#73 The Ballketing Letter
The "Proof of Attendance Protocol," a "blockchain in sports" crash course, sustainability in World Rugby, a sport sponsorship barometer, marketing masterclasses for your brand & more!
Hey there Ballketers,
Welcome to post #73! If last week the 72-10 Chicago Bulls came to mind, how could we not honor the 73-9 Golden State Warriors on this edition?
This week:
We analyze the concept of “Proof of Attendance Protocol” and share some ideas for sport businesses.
It seems this week has been full of “Blockchain in Sports” related content, so make sure you check that out.
As usual, the best content of the week aimed at helping you take your sport business to the next level.
Let´s get down to business!
“Extraordinary results come from ordinary people with uncommon discipline.”
Tiny Thought on Farnam Street´s Newsletter
Another brilliant “Tiny Thought” on Farnam Street´s newsletter. Those who work in sport may see themselves very well in this sentence.
How many stories have you heard where it was the “hard working-not-so-talented” kid that made it to the pros while the “gifted” ones did not because they simply didn't put as much of the work into the craft?
You can take this to any field of choice; when in doubt, lean on discipline & grit to restore some of the lost confidence.
Also, a special mention to Seth Godin´s podcast and his rant around us being the CEO of our lives. The thought to remember:
What part of your work is adding value to the world?
Do you enjoy doing that part of your work?
Can you outsource all other parts?
Remember, you are the CEO of your life...be accountable to your own decisions.
5 ways the “Proof of Attendance Protocol” can be applied to the sports industry
By now, it should not be a surprise the trend behind the world of NFTs (whether you believe in it or not) and how the sports industry, along with others like art or music, has seen the possibilities of how it can be used to engage their corresponding communities widen dramatically.
As you may know, and put into very simple terms, an NFT is basically a digital asset of unique value that is backed by blockchain technology. In this post we will not explain the multiple use cases NFTs could have within the sport industry. From VIP access to unique events, proof of ownership of a given asset (such as personalized tickets to landmark sport events) or owning a digital design of a sneaker, the rabbit hole can really take us very deep…
We did however, want to explain how we understand the concept of “Proof of Attendance Protocol” and share with you 5 ideas of how your sport business could embrace it. Before going into detail though, check out this episode of “Crypto Business” which provides a detailed and simplified explanation of how businesses can embrace NFT technology, including Proof of Attendance.
What is “Proof of Attendance” and why is it relevant for sport businesses?
In the aforementioned episode, they explain that thanks to “the Proof of Attendance Protocol” (POAP) your business could develop a limited-time concept which could even have to be accessed through a secret / personalized password.
Let's run through some ideas and examples across several sectors in an effort to understand the concept a bit better.
How can Proof of Attendance be applied to the world of Sport?
Reward your fans for engaging with a given piece of content on social media with an exclusive experience at the end of the season. For instance, every time your star player performs amazingly well at a given game, you can post a video on Tik Tok and ask the first X number of fans to visit a landing page and introduce the secret word. This has several benefits:
Fans keep engaged with the content over the entire season.
You actually feed the Tik Tok algorithm and help your content become viral each time to reach new fans around the world.
Your team sponsors get increased exposure.
Then, at the end of the season, those fans with the highest level of engagement could get the opportunity to meet that player.
Let´s say you run a business that organizes a tournament of some sort (Padel, Golf, etc.). If you want obtain recurring sign ups to each tournament, rather than leaving it to chance, you could create a series of secret words that only attendees would learn and those who play each of the tournaments will receive a special product at the end of the season (or a masterclass, an opportunity to play special ProAm match, and so on).
One of the biggest issues for fashion businesses is generating recurring revenues from customers and maximizing LTV. What if your sports apparel brand designed a collection of exclusive items, put them on sale for a limited time, and rewarded the loyal customers with an awesome experience?
For instance, imagine if a brand like Nobull or Gymshark launched an exclusive collection of workout apparel (a pair of shoes, a t-shirt and some pants). For those who buy the entire collection, an awesome fitness workout could await with some of the influencers that collaborate with the brand…
There could also be a potential use case for those brands struggling to drive customers back to the gym. Let's say you are trying to reach a significant level of average capacity in one of your classes (Bike, Bodypump, Pilates, etc.). To foster attendance, you could leverage POAP by designing a landing page related to that activity, giving out the secret word at the end of each class which users would introduce on that landing page prior to going home. Then, you could reward the first X members who attend Y numbers of classes with a free membership for a certain number of months.
Or, if your sport business hosts a podcast or a webinar (some form of recurring event you organize to gather your community around it), you ultimately would want members to engage and attend those webinars with a relatively high frequency, right?
Well, once again, you could give out a secret word during each episode or webinar session, and ask members to introduce it on a secret page and after a certain number of events or episodes, they will get a special meeting with someone from your organization (an executive, a consultant, a player, etc.)
