How sports organisations can re-engage dormant fans

Years of ticket sales, memberships, app downloads, newsletter subscriptions and digital fan engagement means sports organisations often hold extensive fan data. Almost certainly included within this data will be fans who once engaged actively with the club but have since become inactive – whether due to price increases, moving away from the area the club plays, or any other variety of reasons.

Customer relationship management systems, fan analytics and marketing automation tools mean it is easier to identify who these dormant fans are, understand their previous behaviours and deliver targeted campaigns designed to re-engage them with the club. This can be significantly more cost effective than attractive new fans. A successful campaign can generate increased ticket sales, merchandise purchases, hospitality revenue and membership renewals, while helping clubs extract greater value from data they already hold.

However, before launching a re-engagement campaign, sports organisations must carefully assess the legal framework governing the use of existing fan data.

Getting the basics right

Before seeking to re-engage dormant fans, sports organisations need to understand whether they can lawfully use those fans’ data for that purpose.

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), organisations must identify a lawful basis for processing personal data, while electronic marketing activities may also need to comply with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).

To comply with PECR, organisations will need to review how fan data was originally collected, whether appropriate marketing permissions were obtained, and whether existing retention practices remain appropriate.

These questions can become more complex where fan data has been held for years. Importantly, a fan's inactivity does not necessarily mean they can no longer be contacted, but organisations should be satisfied that they have an appropriate basis for continuing to use that information and that any marketing activity they undertake complies with relevant law.

The ability to answer these questions is often shaped by decisions made long before a re-engagement campaign is ever contemplated.

Building the foundations for future fan engagement

Compliance is often viewed as managing legal risk. However, effective data governance can be a commercial enabler for a sports organisation.

The privacy notice presented when a fan downloads an app, the marketing preferences collected during a ticket purchase, and the process in which fan data is retained and managed can all determine whether that information can later be used to support personalised marketing and fan re-engagement campaigns.

Sports organisations looking to maximise the long-term value of fan data should consider whether they have:

• clear privacy notices explaining how supporter data may be used, including for analytics, profiling and marketing activities;
• appropriate PECR-compliant marketing permissions and preference management processes;
• a documented lawful basis for using supporter data to drive fan engagement and commercial initiatives;
• data retention policies that strike a balance between compliance requirements and future business objectives; and
• appropriate contractual arrangements with CRM, analytics and marketing technology providers.

Getting these foundations in place means that valuable fans data can be used as commercial objectives evolve.

Turning data into growth

Effective campaigns will entail segmenting supporters based on previous purchasing behaviour, attendance history and digital engagement. Doing this enables sports organisations to deliver more relevant communications, improve campaign performance and increase return on investment.

However, these opportunities are often only available where the organisation has previously established the legal and governance framework needed to support them. A club could have years of supporter data at its disposal, but limitations around transparency, marketing permissions, retention practices or supplier arrangements might restrict how effectively that data can be used. Well drafted privacy notices, lawful marketing mechanisms, retention frameworks and supplier arrangements can provide the foundation for future innovation, personalisation and revenue generation.

By embedding appropriate governance from the outset, sports organisations place themselves in a stronger position to launch campaigns, adopt new technologies and extract greater value from fan relationships over time. This is particularly important because opportunities to engage with fans often emerge long after the data was originally collected.

Similarly, as fan engagement technologies continue to evolve, organisations may wish to introduce new CRM tools, analytics platforms or personalisation capabilities. The extent to which those opportunities can be pursued may be influenced by the arrangements already in place. Sports organisations should therefore consider whether their privacy notices, lawful bases for processing, PECR compliance processes, retention policies and supplier arrangements are capable of supporting not only current fan engagement activities, but future ones as well.

Not all fan re-engagement strategies depend on direct electronic marketing, and some approaches can deliver results without engaging PECR at all.

For example, contextual advertising, where ads are served based on the content a user is viewing rather than on individual behavioural profiles which have been gathered, allow sports organisations to reach fans through channels those fans are already visiting, such as fanzines, fan forums and affiliated social media communities.

In the case of fans who already read a club fanzine or participate in fan forums, they are already receptive, making re-engagement more straightforward than reaching an audience through targeted advertising. Sports organisations could consider supporting fanzines and fan forums commercially or editorially as a way to maintain brand visibility and foster community, without drawing on personal data held in their own systems.

Pursuing those initiatives does not negate the need for good data governance. Rather, they can be seen as complementary and often lower-risk re-engagement options that can operate alongside more data-intensive campaigns.

Our view

As sports organisations continue to invest in digital transformation and data-driven fan engagement, dormant supporter databases could represent a significant but underutilised commercial asset.

Successfully reactivating even a small proportion of dormant supporters can generate meaningful increases in ticketing, retail and membership revenues, while avoiding the higher costs typically associated with acquiring entirely new fans.

However, unlocking that value requires more than sophisticated technology and marketing expertise. Organisations need to ensure that the legal and governance foundations required to support future engagement strategies are established before those opportunities arise.

Co-written by Dom White of Pinsent Masons.