Harf Time – The Red Bull Stratos Edition

This week’s edition of Harf Time was hosted by Kevin Hillier and focused on the Red Bull Stratos event, where former Austrian militant-cum-daredevil Felix Baumgartner jumped to earth from a helium balloon-powered pod in the stratosphere. An initiative of energy drink-turned media company Red Bull, the high-risk marketing event was watched by a staggering 8 million people via YouTube.

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Baumgartner jumped from 128,000 feet above the earth and hit a top speed of over 1,000km per hour. If you haven’t watched the video yet, or just want to watch it again, here it is:

Here is a good article that discusses the broken records and marketing aspects of the Stratos event. You can also check out the official Red Bull Stratos page for a deeper insight.

Until Next Week

Listen to Harf Time on Wednesdays (at 2:45pm) when Sean Callanan discuss sports digital with Daniel Harford.

Tune into Harf Time over the weekdays from 12-4pm on 1116 SEN.


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#APWSW Conference notes – World Sport and Women conference

Here are my notes from Day 1 on the Asia Pacific World Sport and Women conference held at the MCG yesterday.

Day 1 – Monday 8th October 2012

WELCOME and Official OPENING

Her Excellency, Ms Quentin Bryce AC CVO, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia

Sports Geek notes

Firstly congratulations to the Australian Women’s T20 Cricket team the Southern Stars winning the World T20 tournament last night despite being 8 pages in from back page in today’s paper.

“Women’s sport matters a great deal to me”, Bryce said.  Told story of her childhood in the bush & how much sport played a part of her growing up.  In the 50s the Australian sports scenes was filled with sports heroines, important and influential in their lives.

Encourage and support are important for children to continue sport into their teens, parents & schools play a key role as do great role models currently in Australian Sally Pearson, Anna Meares & Lauren Jackson to name a few.  We need these role models in the media to inspire girls to follow their lead.

In 1984 the Sex Discrimination Act opened the door that brought change that delivered opportunities in sports to women as clubs offered full memberships to women in sports clubs.

Women’s sport still needs more coverage from the media with under 10% sports media coverage dedicated to women’s sport.

MONEY – Setting the Scene

The Economic and Social benefits of increased female involvement in the Business of Sport How will Demographic Analysis, Market Assessment, Masterforce and Workforce Planning impact on the future business of Sport? ?Learn how canvassing census and other data to determine lifestyle trends can be used to identify development and investment opportunities in the ‘Sports’ environment.  Identify ‘growth’ opportunities and be surprised by how easy it is to make decisions based on an assessment of demographic trends. Hear what is being done with the 18 recommendations that came from 2006 Senate Inquiry into Women in Sport that addressed the need for more support for women’s sport and recreation in Australia, particularly in the critical role media plays in neglecting women’s sporting achievements.
Bernard Salt, Demographer, KPMG
Senator Kate Lundy, Federal Minister for Sport

Sports Geek notes

The Demographics of Women in Sport: Where gains can be made – Bernard Salt
Starts by looking at the tribes – Fusion Culture – English & New Zealand & Asia & India
Stronger increase in Indian population 100% increase last 5 years compare to 6% in British.
Metropolitan Australia is

Some acronyms:
PUMCINS – Professional Urban Middle Class In Nice Suburbs
NETTELS – Not Enough Time To Enjoy Life
KIPPERS – Kids in Parents Pockets eroding retirement savings
LOMBARDs – Lots of money but are real dickheads

Sporting focus next ten years

  • Rising market – 5-15 market
    • Sports in schools
    • Heroes & icons
  • Young adults
    • Team sports
    • Social Networking
    • Childminding
  • Mature Adults
    • Coaches
    • Commentators
    • Sponsors
  • Active Retirees
    • Volunteers
    • Umpires
    • Supporter

In 1932 average age was 63, people were “old” at 50. Teens did not exist.
In 1972 average age was 71, people were “old” at 60.  Teen market developed.
in 2012 average age in 82, Adolescence from 12-30, Adult 30-55, Lifestyle 55-65, Retired 65-75, Old 75+.

Top sporting activities

  • Walking
  • Aerobics
  • Swimming
  • Cycling
  • Running
  • Golf

Sport is one leisure activity but others are on the rise

  • Computer games 404%
  • National Parks 200%
  • Music Concerts 163%
  • Golf Equipment 124%
  • Televisions 124%
  • Camping Equipment 109%
  • Health clubs 88%
  • Eating out 68%
  • Alcohol 65%
  • Sports lessons 52%

Demographics implications for women in sport

  1. Women are severely under represented in professional sports  occupations, Australia women need role models.
  2. Australia’s ethnic mix is changing from Anglo-Mediterranean to Anglo-Mediterranean-Asian Fusion.
  3. Ageing of the population creates opportunities for new sporting leisure pursuits & volunteering roles.
  4. Modern lifestyles flex and shuttle at different stages of the life cycles.

Kate Lundy, Minister for Sport
“About Time” report  - http://www.wwda.org.au/sportfr06.pdf

Social Media at times a challenging environment but a tremendous opportunity for sports.

Great for sports for AFL & NRL securing $1BN in TV deals but TV networks still “try it on” with with women’s sport asking for production costs to cover women’s sport.

Gender equality must start in the boardrooms of sport.  Target is 40% for women on boards.

