While courtside tickets to an NBA game are on top of many people’s bucket list, what stalls them is whether the experience will be worth the price they are paying. Courtside tickets in the NBA are priced around $2000 and not many want to make that investment without a guarantee of getting what they paid for.
The Sacramento Kings have broken down that barrier by introducing virtual reality technology into their marketing system. The easiest way to explain the process is by referring to the try-before-you-buy process.
Oculus is a tech company that designs virtual reality technology, currently situating most of its business in the gaming industry. The Kings used the company’s Rift Headset to give potential courtside ticket-holders this life-like experience in an attempt to create the exact atmosphere they will experience when they attend a game.
The Rift’s technology combined with its low-latency constellation tracking system enables the sensation of presence – the feeling as though the person is actually there in the moment.
After three weeks of the marketing campaign the Kings were close to selling all 850 sideline club seats that are priced between $200 and $300. Selling the courtside seats will obviously be a challenge at such a high price, but Kings President, Chris Granger, told Sporting News that he is confident they can sell out the newly constructed Golden 1 Center in the coming weeks.
“It’s such a powerful way to tell a story,” Granger said. “They can literally do a walk-through of the courtside club and see the Tahoe- and Napa Valley-inspired thematic in the rooms. It gives people a great sense of comfort as to what they can expect. It makes the investment safe and easy for our fans.”
In terms of what potential buyers can actually see through the headsets, the total length of the arena animation goes for 16 minutes and features everything from crowd noise to signage inside the venue.
Kings executives told Sports Business Daily that the portability of the headsets was a key factor in using the new technology and are excited about the ability to bring the arena experience on the road to clients instead of having a traditional preview center where sales prospects have to make appointments.
“Imagine going to Silicon Valley and pitching a sponsorship rather than a showing slides.”
The technology was introduced to the Kings in 2014 and has since seen steady improvements in marketing and sales performance. It was originally utilized for the sole purpose of luring sales prospects into their new arena, however, now it seems the club will keep the headsets on board for years to come.
From a business perspective it makes the sales consultant’s job remarkably easier. Instead of spending hours slaving over a pitch that attempts to illustrate what the experience of sitting courtside in Sacramento’s new arena will feel like, they are able to focus on other issues. Every marketing executive will tell you that pitching an intangible experience is by far the hardest part of the job.
The ability to simply tell your prospects to sit back and enjoy the exact game-day experience that you are pitching will revolutionize the sports marketing industry.
While this technology was brought on board for the sole purpose of rebranding the franchise into a new arena, there is no reason why more clubs inside and outside the NBA can’t benefit from it.
There are people who have always wanted to experience what it’s like sitting courtside in the NBA. Well now there’s a way to minimize the doubt and take the experience for a test-drive.