With Mobile technology becoming one of the fastest growing industries, mobile marketing trends are expanding rapidly across all advertising avenues and amidst almost every brand category. It’s no surprise then that sports organizations, from professional teams to children’s leagues, are implementing a variety of mobile marketing strategies to communicate more intimately with consumers, maintaining high levels of interest among current fans and peeking the interests of new potential enthusiasts.

Professional basketball teams such as the Phoenix Suns and the Chicago Bulls, for example, have implemented mass texting campaigns to update fans on the latest scores, statistics, and other information about their organizations. Major league soccer teams, like the Chicago Fire, have also started utilizing SMS technology to engage with fans during games, sending out polls and surveys, announcing special ticket offers and text-to-win promotions, and for a variety of other creative marketing ploys. These teams have found tremendous success with mobile marketing techniques, allowing them to more closely track and analyze marketing ROI, understand their consumer base better, and offer the types of services and entertainment that will continue to draw large crowds. Communicating in such a personal way with sports buffs has proven to promote greater trust and loyalty between sports organizations and their fans.

Amateur leagues and children’s sports organizations are also finding mobile technology to be of great benefit in their communication efforts. Mass texting and voice broadcasting are efficient, simple, and affordable ways for these organizations to quickly message league participants, parents, or staff. Small sports leagues have used mobile marketing to blast participants about events, schedule changes, policy updates, league announcements, and emergency notifications.

Effective Uses of Mobile Marketing for Sports
The following ideas are just a few ways sports organizations are using mobile marketing successfully.

• Ticket Promotions
  Teams regularly run text marketing campaigns to augment ticket sales as well as to interest new fans to check out the action. For instance, a team may display an Opt-In text strategy in their arena brochures or throughout their TV ads: “Text ACTION to 313131 for a chance to win playoff tickets!” When fans respond, they essentially opt-in, which enables the organization to send these fans future offers and information. The more ticket contests and special events they promote, the more quickly their marketing list multiplies. Using text marketing effectively will not only increases ticket sales but also help league administrators understand which promotions, events, and other marketing techniques are actually working and which need to be thrown out.


• Scores & Stats
  Sports Teams use mobile marketing methods to mass broadcast up-to-the-minute scores and statistics to their expanding lists of opted-in fans. By offering such a convenient way to keep sports fans connected with their favorite teams, sports leagues are finding it easier to keep current customers coming back for more as well as to encourage them to commit to future purchasing initiatives. Scores and stats are fans’ chief markers of interest, which makes the delivery of that information to an audience a crucial feature for customer loyalty. Developing easy and fast ways of communicating with an entire fan base, via mobile technology, is becoming essential in building and maintaining sports brands.


• Schedules & Team Information
  By using mobile marketing, both large and small sports leagues can keep contacts well informed with the most up-to-date schedules, events, and announcements, which directly impacts ticket sales and general hype. Since mobile marketing is now the most efficient and cost-effective way of communicating, fans are consistently well informed of all schedule and team information and thus able to plan accordingly for viewing or attending events. This heightened communication system very clearly influences the development of a robust audience and revenue stream for sports organizations.

The Bottom Line
Mobile marketing has proven to be a highly efficient and affordable communication method for all varieties of sports organizations. Connecting with an entire fan base in one swoop, in an intimate and simple manner, allows sports organizations to maintain fan interest, compel future loyalists, and ultimately propel revenue through ticket sales, merchandising, and general buzz.