Announcement: Government to support Women in Sport scholarship in 2013

It’s a Man’s World – The 5 ‘M’s Debate

Facilitated discussion to set the cat amongst the pigeons right from the start on what men really think about women, sport, women in the business of sport and women’s sport.
This discussion promises to be a talk-tickler, controversial and exciting.  In the song – it’s not only a man’s world, it’s a man’s man’s man’s world – so is that what the world of sport is all about?  Is Sport dominated by too many men?  Where do women get to make the decisions? Are the male decisions makers in politics and business, and who dominate the boards of many sports, both professional and otherwise, giving the girls a fair go? Are the right girls getting the gigs? Why should Black Caviar get better billing than any human female athlete performing on the world stage?
Who says “people” don’t want to watch or read about women’s sport?     Who determined that the public won’t choose to pay to see women play sport at an elite level?
Why is it that nowhere other than at the Olympic Games, and the odd world championship, that women’s sport doesn’t matter?
And finally if sex sells then….?
This session will ask the hard questions to get the answers from the people who have views on these and many other matters.  No political correctness allowed at this conference busting opener. Get The top 5 tips from our panelists on how to break down the barriers and how to get ‘YES’ for an answer.

Sam Bramham, OAM, Australian Paralympian, ?Disability Sport & Recreation Ambassador
Geoffrey Lord, Chairman & CEO, Belgravia Group
Tom Maher, Head Coach, WNBL Bulleen Boomers Basketball Team, Great Britain Women’s Basketball Team
Bonita Mersiades, Strategy and Communications Consultant; Writer / Analyst
Kim Morrison, Author, Speaker, Health & Lifestyle Educator, World Record Holder, Business Woman, Wife and Mum
Chelsea Roffey, Goal Umpire, AFL
Jane Russo, Board Director, Touch Football Australia

Sports Geek notes

Bonita Mersiades – If politicians think it’s tough for women in politics they don’t realise how hard it is in male dominated sports industry.  Low representation of women on boards is not good enough!

Tom Maher – Looking back the powerhouse that was the Nunawading Spectres in the 80s with Michelle Timms & Robyn Maher leading the way.  More community work by team didn’t lead to bigger crowds but was let down by poor opposition & lack of professionalism by the league overall.  It all comes down to developing an appealing product for fans requires commitment by all parties.    Organising bodies need to think about whole picture, as an example FIBA extended 3-point line without thinking about the grass roots & junior competitions.

Kim Morrison – Men are quite easy to work with when you use your female charm.   Stand with volition & conviction. “Mike Atherton caught by short & girlys” was the headline when he was caught by a women in cricket match organised by Kim.  Message from Natalie Cook “Speak out with volition & conviction and doing it more often”  From Kim, “You need to be the greatest role model you can be”.

Geoff Lord – Already shaking my head about the obsession with women in sport. At Belgravia we employ over 5000 people and a majority of them are women.  Stop talking about it & start doing it, positions should be awarded on merit so get on with it!

Sam Bramham – Women in sports do face inequality, some of these are due to misconceptions in sport which are slowly being broken down.

Chelsea Roffey – Sex sells but not un umpiring the uniform is horrible.  The AFL Grand Final week was a circus.  Pushes herself harder to dismiss notions of “token female”.

Jane Russo – Women are good for business, companies with women on boards perform financially better.  Always bring your true self, most important you are on the board for your talents not your gender.

THE 5 M’S – The Good. The Bad. And the Ugly

Case studies. ‘The Good. The Bad. And The Ugly’ – what works and what doesn’t; the business end and highs and lows of delivering world class sporting events and competitions. How our experts have tapped into the female market.
Objective commentators on which strategies work when the business of sport applies the 5m’s – Money. Members. Media. Marketing and Men. When the 5 ‘M’s’ Work its magic so how can your organisation replicate the process for success?
This panel session looks at the successes and near misses of women’s sporting teams and events from the perspectives of those who run the organisations which run the events, the sponsors and supporters of those events and those who comment in the media about those events.
Lynne Anderson, Managing Director Australia and New Zealand, Repucom
Michael Brown, CEO, AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015
Eugenie Buckley, Principal, Suiko Consulting
Neil Dalrymple, CEO, Bowls Australia
Catherine Ordway, Lawyer, Anti-Doping Consultant
Sonya Ottaway, President, Netball America

Sports Geek notes

Lynne Anderson – Brought marketing & business rigour to the world of sports when starting out at the Canterbury Bulldogs.  Rugby League had easy money from tobacco & leagues clubs revenue when Lynne started at the Bulldogs & crowds trending down.  Research was key to back up your judgement.

Two key points came out from Bulldogs research:

  • cultural shift of area – multicultural days were very successful in attracting new fans.
  • 20% of attendees were women – how to engage & make it family friendly.
    • Opened Wine Bar
    • More Family facilities
    • Activities for children
    • Sponsored local netball clubs

Treat your business as you would any other business.

Super League drama was a big learning experience,  money spent poorly & wasted in that era.

“It’s more about the fan now more than ever.” final point from Lynne.

Michael Brown – Good to see the story about the Southern Stars was a little bigger than the demise of the Men’s T20, small steps.

One thing we all have in common we all start playing at community level, it is why it is so important.

“Build it & they will come”, doesn’t necessarily apply it is a tough commercial market.  You need to be smart, articulate in your efforts to succeed.

How do we build communities?  Inclusion is important, cricket has grown female audience via grassroots programmes & marketing initiatives with Big Bash Leagues.

Do you know who your fans are? Do you know want they want?
Understand your stakeholders.

Eugenie Buckley – More opportunities for women thanks to U20 & U17 World Cup as well as the developing W League.   Athletes won’t let you down, look at Elyse Perry hitting a six at the MCG, double headers have worked well for Matildas & Southern Stars.  Rugby 7s is another developing sport attracting premier women athletes.

Cricket NSW do a great job integrating the women’s team in what they do.

Neil Dalrymple – Growing participation but dwindling membership, that is the key problem.
Introducing colour has helped to change perception of bowls.
Changing the time of bowl competitions has been key as people’s time needs have changed.

