Sports Innovation

The Ultimate Fan Experience: Turning Fans into Advocates

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In today’s sports and entertainment world, fans rule. Much like an individual to a brand, fans are a sports and entertainment firm’s greatest asset — loyal, daily advocates for their team and/or performer. Sports and entertainment firms are working diligently to know their fans and address their evolving desires and expectations. Do they attend events in person? Do they travel to see their favorite entertainers and teams? How much do they spend when they do?

To truly know the fan requires two-way interaction. Once that occurs, it’s all about creating the ultimate fan experience. Delivering a personalized, immersive experience relies on many converging factors, including a fully integrated ecosystem.

Inside the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

Today, we announced that IBM Services has partnered with AMB Sports and Entertainment to create the ultimate fan experience at Atlanta’s new Mercedes-Benz Stadium. In addition to a robust technological infrastructure delivered and hosted on the Cloud, fans also have 24/7 access to personalized, relevant content through multiple channels, devices and applications through three Apps designed for each of the stadium’s major constituents: Atlanta Falcons fans, Atlanta United supporters, and Mercedes-Benz stadium event goers. This helps create a seamless experience, whether it be a game day or a non-game day, in-season or off-season.

Making it possible for fans to build relationships with sports and entertainment firms and then connect with their friends and fellow fans is the baseline for unlocking value in the new stadium ecosystem.

The sport, the game, the league, the owners, the coaches, the players, and the fans, are the content at the center of the enterprise. And where, when and how that content is consumed —whether it’s in person at the venue, live out-of-venue, live at home, or whether it’s through traditional media channels, or digital and mobile, creates a series of communities with which fans can engage and interact.

For the enterprise, the apps serve to provide a single view of the fan: consolidating data and information to build more a more robust fan profile for better marketing, communication, needs anticipation. All this enables the creation of the world-class, ultimate experience. Aided by the stadium infrastructure and the IBM Cloud, fans will have key amenities to make getting from their home to their seat and back, the experience they expect, and keep them engaged until their next visit.

Whether it be watching their favorite sports team or performing artist, fans want to feel connected and engaged — with everything — personally. When that environment is successfully created and delivered, individuals transform from fan to loyal advocate, and sports and entertainment firms capitalize on their greatest asset. 

General Manager, GTS Infrastructure Services, IBM

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