The Detroit Pistons are one of some 280 professional sports teams around the world that utilize the SKIDATA platform and technology.
As reward and loyalty programs continue to grow at venues that host professional sports teams, fans are discovering that they have an opportunity to score more points than the teams and players they actually cheer for.
Targeted primarily toward season-ticketholders, these programs enable fans to engage with the venue and team in a way that never existed before. That hot dog you just bought? Here’s 10 points. Nice pullover you just scooped up from the fan shop! Have 50 points. Can’t be at the team’s game because they are playing on the road? No problem, just use your code to watch it on television and grab 20 points for yourself. Did you read that article about last night’s game on the team website? You should, because it nets you five points.
Yes, the world of reward and loyalty programs is indeed a new world of engagement and gives fans even more to cheer about, regardless of whether the team is a perennial championship contender or just piddling along in the standings.
The Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association are one organization maximizing such a program through their partnership with SKIDATA Inc., a company launched in 1977 in Salzburg, Austria, to originally keep access management for mountain destinations and which readily explains the company name. The company has grown to include platforms for crowd access control, ticketing, parking solutions and eventually the fan loyalty and reward space.
It is important to distinguish between loyalty and rewards, said Brad Lott, senior vice president of consumer sales with Palace Sports & Entertainment. “We look at it as there are transactional pieces and then there’s the loyalty aspect,” he said. “We try to treat both of those differently.”
The Pistons are entering their third year with the platform software and results have already been trending upward.
“If you renew 80 percent or more every year, that’s when you usually see your season ticket base grow,” Lott said. “We’ve been well above that the last couple of years. We should be around 90-percent renewed this year. When you see a 90-percent renewal, it means we’re going to grow that season-ticket base again. That’s a really good sign. Last year we were at 87 percent, so we’ve had two huge renewal years in a row which allows us the ability to really start to grow our base.
“I look at this program and ask, ‘Can I 100 percent say this is the reason?’ Absolutely not. But what I can say is that it is no coincidence that our renewal rates have really jumped since we’ve instituted this, so we’re definitely going to stick with it.”
The Pistons are one of some 280 professional sports teams around the world that utilize the SKIDATA platform and technology, a number that includes several other NBA and NFL teams. SKIDATA works closely with its clients based on unique needs.
“We want to understand what they are doing with the platform,” said Ren Steyn, SKIDATA vice president for stadiums and arenas. “If the initial play is around retention then we’ll move to a platform focusing on retention, which is different than somebody who is trying to increase their per cap spends.”
Steyn said that the company started exploring fan programs five years ago specifically for the North American marketplace.
“What we found in discussions was that sports teams wanted to do things in a different way in regards to their fans,” he said. “They wanted to provide a solution that added value to being a season-ticket-holder. They wanted to focus on providing something. One is a retention thing, so when a team goes back out to their season-ticketholders they can tell them about this cool rewards program and how the fans can get experiences that they otherwise could not get. Once fans get to the venue there are then ways to change people’s behaviors where we can entice them to buy merchandise and things like that because they have these awards points.”
Lott and the Pistons are sold. The ability to capture data on fans (what size shirts they buy at the fan shops, how many hot dogs they order at the concession stands) helps the team know which reward and loyalty programs to make available and which ones are not necessarily performing as intended.
“The whole idea and growth behind these programs is to encourage our fans to stick with us year after year,” Lott said. “We do everything we can to incentivise that loyalty. We are also trying to drive specific behaviors that we’re looking for as well. It is everything from using your tickets which is one thing all teams will tell you is a major factor whether someone renews their seats each and every year based on how often they use their tickets.”
What is one way to get those particular fans to keep using their tickets, even when their team is not contender-worthy? It is to do what Lott and the Pistons do, which is offer robust rewards and loyalty platforms based on the ticket usage.
“We do things from how fans interact with our social media,” he said. “They receive points based on interactions with our Twitter, Facebook and those different things as well as attending member events and such. That’s really the bones of how they’re able to receive points.”
Lott refers to his renewing fan base not as season-ticketholders but season-ticketmembers, which is appropriate considering that this particular membership indeed has its rewards.
“We also use the program where fans have watch-and-win codes based on our road games,” Lott said, “so when you watch a game that helps us drive television viewership on our road games for season-ticket members and they’re able to put a special code in if they watch that game. That specific game gets them additional points.
“That’s kind of how they earn their points. They also (earn points) from a loyalty perspective based on what they’re buying and how long they’ve been with us. The points are preloaded at the beginning of the year with points based on where they buy, how long they’ve had their tickets, and what type of package they bought, whether it’s full- or half-season and so on.”
Lott said that despite all the incentives made available, there will always be a portion of fans who do not take advantage of the offerings, simply because some of the incentives do not resonate.
“Let’s say you’re giving a signed autographed photo of a player or something like that … which is great to a big portion of your fan base but maybe there’s a certain portion it really doesn’t mean anything to,” Lott said. “Maybe if it is a business they would rather have an opportunity to get additional tickets or to be able to get some type of experience they can share with a prospective client.
“We found that by having our rewards platform able to customize what it really means to be a season-ticketmember, the fan is more inclined to participate. Whereas one thing may mean a lot to someone, it may not mean anything to the next person, so it gives them a lot of choices and ability to really customize what’s important to them and get the most out of their season-ticket purchase so that ultimately they renew that purchase and they stick with us year after year.”
The loyalty part comes into play when fans are automatically given a baseline of points to start out with. Fans log into a portal which shows the number of points in place based on factors such as if the seats were renewed early, how long the fan has had the seats and the location of the seats.
“It’s all pretty much real time,” Lott said. “If a fan logs in the next day after attending a game, he can see all the new information loaded through, with all of the transactions included. They can really keep a running tally and they are also seeing the new items that are loaded in there.”
For the high-end buyer, there might even have been point incentives to travel and see the team on road trips. The Pistons’ platform is only for full- and half- season-ticketmembers and fan feedback is taken into consideration each year when decisions are made regarding what items to add, delete, raise and lower.
Lott and his team including Natalie Kosal, manager, membership development, meet weekly to monitor the program and discuss everything from order fulfillment to experiential opportunities such as meet-and-greets with a coach or player.
Kosal oversees everything in the program including member communication, prize allocation and fulfillment, points management, web design and updates. “Natalie monitors all of this on a daily basis so everything gets handled in a timely manner,” Lott said.
Lott said that 67 percent of season-ticketmembers utilized some of their points during the 2014-15 season, which he called a “really high number in year two of a program. We had 74 percent of our members actually log in and interact with the portal. That’s a pretty high percentage that people are at least kicking the tires on it and taking a look.”
The 67 percent is up from 50 percent of tire-kickers the first year. “It’s something that our members are definitely seeing value in and taking advantage of,” Lott said.
For fans, the experiential element has never been greater.
“If teams can incentivize you and you have access to them, those are things that money can’t buy,” Steyn said. “That’s why these programs are becoming more and more utilized. In the past it didn’t work very well because the technology wasn’t there. Now the technology has caught up. You can look at a mobile app and we’ll give you 5 points. Every time you read an article about the team we’re going to give you points.
“Maybe you are going to get a visit with the coach. These are all things that you can participate in. You as an avid fan will have an incentive to do more with the team. Maybe in a month you’ll know that the coach is hosting 50 fans at a reception based on points. You’re like, ‘Holy cow! How can I get in on that?’”
Now you can.
Interviewed for this story: Brad Lott, (248) 377-0100; Ren Steyn, (303) 980-4441