Catherine Ordway – Good sport on field is supported by good support off field in governance & leadership.

Women on Boards initiative has grown to have 11,000 women ready to be on boards but still no structures available to get on boards – No vacancy sign up on board rooms.

Sonya Ottaway – People are the key, biggest lesson in sports business life.

Obese is the national security issue for the US, fat kids can’t help Defense force.
President’s Challenge programme has been critical as part of “Let’s Move” initiative.

Join the Club: Why Members Matter -People & Culture

Learn how organisations that have shifted the culture and included greater diversity in thinking have generated more participants in club, school and community activities. Increased membership, increased spectator numbers, a boost in sponsorship revenue, and a more welcoming environment for children and families are just some of the benefits that come with changing your organisation’s attitude as a result of greater female inclusion. Can your organisation afford to procrastinate in this ever-changing and competitive recreation and leisure environment? Learn what turns volunteers on to your sport and how you can capitalise on this massive human resource.

Sean Callanan, Sports Geek
Sue Clark, Cultural Strategy and Education Manager
Susan Crow, General Manager Community, Melbourne Heart FC
Jude Maguire, CEO, School Sport Victoria Department of Education and Early Childhood Development
Heather Reid, CEO, Capital Football and Canberra United
Cameron Schwab, CEO, Melbourne Football Club

Sports Geek notes

Here are the 5 top tips from the panel members
Heather Reid
1. Identify potential members
2. Find out what they want
3. Tailor programs to meet needs
4. Don’t assume everyone wants the same outcome
5. Recognise & reward members

Susan Crow
1. Be authentic
2. Be welcoming & inclusive
3. Provide, fun, social opportunities for girls
4. Use female role models
5. Ensure supporters & their families feel safe

Jude Maguire
1. Understand local community needs
2. Empower young people to lead
3. Value partnerships to strengthen the programmes
4. Ensure the community sense ownership and contributes
5. Value diversity & reward volunteers

Sue Clark
1. Inclusion – make it a priority
2. Social Leadership – understand the responsibility
3. Investment – people are your greatest asset
4. Change – it takes time
5. Values – understand what you value

Brendan Schwab
1. Understand purpose – deeper meaning
2. Why do people align their identity to your club
3. Build the narrative based on these insights
4. Understand the narrative – particular your own people
5. Communicate well, with consistency and often

Sean Callanan
1. Understand the platforms you are using and how your fans use them
2. Always be training your fans
3. Social Media is about storytelling not broadcasting
4. Don’t ignore customer service on social media
5. Don’t piss off your fans

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New Orleans Saints and Hornets merger discussion with VP of IT, Tod Caflisch

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This week on ABC Grandstand, Sean was in the studio to discuss the NBA’s New Orleans Hornets and NFL’s New Orleans Saints.

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After being owned by the NBA for more than a year, Tom Benson, the owner of the Saints, agreed to purchase the New Orleans Hornets, ensuring the team remains in New Orleans for the foreseeable future.

The owner of both pro sports teams in New Orleans is a shrewd business man, deciding to amalgamate all the behind the scenes employees into the one organisation.

The VP of IT, Tod Caflisch is with Francis and Sean today to discuss his role, (originally with the Hornets but now incorporates both franchises), the new ownership stability of the Hornets after 16 months of being owned by the NBA, as well as discussing how the Saints and Hornets prepared for Hurricane Isaac that passed over New Orleans recently.

Here is a picture of Tod (second from left) with the SEAT Conference Steering committee in Boston at the Markley dinner.

Until Next Week

You can catch ABC Grandstand  live on Saturday mornings (at 7:40am) when Sean Callanan discuss sports digital with Francis Leach. Tune into ABC Grandstand Breakfast Friday through Monday on ABC Grandstand digital radio.


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Podcast transcription

FRANCIS: Hey it’s Saturday morning, Sean Callanan the Digital Sports Guru is with us from
SportsGeek HQ to talk sport in the digital world, good day mate how you going?

SEAN: I’m good thanks Francis.

FRANCIS: Excellent to see, busy week?

SEAN: Oh well it’s you know pointy end of the final season and cricket’s starting to ramp up and
getting all ready for the summer of cricket so yeah keeping busy.

FRANCIS: Of course with the Big Bash coming up and that’s going to be a fascinating campaign this
year to see how that beds in for a second year after the novelty of the first season.

SEAN: Well that’s right, I mean it’s all about you know renewing. I mean the first season was all
about telling people it was on, so at people will be ready for it this year you’d hope.

FRANCIS: Now in the States we’ve got the football season underway and it’s a huge infrastructure
that goes into putting it on television, it is – it dominates the American consciousness right
throughout the North American winter. But how is football in the American experience keeping
up with the digital world, and making the sport available to people now who are mobile, how have
access to devices and want to be fully informed and engaged the whole time?

SEAN: Um yeah I mean the NFL is such a big TV product – - -

FRANCIS: It’s incredible.

SEAN: – - – like it just completely dominates – - -

FRANCIS: It’s a beast.

SEAN: — – -you know Sunday afternoon, and you know you can be watching five games at once at
some point. So you know it’s a little bit strange in that they don’t bother you know trying to spread
out the games, they’re all – a lot of them are packed into that Sunday. So digital is becoming more
and more prevalent so you can be watching on one screen, having that second device, tuning in that
kind of thing.

FRANCIS: Like Ed Winseth having the three televisions in the one room.

SEAN: Pretty much – pretty much and that’s how you know and the thing is – where digital’s kicking
in is it’s giving you those alerts of hey change the channel; someone’s hitting the red zone. And the
red zone for those who don’t know in the NFL is when they’re just about you know 20 yards out and
you know a touch down is imminent. So you can flick from – - -

FRANCIS: So keeping each other informed about where to be watching?

