CASE STUDY: CAPTURING & ENGAGING AN UNKNOWN FAN BASE

THE COBBLERS CRM VISION

Northampton Town play in the English Football League 2, with a capacity at
their Sixfields Stadium of 7,653. The club has a clear vision of commercial
success, which has been supported by Green 4 and 4Sight Sport.

CUSTOMER PROFILE

In 2012 the Cobblers saw that to implement an advanced CRM and fan
engagement strategy is not merely for the dizzy heights of the Premier
League and, in fact, results at the lower level of the game could be achieved
with immediate effect.

Client: Northampton Town Football Club

Country: UK, Football League 2

Stadium: Sixfields Stadium

Capacity: 7,653

The club aimed to implement cutting edge technology as well as focusing

their sights on an advanced CRM and engagement strategy. A core focus for
2013 was to capture fan data that would then allow them to analyse trends,
improve the experience and put them in a position to achieve sustainable
success.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Joined up technology in place

Ticketing, CRM & Marketing Communications

Selling tickets online

CRM culture - educating & training staff

Implement business strategy to support

systems & vision

EARLY SUCCESS MEASURES

LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS

Database Growth

Overall increase of 20%

Email addresses growth by 126%
Mobile numbers up 212%
Birth date up 38%

The ability to sell tickets online was imperative and an early shift in fan
behaviour has seen one in five fans now opting to buy online; lightening the
load on the ticket office operations. With incentives being put in place the
number of online sales is continuing to rise each month.

1 in 5 fans now buy online

80,000 generated in two weeks through CRM

strategy to drive early season ticket sales

As the club begin to introduce further products to the online offering,

including season tickets, this percentage is certain to increase even further.
We set ourselves some big goals at Sixfields and are delighted with our
achievements so far, even within a short space of time said Financial
Controller, James Whiting.
We knew we had to put the right systems, people and new process in place
at an early stage. Now this has been achieved we are working with 4Sight to
improve our strategy and the way we communicate with our fans.
Our primary focus so far has been to improve the way we capture data, this
is critical to everything that follows.

Green 4 Solutions Limited & 4SIGHT SPORT 2013 |+44 845 508 8149| www.4sight-sport.com |www.green4solutions.com

FIRST STEPS FOR SUCCESS

Northampton Town turned to 4Sight to help build and deliver a strategy that
would unlock the potential of the clubs systems.
The first steps have included gaining insight from existing data, before putting
a strategy together that met the goals of the club. Training and education of
staff has been key to underpinning the success.
4Sight then introduced data capture initiatives including above the line
campaigns, outbound communication to fans and maximising the opportunity
that was presented through a play-off final. Triggered emails have been set up
for occasions such as birthdays and further engagement with fans has been
established through a number of targeted and timely e-communications
delivered each week.
In order to support the accelerated marketing activity, 4Sight and Northampton
Town completed a data cleansing project and introduced outbound telesales
campaigns to maximise sales for key campaigns; such as season tickets and
corporate sales.

REFINED PROCESSES

Staff Training

Focus on importance of data & service

Data cleansing & enhancement

Cleanse process on data

Above the line data capture campaigns
Outbound communication includes data
drive
Maximised data capture opportunity of
play-off final

Communications

Automated e-communications including

birthday campaigns
Targeted marketing to different profile
groups
Outbound telesales engages with key
fan groups

We set ourselves some big goals at

Sixfields and are delighted with our
achievements so far, even within a short
space of time.
James Whiting, Financial Controller

ENCOURAGING SHORT TERM RESULTS FOR

SUSTAINABLE SUCCESS
Within a matter of months, early success indicators have been posted. The
objective of collecting more data has been achieved, but the foot should not
be taken off the gas. An overall database growth of 20% has been achieved
and has been followed up by a data cleanse and de-duplication process to
ensure high quality of data. With data collection of existing fans for improved
communication being the main priority; email address and mobile phone
number have been the focus, which have improved by a staggering 126%
and 212% respectively.
Birth date continues to be a crucial piece of information, not only a driver
for pricing, but key to ensuring the message is right for each target audience.
This allows the Cobblers to execute more engaging and timely marketing,
such as a successful birthdays campaign. The amount of birth date data
collected has risen by 38% which supports this strategy.
After an initial period of sales activity for 2013/14 season tickets, an
accelerated CRM and communications strategy kicked in to ensure early
sales of season tickets could be achieved. This led to 80,000 revenue over a
two week period.

Green 4 Solutions Limited & 4SIGHT SPORT 2013 |+44 845 508 8149| www.4sight-sport.com |www.green4solutions.com