Data Talks couldn’t be more proud to be both a Tech Partner of the Swedish National Handball Team and Supplier Partner to the IHF Men’s Handball World Championship 2023. In conjunction with the tournament, we would like to dedicate this blog post to the Sweden National Handball Team and how they leverage the Data Talks Sports CDP to use segmentation to deliver ticketing campaigns in a way their supporters will really appreciate.
Now, let’s jump right into their epic story!
Before we dive right in...
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It’s January 30th, 2022. And we at Data Talks, along with the global community of handball supporters, are sitting on the edge of our seats as we watch the Sweden National Handball Team play in the 2022 European Men’s Handball Championship final.
And then it happened! The Sweden Men’s National Handball Team won and became the European Champions!
Needless to say, we were over the moon and couldn’t be prouder of our customer and Tech Partner.
Then, after the big win, it was time for the next adventure: for Sweden to host the 28th World Men’s Handball Championship alongside Poland. This is a global event that will see supporters traveling from all over the world to attend matches in one of the 9 different arenas. With 32 national teams playing and 112 matches to anticipate, we at Data Talks couldn’t be prouder to also be a Supplier Partner of this epic tournament.
The game was on, even before the tournament began
Prepping for the game on the court is one thing. But alongside that, there is another game that is equally as important. And that game is the race to sell as many tickets as possible. Fill out the arena. And ensure that loyal supporters don’t miss the chance to watch this epic tournament.
With their great foresight, the Sweden National Handball Team knew early on that in order to get superior ticket sales, they needed to understand exactly what their supporters wanted and desired. And that this was the only way that they could deliver ticket offerings that their supporters would really appreciate. And that the key to unlocking this knowledge lay in their supporter data.
Fortunately…
This is where the Data Talks CDP comes in
“Understanding our supporters, how and when they most want to be communicated with, will allow us to further our reach and increase revenue and supporter engagement.
Sweden hosting the Handball World Championship, which is held in multiple locations, means that the complexity of the analytics capabilities that we need in order to offer a good supporter experience will increase. Therefore, we saw the need to partner up with Data Talks as they have a deep understanding of sports data, how we can convert it into revenue, and ultimately how to deliver smarter, more personalized campaigns.”
– Stefan Lövgren | Managing Director of Sweden Men’s National Handball Team
But how exactly did the Data Talks Sports CDP help Sweden National Handball Team uncover all they needed to know about their supporters?
The keyword here is:
Segmentation
- which supporters had purchased a ticket,
- which matches supporters will attend,
- whether or not supporters have purchased merchandise,
- their favorite snacks and beverages
Upselling: to supporters who had bought tickets to one game but not a second game
To illustrate this, let’s take a look at the following real-life example, where the Sweden National Handball Team wanted to know:
Which supporters had bought a ticket to watch a match in Malmö Arena in Malmö but hadn’t bought one for a match in Scandinavium Arena in Gothenburg and/or Tele2 Arena in Stockholm.
How can we get these supporters to buy the tickets, is what they asked themselves.
To illustrate this, let’s take a look at the following real-life example, where the Sweden National Handball Team wanted to know:
The Sweden National Handball Team had a look at how their ticket sales were progressing across different arenas. They noticed that several supporters had indeed purchased tickets to one game but not another. Having this information was, of course, a golden opportunity to upsell tickets.
Here’s how they did it:
They set out to create different supporter segments. They created these segments based on what ticket category supporters prefer, whether or not they are season ticket holders for local games, whether they bought single tickets or bundles, etc.
Then using this knowledge, the team could create tailored and personal ticket campaigns for each segment based on the supporters' specific wants and desires.
And finally, all that was left to do was to send these ticket offerings.
And all of this was down in the CDP. This whole process made the ticket offerings so much more personal and relevant for the different supporters, making upselling much easier to achieve for the Sweden National Handball Team.
To see how this would look in action, explore the Data Talks CDP demo >>
Cross-selling: to supporters who had bought tickets to a game but who had not purchased a meal plan
The team also noticed that some supporters who had bought tickets to different matches had not purchased a meal plan. This meant that there was a great opportunity to cross-sell. Once again, let’s take a look at one example where the team used the Data Talks Sports CDP. The Sweden National Handball Team wanted to know:
Which supporters had bought a ticket to watch a match in Malmö Arena in Malmö or Scandinavium Arena in Gothenburg but had not bought a meal plan?
Similar to what the team did when up-selling their ticket sales, they went ahead and started doing the following:
They created a supporter segment for each arena and city based on the insights they had obtained from the Data Talks Sports CDP.
Once they created their segments, the team could now create tailored campaigns for each segment, offering a meal plan as a nice complement to their tickets.
And to really impress their supporters, they made sure to offer a nice discount along with the offer.
Once again, the team managed to take their communication with their supporters to the next level and offer tailored meal offerings that their supporters would really appreciate.
Key takeaways
Segmenting supporters into different groups based on their wants and desires is key to delivering ticket offers that your supporters will really appreciate. The Sweden National Handball Team understood early on the importance of supporter data and the insights they could uncover about their supporters from it. And they have been leveraging this ever since.
Through the use of the 4 fundamentals to sell more tickets, enabled using the Data Talks Sports Customer Data Platform, Data Talks enables clubs and federations across the globe to create commercial success by the power of their very own supporter data. Allowing sports organizations to get more supporters, have superior sales, and make real revenue. All while delivering a world-class experience to each and every supporter.