SEAN: – - – yeah exactly. And so – and then the other part of it is the digital part for NFL is Fantasy
Footballers an absolutely massive business in the US so there’s a lot of ways of the NFL connecting
with their fans that way as well. You know as people are playing it, so the college mates that have

been you know doing it for 20 years or you know just taking it in and you know seeing which – which
player is playing better and that kind of thing, so there’s a lot of – lot of channel surfing. And you
know the digital devices allowing to support that.

FRANCIS: Now one man we’re going to meet now has the job of trying to make sure the New
Orleans Saints and the Hornets are across all of that and delivering to their fans.

SEAN: Yeah so Vice President of IT Tod Caflisch, is one of the SEAT Conference Steering Committee
members. Yeah and he overlooks now – now that the Hornets have recently been purchased by
the Saints, making a bit of a super club, you know it’s a unique scenario in US sports, not too many
teams that are owned –you know have – have two franchises in one of the big four leagues.

FRANCIS: Tod’s obviously a very, very busy man, he joins us here on Grandstand Breakfast this
morning. Morning Tod welcome to Grandstand Breakfast here in Australia.

TOD: Oh thanks Francis, Sean, how is everybody?

FRANCIS: Really well. How was your first weekend with the Saints and just getting that all up and
running from your perspective last weekend?

TOD: Well being a little bit new to NFL I mean I did rely a lot on the existing guys that are around, I
mean they really did a lot of the heavy lifting. I’ve been around and known them for going on about
five years now so I was already pretty familiar with kind of their operations. I mean from a staff and
broadcast you know radio/TV perspective it’s very similar to the NBA, you know just on a little bit
of a bigger physical scale because the stadiums are much larger. But you know everything actually
came off very well. I apologise for the noise …. the airport in Boston, I flew in for my college 40th
anniversary football event this weekend.

SEAN: So Tod one thing I did want to talk to you about was just a couple of weeks ago New Orleans
had to prepare for Hurricane Isaac and knowing that New Orleans went through Katrina, you know,
eight years ago now, what kind of preparations did the pro teams have to make, both from a you
know infrastructure point of view and just from a team point of view to prepare for – for Isaac?

TOD: Well we – we had a little bit of a practice run three years ago with Hurricane Gustav, but when
I came to the Hornets five years ago that was kind of my first priority because it was a – storm was
not just devastating for the city but it also drove the Hornets off to Oklahoma City where they played
for two years with all the damage to the arena, and so you know my first goal was to really set up
a solid you know disaster recovery and business plan that you know with Gustav and some tropical
storms since we’ve been able to test, it’s worked very well. You know with the Saints owner you
know acquiring the Hornets this summer, you know we’re actually in the process of setting up the
same type of system for them because they – they were really lacking anything very proactive as
far as the disaster recovery plan you know to that scope. So I mean we kind of got caught a little
bit with Isaac and we weren’t quite ready but luckily you know the worst of it for us really is – was
power outages and a lot of flooding, I mean there was more you know personal loss you know as
far as you know staff members and the teams than there was to any of our facilities, luckily, but
you know it did – it did make the Saints have to change their – their plans prior to their pre-season
game back east when a storm blew through they were playing actually against the Tennessee Titans
in Nashville and you know they usually fly out the day before for out of town games, but they

actually flew to Cincinnati that Monday, and they were playing Thursday night after, they flew up to
Cincinnati on Monday and then they practiced at the Cincinnati Bengals facilities that whole week
and then on Wednesday night they flew into Nashville for the game Thursday.

FRANCIS: It must be difficult to know that or you must be aware that that’s the season that you’re
in that’s always a possibility, you have to have that contingency always ready to go because of the
climatic conditions in which you live?

TOD: Absolutely it is yeah. I mean – you know I mean the nice thing about it is that you know you
kind of see them coming, and you have a little bit you know I mean you have some time to prepare
but you know this was – this was kind of a – this was my third hurricane actually and this is kind
of you know they’re all different, this one was weird in that you know it – it kept tracking west
while it was in the Gulf so we thought you know I mean by the time that it – it you know would get
anywhere close it would you know kind of bypass us and maybe hit Texas, and but it really took kind
of a weird turn at the late and then once it made land fall on the coast it really just kind of stalled
and just dumped, there was so much water, there have been significant flooding. A lot of areas
around you know south east Louisiana a lot of homes were lost, you know and then the storm kind
of tracked north very slowly dumping a lot of rain which then in turn flowed back down south, you
know via the Mississippi and a lot of the tributaries there and you know it actually at one point
was threatening an old earthen dam, you know that they were in fear that it was going to give and
they evacuated a town and yeah I mean honestly you know I – I don’t – I don’t like the whole storm
situation it’s pretty common you know around here, but you know I think I might actually prefer a
hurricane situation to you know living in the mid west again where we had to worry about tornados
and that kind of thing which you know can kind of hit you without a lot of warning.

FRANCIS: Tod one thing just with the merge of the Hornets and the Saints, what do you think’s going
to be the big key benefit from the Hornets point of view merging with the Saints operations?

