowledge I have the better my performance is, which is why I am always reading on the latest trends and asking about the different perspectives of my peers.

There is no better discipline to learn quantitative analysis and reporting than accounting. It teaches the value of communicating complex ideas in a format that others can understand. My B.Com in Accounting combined with my Marketing Diploma and certifications taught me to ground all of my marketing insights in solid analysis and research. I believe this makes me a unique candidate.

This opportunity assessment is the result of years of knowledge, skills, and practice. Researching and communicating optimal solutions to problems is something that I thoroughly enjoy.

About Me


My Qualifications

I have a strong mix of assets that I use to create actionable marketing insights grounded in solid quantitative analysis

BCom in accounting

completed in 2008

Business Marketing Diploma

complete in 2004

Google certified expert in display

media buying

Google certified expert in

analytics and measurement

B.Commerce Marketing Dip Google Adwords Cert

Google Analytics Cert

Elite course in Digital Marketing complete in 2011

CMA Digital Marketing Cert

Certified by Microsoft in Excel 2007

Microsoft Excel Cert

Brands I’ve worked on