The tweet went viral.

A professional football player had read about a long-term supporter of the club’s work injury and how that had prevented him from attending the game when the team won promotion.

Having carefully planned the moment, he simply turned up and knocked on the door (accompanied by a club colleague so the moment could be captured).

When the supporter hobbled up and opened it, there was no need for the player to introduce himself.  The fan’s face said it all. 

The thread had captured the attention of a 10 year old living in the same city. Jack enjoyed watching football on TV but had never attended a game.

Until he showed his parents that tweet, they’d showed little interest but, upon seeing ‘that moment’, the boy could see an opportunity opening up in his mother’s expression. 

‘Can I go to a game please, Mum?’

Mark Bradley

@fanexperienceco

Mark founded the Fan Experience Company in 2005 to build attendance growth and community engagement on the basis of improving fan experiences. He recently created FC Barcelona’s Barça Innovation Hub’s first fan engagement study certificate. The Fan Experience Company has undertaken more than 3,500 fan experience assessments in many countries for clients as diverse as The Danish Superliga, The EFL, The WSL / WC, United Rugby and Premiership Rugby.

Geoff Wilson

@fanexperienceco

Geoff runs his own Sports Consultancy, working with clients such as FIFA, UEFA, AFC and FIBA across the world. He is also on the board of Tourism Northern Ireland. You can follow Geoff on twitter @geoffwnjwilson connect on Linkedin at linkedin.com/in/geoffwnjwilson

Darren Young

@fanexperienceco

Darren joined the Fan Experience Company in 2017. He has an MBA with a background in customer service excellence having worked as a consultant in that field for a number of years. As well as being responsible for all of the assessment summary reports that are produced each season, he has also worked with a number of clubs on an individual basis, including Lincoln City, Walsall, Grimsby Town, Nottingham Forest and OH Leuven on projects ranging from staff development to supporter feedback surveys.

Checking the club’s website for fixtures, the parents’ attention was drawn to the First Time Fan section. In it, they found lots of evidence that this was, indeed, a family club. There was a welcome, setting out the club’s commitment to families attending their first game and promising much more than a match.  The club set out its values (with lots of evidence) and featured testimonials from fans, including a family that spoke about how much they loved coming to games.

There was a schedule of what typically happens on a match day. It included details of where and when you could meet the players for an autograph or selfie and also a timed schedule of the club’s two mascots and their activities on a match day.  The kids’ activity zone looked great and, from the parents’ perspective, the availability of ‘easy to spot’ match day hosts meant that they’d be looked after.  They would feel ‘part of things’ and wouldn’t stand out.

There was even a video of the experience, narrated by one of the club’s legendary ex-players. For the parents, that sealed the deal. The link to the ticketing section meant that they could find the family section, easily buy tickets via their smartphone and receive instant confirmation, along with a link to the guide and an opportunity for the 10 year old to receive a ‘first time fan’ certificate (that was enthusiastically embraced).

The club’s mascots had their own social media accounts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Here, not only did they communicate about the match day and what there was for kids, but they also provided great entertainment throughout the week. There was a quiz and an opportunity for kids to submit a match report and see it appear in the club’s official digital match day programme.

More widely on Twitter, Mum noticed that the club did much more than just ‘put out’ information. There was an evident on-going conversation about the club’s new stadium development plans, with the current focus on what fans would like by way of refreshments. And indeed, in the week before the game, the club’s social media built anticipation for the match to an infinitesimal level of detail (even including priced menus for both the external fan zone and the concourse refreshments service). She’d imagined it would just be pies, burgers and beer, so was stunned at the choice in the fan zone, the club mascot-branded kids box (a healthy selection of snacks) and the environmentally-friendly packaging.

At this particular game there was going to be a Dinosaur Experience provided pre-match in the club’s community building.  Jack was keen on dinosaurs. Mum would later find it difficult to come into the stadium, until she reminded him that he was going to be presented with his first time fan certificate at half time on the pitch.

Inside the stadium, Dad discovered just why downloading the club’s app was such a good idea. It not only showed the locations of the various in-stadia facilities but also updated fans on which refreshments kiosks had the shortest queues.

During the match day, the club’s social media featured fans enjoying the match day. It asked fans to share content and say what they enjoyed most about the day. Later, as the family made their way to the nearest metro stop and home, the club reminded everyone to make sure they used the club’s feedback services to let them know how their day had gone.

Sure enough, a post-match email landed in Mum’s inbox later that evening, just as the family had gathered round the lap top to see a video of Jack receiving his certificate from the very player (currently not fit to play) whose kindness had set this virtual cycle in motion.

Jack and his parents attend regularly now and the club’s digital communications team deserve a great deal of credit for the role they played.  The family’s initial interest may have been piqued by seeing that player’s kindness on that viral clip but they would not have attended their first game without the reassurance, support, information and sense of anticipation offered digitally.

With more than 300 fan experience assessments undertaken this season, we’re increasingly seeing the opportunity for a focused ‘new fan’ digital engagement strategy to drive engagement, recruitment and retention. The fact is that, while every single instance of innovation described in this short blog has been witnessed by at least one of our assessors at a game in this past season, we seldom see many of them at the same event – and what an opportunity that represents for the forward-thinking organisation.

We are experts in fan experience.  Let us help you build a world class game day or sports event.

If you’d like help with this or other game day touch points, then make sure to listen in to The Fan Experience Experience podcast (on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and via Buzzsprout); to visit www.fanexperienceco.com or to email us via [email protected].

Mark Bradley, Geoff Wilson and Darren Young assessed the fan experience at eight matches at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Click here to read more about what they found there.