TOD: You know I mean we’ve been owned by the NBA for the last couple of years, so I mean you
know ownership stability is kind of the biggest thing, I think that was the big goal. You know there
was some risk that you know the Hornets were going to be purchased by a new owner that was
going to potentially move the team out of town which you know was – was not desirable, so and I
think the financial and ownership stability is – is certainly a benefit you know coming from the Saints
to the Hornets, you know the Saints are a very, very successful organisation, very profitable, I mean
they do great business you know I mean they’re very smart with what they do, they get you know
really good people on the business side, they’ve got really good on the football side and you know
we have Mickey Loomis their General Manager who is now overseeing you know the operations at
the Hornets you know as far as the basketball operations, you know, with Dell Demps actually still
as the GM. But you know there’s – it’s – it’s a great merger and you know like I said it’s kind of one
of those rare you know keeper team situations. I don’t know in the United States how many other
ones there may be like that. I know Seattle and the Seahawks and the Sounders are one like that but
I don’t know if there are many others.

FRANCIS: No it seems a fairly unique arrangement in American sport, but one with all the synergies
there to make it work and lots of people in New Orleans and Hornets Saints here in Australia as well.
We’ll let you get onto your reunion, hope everyone is still telling tall stories about their great feats

40 years ago and they’ve no doubt gotten better and bigger as the years have gone on.

TOD: Oh yeah. Oh yeah the older we get the greater the stories become.

FRANCIS: Good on you Tod.

SEAN: Thanks Tod.

FRANCIS: Have a great time there in Boston.

TOD: Wonderful, thanks guys, appreciate the opportunity.

FRANCIS: Tod Caflisch there from the New Orleans Saints and Hornets, he’s in charge of the IT for
both organisations.

SEAN: For both organisations. I look forward to the Hornets having monobrow promotions because
they’ve got the number one pick Anthony Davis who’s famous for the one eyebrow.

FRANICS: Has he got the Gallagher look?

SEAN: He does have the Gallagher look so yeah it will be interesting to see if they go with the
monobrow night.

FRANCIS: We can only hope.

SEAN: Yeah definitely.

FRANCIS: They need to put a monobrow on the front of their webpage.

SEAN: And I’m assuming monobrow might be a hash tag that’s thrown out during the Hornets’
season no doubt.

FRANCIS: I think you should get on to it first. Where can people find you?

SEAN: SportsgeekHQ.com or sportsgeek or seancallanan on Twitter.

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Sports CRM discussion with Bobcats Chris Zeppenfeld

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This week on ABC Grandstand, Sean was in the studio to discuss Sports CRM after it was a big discussion point at SEAT Conference.

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Sports CRM

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a vital & growing area in sports industry.  We discussed how sports are using CRM with Chris Zeppenfeld from the Charlotte Bobcats with 18,000 seat stadium and a season ticket base of 7,000 there is a lot of tickets to sell over an 82 game NBA season.   Using CRM teams like the Bobcats can get a 360 degree view of the customer/fan to determine how to best sell & satisfy the fan’s needs.  CRM can be used to serve several purposes in sports business – season ticket/membership sales, sponsorship sales & merchandise & food beverage sales analysis and more.

As Chris said in the interview the more informed teams are about their fan base the more customised (AKA cool stuff) teams can be in their approach to fans.  The Bobcats offer season ticket holders extra benefits though their Cats 365 program providing events & promotions to the Bobcats fan base all year round.

Until next week

Catch it live on Saturday mornings (at 7:40am) when Sean Callanan discuss sports digital with Francis Leach on ABC Grandstand. Tune into ABC Grandstand Breakfast Friday through Monday on ABC Grandstand digital radio.

Want to get these clips in podcast form? Subscribe here or Add to iTunes.

Your thoughts?

How does your team connect with you?

Are you happy with the email & direct mail you are getting from your team?

When did your sports team call you directly?

Let us know in the comments.

Transcript

FRANCIS:  And Sean Callanan and our digital sports Guru’s with us here each Saturday morning, good day Sean, how you going?

SEAN:  I’m good thanks Francis.

FRANCIS:  It’s been a fascinating week watching the US Open, the Paralympics, and everything else, finding it hard to keep up with everything.

SEAN:  Yeah, yeah it is.  A friend of mine actually is over there checking out, fulfilling her bucket list of 3 of 4, she’s now at 3 of 4 of the Grand Slams, so she’s over there enjoying the US Open.

FRANCIS:  Good day to be there Stosur winning as well, won the last 14 US Open matches extraordinary record for Sam Stosur.  Ah buying tickets to big events not easy, and I reckon also for the increasing competition in the space for sports organisations to sell tickets is not easy either, because you’ve got to identify your target market, and you’ve got make it attractive to them because there are so many options now for sports fans.

SEAN:  Ah definitely, you know, and at SEAT in Boston they added a stream for CRM, for people who don’t know CRM its Customer Relationship Management systems and the way that sports teams over there are using them to better identify sales targets, both from a ticketing point of view for season tickets, but also from a sponsorship point of view, so some really sophisticated stuff happening there in – in being able to identify, you know, look at a database, identify the fans, but then actually call them.  So there’s a real big emphasis on ticket sellers and ticket reps and effectively sales reps, so it’s not telemarketing it’s about building that relationship which we’ve talked about from a social media point of view, but having that personal touch of calling you up and saying – asking what you’re looking for, what you want in a season ticket, what other amenities.

FRANCIS:  It’s fascinating because I was at home, it was my dad’s 70th yesterday, happy birthday dad, and my brothers and sisters all got together and we’re all footy fans, barrack for different clubs, part of my family is St Kilda, part of its Essendon, so we’re actually sitting there going how much do you pay for your silver membership at the Essendon Football Club and what do you get for it, and how much are we paying for ours, and someone over there was an AFL member and well maybe that’s a better option, so there were three or four different sort of, we were literally doing a – it was like a little in-house survey group working out oh I think I’m being ripped here.  So it was really interesting the disparity there, but also the curiosity people had about what value they were getting for their spend, for their entertainment or sports experience.

