Andre Drummond may very well be one of the most exciting players in the NBA this season, but basketball has always been a team game. The 30 franchises that make up the league have generated a revenue pie in excess of $5 billion. The digital age has enabled this game to reach its worldwide audience anywhere, anytime. Teams can build up their own local fan base through the sundry of platforms available.
Much like our #NFLTechSeries, this time SportTechie delves into the digital strategies–from web, social media, mobile apps, and any other technological connection–of each team and analyzes them, including insights from some of the digital executives involved. Today, the #NBADigitalSeries 2013-14 continues with the Detroit Pistons. Stay tuned to SportTechie this month for ongoing coverage of the #NBADigitalSeries.
Few markets are as challenged as those working in Detroit, no matter the trade of choice. The fans have been hit just as hard over recent years of recession as the businesses that employ them, emphasizing the importance of marketing wins, as well as the pain of marketing losses. In a town owning historic franchises in all four of the major leagues (where the world is a bit flipped with the Red Wings – the NHL reps – ruling the scene), its been a rough road to maintain relevance for the Pistons, and numbers suggest they are swinging… but struggling.
Tom Gores bought the team in 2011 for $325 million and immediately started investing in fan-based improvements, spending $10 million to renovate the locker rooms, court and lighting at the Palace of Auburn Hills. In 2012 Gores spent another $15 million to remodel luxury suites, build a new lounge and improve tech connectivity throughout the Palace (for fans and staff).
Due to the financial limitations not only of the team but also the community, Gores has wisely focused on improvement over expansion. The lounge came at the expense of several luxury suites, choosing to give that real estate to all fans rather than pushing expensive suites that often went unsold. The team is headed in the right direction but the challenge persists.
According to Forbes, the Pistons rank 22nd in the NBA Team Valuations. After attendance numbers ranked among the lowest in the league over several seasons, the Pistons looked for a boost via temptation on the floor, investing in free agency with new deals for Brandon Jennings and Josh Smith with hopes their chemistry with potential stars Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond will quickly formulate into a playoff contender fans will pay to see.
The Pistons are also leveraging the tech advances provided by ownership to improve the fan experience and get people excited about coming in the door via two platforms: social media and the tech-connected arena. Mike Donnay, Digital Marketing Director for the Pistons at Palace Sports and Entertainment, is leading the effort to improve engagement not only as an interaction between the organization and the fan, but also between the players and the fans.
“We are constantly looking for opportunities to bring our fans closer to our players with social media,” says Donnay. “For example, after this year’s draft press conference we had Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Tony Mitchell and Peyton Siva do a live Q&A with our fans on Twitter. We have also used our players on social to break news, such as Greg Monroe tweeting the new Motor City pride jersey before we pushed to the national and local media. Our players have really embraced social and the ability to instantly engage with fans whether it’s a simple RT or follow (the modern day autograph). Andre Drummond is one of the more active and popular players on Instagram and Twitter, so we use his content and personality to attract fans.”
The Pistons work in a league loaded with teams and sponsors leveraging social for progressive marketing, but their dedication to a new way of discovery – seeking and building an inclusive network of of any and all who come to contribute, via both software and hardware – is unique. More and more, teams are putting tech into action, but teams in need of immediate return have embraced that potential, encouraged experimentation (some good, some not so good) and progressed it forward. “Technology plays an increasingly important role in engaging with our fans during events,” according to Donnay. “This season we were one of a few teams to install dedicated Twitter boards in our arena so fans could join the conversation around the game live in the arena and see their tweets on the big screen.”
However, while its easy to see the Pistons’ dedication to tech for the fans, it may be the advances Donnay’s team have made in pursuit of that tangible return that proves worthy of true applause for innovation. The Pistons have worked to put analytics behind the effort, not only to judge the value of experimentation but also to improve efficiency in turning a successful experiment into initiative.
Donnay shares:
“We have a number of key performance indicators that we use to measure our social engagement but the most important would be engagement per post. We have created a custom dashboard where we segment the type of post i.e. photo, video, game day, post-game win, post-game loss, etc and measure reach, engagement, time of day, etc. so we can optimize the message and time we post our content. We have also partnered with Radian6 to measure our volume and sentiment as well as identify trending topics which we are then able to feed to our sales and marketing teams to further develop campaigns. We’re also strategizing more content we can produce during games to show people the full experience at home games as well as looking at the possibility of producing infographics and other ways to tell a game story other than a video or text recap.”
All of this effort is brought together by another tech-focused project of passion for the Pistons: the team’s official mobile app. Recognizing the massive distribution potential of the mobile market and the growing access their fans are enjoying to mobile tech, the Pistons put a focused dedication towards the design and construction of an exclusive mobile app capable of giving fans a world of power to connect, whether they are at the Palace or not.
We first learned of innovations coming from the Pistons in the headlines surrounding the launch of before the season began with team PR sharing innovations such as video integrations, social media and interactive events during games. Donnay elaborates, “We also launched our official mobile app so displaced fans could instantly connect with us and follow the action. We also have an ‘action guide’ game program that, in addition to the team roster and player info, has interactive ways through texting and Tweeting to win prizes all game long. This season we are excited to introduce free arena Wi-Fi which will allow us to provide even more exclusive content to our fans.”
In the short time since our talk with Donnay, the team has also announced a partnership with Pogoseat, a seat exchange application allowing users to identify opportunities to change their location during the event. The Nets, Kings and Pistons are the first official NBA teams joining the league in Pogoseat mobile integration via the team app, and Donnay’s growing resume of tricks has us wondering how they’ll innovate their mobile platform next.
To top it all off, the Pistons just announced their leap into a new tech project, installing microchip technology into official team jackets that will be distributed to next year’s season ticket holders. Those jackets will allow the Pistons’ most loyal fans (at least by financial metric) to receive discounts on items all over the Palace, with capabilities to expand into a new and growing world of geo-based tech applications.
Its fair to say, in review of that list of tech upgrades, the Pistons are dedicated to an effort to identify and implement solutions that evolve with the times and the community they serve, and their focus on measuring success off the floor is every bit as focused as their effort to pursue wins on. While the work to improve play on the floor may require more patience, they are competing for the playoffs, a goal they’ve yet to achieve for Gores. If the tech team serves as any indication, they’re should be reason for enthusiasm.