Now, you may be thinking that most of these actions could be done without using NFT technology (which to some extent, it is true); the benefit though is that the blockchain will ensure the uniqueness of each interaction.
In other words, you will prevent customers / fans from spreading the secret word around, maintain the sense of “exclusivity,” and ultimately you will make sure you do not lose control of whichever action you design.
If you think about it, and based on the examples given above, Proof of Attendance may be the next level of loyalty programs for any business out there. And, while we are not experts on the matter, we do find fascinating the potential that POAP can have in the world of sports.
Let us know if you found this topic interesting and, if so, we can bring you more ideas and detail in future editions.
The Wynter Games: Competing on Saturated Markets
If your sport brand is competing and (hopefully) looking to win in saturated markets, we recommend you take some time to review some of the videos from the latest edition of the Wynter Games, where several experts from the B2B industry share tips & tactics to help you design the strategy and tactics.
There are 8 short videos but, if you only have time for one, check out this session which discusses a framework to start identifying and beating out competitors.
A crash course on “blockchain & web 3 in sports”
How the Rugby League World Cup will use Blockchain Tech
The Halftime Snacks Podcast hosts the CEO & Founder of Nuarca-Labs and they cover how Blockchain technology can be used in sports. Particularly interesting is the use case around the Rugby League World Cup; it is all about engaging the fan and offering them exclusive events / promotions related to the tournament.
A look into how Socios envisions the future of the industry
Alexandre Dreyfus.(Socios´ CEO) visits the Stream Time podcast to discuss how they are scaling their business, the role of Tokens for sport properties or even, how they perceive the future of the industry.
How is the sports industry playing in web3?
This episode of Are You Not Entertained covers why, in general terms, the sport industry has not started in the web3 space on the right foot. It seems too many properties are focusing on “getting the check” although, for the moment, web3 really is about generating community, understanding the space, empowering people all over the world and playing the long game.
Also, sport properties are perhaps outsourcing too much of web3 related capabilities in an effort to generate short term “wins”, but, to succeed on the long term, perhaps they should consider making those skills an internal asset.
Learning from ESG best practices
World Rugby´s sustainability plan
Sports Pro Media interviews the Chief Executive of World Rugby and, besides discussing commercial and investment opportunities, they cover the state of the sport from the sustainability angle. In particular, we want to highlight:
The quest towards improving player safety
Their big efforts towards embracing the fight against climate change and how they plan to empower all stakeholders to do the same
Growing the women´s side of the sport
Redesigning your marketing game
Customer Marketing: Capturing demand from existing customers
It sometimes seems that the goal of marketing is the acquisition of new customers but, there is great business value in implementing a robust strategy around existing ones. Customer marketing may help drive greater revenue, LTV, and potentially, referrals.
This episode of Demand U by Metadata.io shares the why, the how and even metrics you can use to measure the performance of your customer success metrics.
The role of content marketing on SEO
The Search Engine Journal Show hosts an interesting episode around the state of the SEO industry from the angle of creating content for niche audiences. One of the sentences that summarizes it well is:
Write for the audience & optimize for the algorithm.
This means that you should focus on your audience, niche down and build expertise over time. That expertise will ultimately drive greater credibility and, as a result, better rankings.
Maximizing Lead Generation through marketing strategy
This episode of The Not For Lazy Marketers podcast discusses practical advice which you can implement on your marketing strategy to generate potential leads.
In essence the 3 pillars of marketing are “content,” “lead gen” and “nurture” while you can generate leads through organic, paid media or referrals. The key is identifying the combination that works better for your brand.
Re-thinking the role of the store
This episode of eMarketer´s podcast can be valuable for those of you with some form of retail location. It covers the role of the store in the marketing strategy, making special mentions to Vuori, Nike or even Blink Fitness...
SPSG´s Sport Sponsorship Barometer
The World Football Summit shares the main findings from SPSG´s latest sport sponsorship barometer. Pay special attention to the worldwide sport business trends section which include technology, investment, and sustainability (which is great to see).
A “Growth Marketing” masterclass
Are you looking to take your growth marketing strategy to the next level? Then you need to read this article from CXL where they share what you need to do so. You will learn the skills a marketer needs, how to tackle the different stages of the funnel, the metrics that matter and, best of all, examples & tactics which can give you ideas for your own sport brand.
Choosing the correct marketing technology stack
The team at CMI helps you arrive to a decision on the martech stack you need to implement by sharing advice from 13 experts on the topic. If your business is at that point of the journey, you might find some insights helpful.
The NCT framework for better goal setting
Reforge shares an alternative framework to the OKRs methodology based on Narrative, Commitment & Tasks (NCT) and explains the steps you need to take to implement it.
And that does it for The Ballketing Letter #73! Thank you if you made it to the end of the post and, if you have any feedback, please reach out.
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Keep safe.