SEAN:  Well that’s the thing, and now that all the clubs are now looking forward to diversify  their offerings.  I think Collingwood were the first to do it to start offering that three game membership.  They looked at their database and this is what you know CRM is all about, they looked at their database and they saw a need and they saw that there were fans who wanted to come to the games but couldn’t – couldn’t come to all the games and so they defined a package, which was, now we know is a three game package, and that that did help expand their membership, they’re not all you know full season members, but it gets them on the- it gets them in the database, it gets them as a paying customer and you know – - -

FRANCIS:  And you can start building a relationship with them.

SEAN:  Start building a relationship with them and a person who’s a three game membership might become a, you know, might become an 11 gamer next year and might become an 18 gamer and those kind of things, so it’s about up scaling that fan.

FRANCIS:  Who was ahead of the curve in the States who you met there at the SEAT conference who was doing this better than others?

SEAN:  Yeah so one of the guys that I did meet was Chris Zeppenfeld, from the Charlotte Bobcats, so the Charlotte Bobcats are in the NBA, and they’re not doing the best on field, but from a sophistication of their sales team and using CRM, they’re doing a really great job to sell out their stadium and sell a whole bunch of tickets.

FRANCIS:  Well he’s with us this morning here on Grandstand Breakfast here in Australia.  Good Day Chris how you are you?

CHRIS:  I’m doing well how is everybody over there?

FRANCIS:  Not too bad.  We’re a lot happier now that Lleyton Hewitt’s won his match there in New York, so that’s put a smile on everyone’s faces here in Australia this morning.  Firstly, I mean how hard is it when your team’s not going well, like the Bobcats have had maybe a tough time of it in the last couple of seasons, to actually continue to get people through the gates and give them an experience they’ll actually enjoy and pay money for?

CHRIS:  You know I think the biggest thing that we try to do you know with our fans is you know is kind of describe them as a little bit more than just kind of what’s going on, on the court.  It’s the experience of you know taking out your son or your daughter to a game, you know taking out you know your best business client or vendor or prospect, and giving them the best experience that they can have for a night out.  You know it’s a little bit more than just what you see on the court.  And I think that’s the really key thing that we try to push here, you know, and eventually you know as the team gets better then you can start highlighting the different things that are going on court.

FRANCIS:  And Chris we discussed yesterday the differences and the developments in that – in the sports CRM space and how the different teams are really attacking the space and treating sports as a business.  Who are some of the teams that are doing a really good job in the space of sales and using sports CRM to really maximise what they can bring to the table?

CHRIS:  Yeah and I think there’s kind of two groups of teams that are doing this well.  I think you’ve got one group that is you know maybe doesn’t have to sell as many tickets but utilising CRM to kind of get this 360 view of a customer and maximise the potential revenue that they can get, and I think teams like the Dallas Cowboys.  The Boston Celtics do this very well.  You know those guys I think really have thought about you know not just ticket sales but looking at you know merchandise and online food and beverage and website traffic and those types of things, so they really understand what their customers are doing, not just you know when they go to the game but just outside and how they interact with their product outside of the stadium.  You know I think some of the teams that are a little bit more kind of ticket sales focussed or sponsorship focused would be the Philadelphia 76ers, I think Mark Gullett does a tremendous job down there.  I was really impressed with some of the stuff that they’re doing, you know and that’s even, New Orleans Hornets and the Toronto Raptors and Maple Leafs, and that group does a really good job, those are some of the pioneers in the NBA of really coming out with you know a CRM solution for the team.

FRANCIS:  What about for your franchise there Chris, what are some of the things that you’ve learnt from your fans in the last two or three years with services that they expected you to deliver to enhance their game day or their experience with the Bobcats?

CHRIS:  I think the biggest change that we had over the last three years, is really understanding that you know we have a sales staff of 40 people you know who make you know a number of out bound calls per day, as you can imagine at the Bobcats, we don’t have a tonne of people just ringing in on the phones to you know clambering for Bobcats tickets, probably like other teams do.  So we’re very aggressive at going out to the public and having to make outbound sales, and I think the biggest thing we’ve done is really make sure that we are maximising those reps’ efforts.  You know I think in the past, you know, they might just take a list of single game buyers and you know just kind of randomly distribute those out and now it’s a far greater science to that, CRM’s a big piece of that, that kind of helps determine you know who’s going to get a phone call from us, you know is it because you know they’ve clicked on our website or from our lead scoring program do they score well, you now have they done something with their email behaviour so they opened or clicked one of our emails, what did they click on their email, you know those types of things factor in as to whether or not you know we’re going to have one of our trained sales reps calling them.

FRANCIS:  So you must have like their electronic DNA to be able to track what will you know flick their switch in a way?

CHRIS:  I’m sorry.

FRANCIS:  So you’ve almost got an electronic DNA of the customer or the fan, so you know what’s going to be thing, the hot button to press that will get them interested.

CHRIS: Yeah and I think that’s kind of what you know always our goal as you know CRM Managers here is to kind of create this 360 view of the customer.  So you know for most of the teams that have a CRM you know they have a pretty good idea of what they’re ticketing behaviour is because a lot of us use Ticket Master Autotiks, and that data feeds into our CRM, and for those who are maybe unfamiliar with Ticket Master Autoticks, it’s you know if you were to go and purchase a ticket you know at bobcat.com, and you wanted to go to a game you’d be using that Ticket Master system, so we’re able to collect you know the – of course the address, the phone and the email and of course what did you buy.  So every team kind of has that but now it’s a little bit more sophisticated of things such as you know what kind of emails do you respond too, you know what kind of surveys have you responded to, and that information you know we’re collecting it, and that’s really what CRM brings to the table.  There’s so much information that you know the fans are willing to give you, you know, who’s their favourite player, or you know I like to buy nachos, you know, in the second quarter, or you know I like to buy this jersey around Christmas, you know all those types of things it’s hard to collect that data, you know kind of organise it in some way and actually assimilate something from it.  And that’s really where CRM really, really helps.

