Javelin 1.1

TREND REPORT: PRESENTED BY FANTHREESIXTY
SPONSOR INTERVIEW
FANTHREESIXTY’S CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER, DENNIS CUNNINGHAM
FanThreeSixty was born out of MLS
club, Sporting Kansas City, in 2011.
When we first purchased the Wizards
and subsequently rebranded to
Sporting KC, we had numerous software
applications that we relied on
to run the club. These applications
all contained data about fans, but
due to their limitations, they did not
communicate with each other. As a
result, although we had lots of raw
fan data, we had no single source that
could tell a full story about how and
when a fan engaged with us, leaving
no real understanding of who our fans
were or how to engage with them.
We started building software
specifically for our industry that would
consolidate all of this information into
a single location, giving us a clear
picture of the entire fanbase - who they
were, their demographics, behaviors,
and preferences to inform activation
strategies. Upon the success of the
fan engagement model within Sporting
KC, we now work with clients around
the world to help them address similar
challenges and increase the value of
their fanbases.
Where is the Fan Engagement industry going?
Fans have so many things competing for their attention!
The trick going forward will be for teams to provide highly
personalized, high quality content and experiences, and
deliver it to each fan’s platform of choice, in venue and out.
It’s not easy. The only way teams will be able to provide
these elevated experiences is to have a rich understanding
of every fan at the individual level and stop treating
all fans the same.
What does the growth of the industry look like?
Every company is looking for a slice of the “fan engagement”
pie. I believe this is going to require organizations
to re-think the way they approach fan engagement. It will
require departments coming together to look at the complete
end-to-end fan experience, beyond a CRM or the latest
social media trends.
What are some of the challenges you’re
hearing from clients?
More and more organizations are starting to realize that they
are going to have to make some serious adjustments. The
problem is they don’t know where to start. They need a guide.
Most teams agree that having more data on fans is a
good thing. But many are still asking themselves, “Where
do I get the data? How do I make sense of it? What strategies
do I use to maximize the value of each fan once I
have it? How do I use this data in my interactions with
sponsors?” If an organization takes those four simple
questions and tries to solve them individually, they could
easily end up exasperating the problem by deploying four
different solutions.
What are 3 trends you’re following and why?
There’s a lot of exciting stuff happening in the “fan engagement”
realm from esports to broadcast. In a really
competitive vendor landscape, the three things that we
are paying close attention to are:
Focus on the fan – We are seeing a lot of teams evolve
from traditional ownership models to a more fan-centric
approach. How do we make it less about our brand and
put the fans front and center? This approach will be critical
for attracting a younger demographic that has so many
brands and experiences competing for their attention -
“what’s in it for me and how does this enrich my life?”
Predictive analytics – Leveraging machine learning and
other advanced analytics techniques to understand your
entire fanbase, group fans into logical audiences, predict
future fan behaviors, and build activation plans around
those. These business intelligence capabilities are becoming
commonplace in other industries and have a huge potential
within sports to help teams gain a competitive advantage.
Ticketing –Teams are thinking a lot about digital ticketing
and ticket accessibility. We are starting to see an evolution
around how tickets are sold and accessed. Some teams
are already starting to test subscription-type models, and
I envision it won’t be long before fans might be able to
purchase tickets on Amazon or with an Airbnb booking.
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