FRANCIS:  Yeah we did actually talk about that with the display signage stuff where the technologies getting there.  Where you walk into the stadium and you scan your season ticket and your favourite player might be welcoming you to the arena and that’s the kind of stuff that CRM can offer us isn’t it?

CHRIS:  Absolutely.  And again I think it’s you know we’re – you know I kind of likening the three areas, you know you’ve got to be able collect the data, you’ve got to be able analyse that data and to be able to do something from it.  And I think really where you know it really, really helps is that collecting piece.  There is just so much out there to collect, how do you organise this you know in some organised fashion that somebody else can act on.

FRANCIS:  It’s like a little piece of – of metal that you need to alchemise into gold.  Good on you Chris, thanks for giving us an insight and good luck with the Bobcat season ahead and with the National Democratic Convention that’s in your backyard over the next few days, it must be busy there.

CHRIS: Oh it’s unbelievable and we’re really excited here.  Thanks again for having me on.

FRANCIS:  Chris Zeppenfeld there from the Charlotte Bobcats, talking to us about how they’re doing their best in the Customer Relations Management and how technology is allowing them now to know a lot about you and know what really works for you.  So we’ll see that start to really become sophisticated in Australia as well.

SEAN: Definitely will.  We’ll start seeing a lot more of it as teams want to really maximise the value of the fan.

FRANCIS:  It’s all about the fan, without us they’ve got nothing.

SEAN: Exactly.  Exactly.

FRANCIS:  Good on you Sean.  How can we find you online and in the digital world again?

SEAN:  sportsgeekhq.com or Sean Callanan or @SportsGeek on Twitter.

FRANCIS: You can’t miss him, Sean Callanan with us each Saturday morning here looking at digital sports, its Francis Leach with you on Grandstand Breakfast.

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Awesome stats from London2012.com team’s @AlexBalfour2012

Be sure to check out Anna Coate’s daily wraps on #London2012

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#SEAT2012 recap Part 2 – Social, TV, TD Garden & Technology


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Twitter #NASCAR advertising partnership

Twitter partnership with NASCAR is continuing to develop with TV adverts being released to promoted the #NASCAR hashtag as to further embed Twitter as the social media platform for sports.   We saw the explosion of Twitter in NASCAR when Brad Keselowski tweeted a picture after a crash.

Announced on the Twitter Blog by Omid Ashtari from Twitter’s Sports & Entertainment Team (AKA @Omid)

Throughout the weekend – but especially during the race – a combination of algorithms and curation will surface the most interesting Tweets to bring you closer to all of the action happening around the track, from the garage to the victory lane.

It’s a great move by Twitter to bring curated content back to their platform which is vital for them to be able to monetise their product.

This is what the #NASCAR page looks like

 

Here are the Twitter & NASCAR TV promotional spots, what do you think?

In our opinion these spots are a win/win for Twitter & Nascar to grow the digital audience of both parties.

What hashtag pages would you like to see?

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NRL Origin in Digital & BattleCam

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Origin was in Melbourne so we looked at how Origin will play out in the digital space on Harf Time.

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Look at the support the Queensland Maroons get on Facebook.

Like on the field they have a big lead on the NSW Blues

Be sure to register & go to the big game between Melbourne Storm & Brisbane Broncos to see yourself on BattleCam.

If you can’t make the game you picture will still be included in the crowd shot if you upload your picture.

Until next week

Listen to Harf Time on Wednesdays (at 2:45pm) when Sean Callanan discuss sports digital with Daniel Harford.

Tune into Harf Time over the weekdays from 12-4pm on 1116 SEN.

Get the Sports Geek podcasts

Want to get these clips in podcast form? Subscribe here or Add to iTunes

Podcast transcription

HARF: Sean Callanan who joins us, good day, Sean.

SEAN: Good day, Harf. That would be Harf Time’s own, LA Kings,

HARF: Harf Time’s own…LA Kings

SEAN: We were talking about them and they knocked off the Vancouver Canucks.

HARF: Yeah, the Harf Time’s own, and they’ve sent a tweet through saying, “Hope you enjoyed the ride boys. There’s still more to come.”

SEAN: Exactly.

HARF: So, good luck to the Kings. Hey, what’s happening on sportsgeekhg.com at the moment?

SEAN: Well, the thing is it’s Origin, Origin week this week, and obviously the big boys are in town for the game tonight, so it’ll be a good case, a lot of people going, and a lot of people watching at home, and it’ll be another case study to show Twitter just absolutely smashes it, and to have the whole eastern seaboard of Australia be tweeting about the Origin. Most likely the hashtag will be #origin because it’s been the Australian NRL actually haven’t pushed out an official hashtag, like their not like the #NBAPlayoffs that got tweet buttons…

HARF: Oh, haven’t they?

SEAN: No, there’s nothing on their site pushing it, so you’ll see some people using #origin, some people using #SOO, some people using #stateoforigin, so really I should have gotten everyone together and said…

HARF: In Queensland…

SEAN: Yeah, exactly, so…

HARF: Using #origin1

SEAN: #Origin1, yeah, so it would’ve been smart if they had credited it, but no matter what, #origin will be trending, Billy Slater will be trending, when there’s a try, that guy will be trending and it’ll be worldwide because at 9:00 p.m. in Australia we’re the only ones awake on Twitter, so pretty much anything that’s going to happen will be trending worldwide, so that’s how it happens. If you want to trend worldwide, you’ve got to move Harf Time to the night shift.

***Harf laughing*** right…

SEAN: The thing is you’re competing against the LA Kings at the moment, so that’s the problem, but big support for the two teams. We we’re just looking at the Facebook numbers before. 360,000 for the Queensland Maroon’s and 220,000 for the New South Wales Blues, so we’re just wondering what kind of numbers that the big V would get if it was still on Facebook and still active, and I’m thinking it could go close to half…

HARF: Is that ‘likes’ is it? Is that what…

SEAN: Just ‘likes,’ yeah, so…

HARF: Oh, yeah, you’d get half a million there…

SEAN: I think there would be half a million of Victorian footy fans to back the big V, but I think it’s all in the past, and maybe we’ll look at the timeline feature to look at old pictures of state of origin footy, but I don’t think it’s going to come back for the AFL.

HARF: That’s the thing about Origin, too. I spoke to Ray Warren earlier this afternoon who said, “It’s not just a game anymore; it’s an event.”

SEAN: Yep.

HARF: That’s what he said, and it is. Origin’s become that big poster event for the NRL for the whole year and people, like you say, like to get involved by social media and be a part of it, and that the thing that let’s you do it, it let’s you be a part of it while you’re sitting on the couch.

SEAN: And it’s a big TV event. I mean that’s the other thing, being in Melbourne, everyone in Queensland and everyone in New South Wales is watching and then you’ve got extra people in Victoria watching because it’s in Melbourne, so it’s always going to be the biggest game when it’s in Melbourne, but I tend to agree with the guys in Queensland, and you said well it doesn’t have to be here every year because I think if it is here every year there might be a bit of a ho-hum nature about it from some people in Melbourne, so if you keep that event nature of every one or two years, it probably makes sense from my point of view.

HARF: Well, speaking of the Rugby League, the Melbourne Storm are doing BattleCam. Explain to me what BattleCam is.

SEAN: So BattleCam’s, for one is an amazing event that the Storm boys are going to back up two days later and play the Broncos on the Friday night, but from a digital point of view, BattleCam, if you go to the Storm website, and we’ll get Jumper who’s wearing a hoodie today in honor of Mark Zuckerberg, and he’s really getting into Facebook now, so he’s doing the posts. He’s going to put a link to BattleCam, so BattleCam is going to be a 360 degree gigapixel picture taken in the middle of the AAMI Park, so everyone’s going to be in the stadium, sitting in their seats, holding a sign, giving the thumbs up and they’re going to go around and take a shot at everyone in the seats.

HARF: Okay.

SEAN: And then what you’ll be able to do, it’ll launch the day after on the 26th, you’ll be able to go in, zoom in to the photo, find you, find your mate, find your brother, find your sister…

HARF: You can zoom in?!

SEAN: Zoom in, tag yourself, share it on Facebook, share it on Twitter. The cool thing is get on there now and listen to what Billy Slater has to say. Register now and get a ticket so you’re there.

HARF: Well, it’s going to be a huge crowd. I don’t think there are not too many tickets left.

SEAN: Yeah, so get a ticket now, so you’ve got a seat and get ready. They’re giving away prizes all the way up to the game, and then if you actually can’t make it and you’re going to be at home or something’s happening, you can still register for BattleCam and give them your photo and we’ll put you in an empty seat.

HARF: Get out of it!

SEAN: It might be in the back row. We might stick you on top of the goal post maybe.

HARF: Get out of it…

SEAN: So, and there are going to be a couple lucky few Melbourne Storm members, so you should sign up, that are actually going to be snuck out in the field and sitting in the coaches, so in the players spot, we’re not going to tell Craig Bellamy, but they’re going to be sitting there when the photo is taken and then we’ll quickly sneak them away. We don’t want Craig Bellamy finding out about it, but those guys are going to get a real special experience. So check it out BattleCam with Melbourne Storm.

HARF: Right-o, just the Storm website, is it?

SEAN: Storm website and, yeah, the guys there are all over it. We’ll send out a link on the Harf Time Facebook page thanks to Jumper.

HARF: Yes…Harf Time, two words I dare if…Did he just say gigapixels to pull off this? Yes he did. What’s that mean…lots of pixels?

SEAN: Correct.

HARF: Lots of pixels.

SEAN: Absolutely really high def pictures, so you need more pixels.

HARF: Fair enough, thank you, Sean. I look forward to all the latest installments in the world of social media sportsgeekhq.com. Thanks pal.

SEAN: Cheers, mate.

HARF: Sean Callanan our man on @sportsgeekhq on Twitter, as well.

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Major League Baseball goes from strength to strength on Pinterest

When we last looked at Pinterest and how sports teams were using that space, you can probably recall that Major League Baseball were the stars of the show. They had a number of their pins and teams featuring in the article, like the New York Mets and the Milwaukee Brewers.

Well, the MLB are at it again. With Mother’s Day just around the corner, MLB have created a Mother’s Day Pinterest Contest, where fans can win MLB gear from their online shop by pinning items to custom made “MLB Mother’s Day” boards and repinning this image below onto the board.

Source: mlb.mlb.com viaDion on Pinterest

 

The creation of the Pinterest competition for Mother’s Day is a great initiative that engages fans, drives traffic to the online store and makes the MLB noteworthy within a growing social media space like Pinterest. Like the Boston Celtics, who are also utilising the Pinterest space for competitions, the MLB is starting to create a great image for itself on Pinterest and will be looked at as the world leader in sports utilising the Pinterest sphere.

Have you seen other teams and/or leagues using Pinterest for competitions? Tell us in the comments section below.

 

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NBA All-Star buzz

Browse more infographics.

 

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