previous icon Back to blog
Jun 30, 2023
4 minutes read

How to boost fan engagement: Formula 1 Heineken Dutch Grand Prix use case

What makes sport so great is that it connects all kinds of people. On the other hand, knowing no two sports fans are alike makes it challenging for sports organisations to address different fan segments. The organisation behind the Formula 1 Heineken Dutch Grand Prix acknowledged this challenge and realised they needed to create individual experiences for fans at CM.com Circuit Zandvoort. With this ethos, they've built world-beating fan experiences for the first F1 event at Circuit Zandvoort in 35 years. But the team isn't finished. They're working to improve fan engagement year on year. Want to know more? Here we share five insider tips on how the Dutch Grand Prix built fan engagement before, during, and after the race.

Brechtje van Houtum
Brechtje van Houtum,
Content Marketer

5 tips on how to enhance fan engagement before, during, and after a sports event

1. Fan engagement goes beyond the event 

Did you notice the 'before, during, and after' in the title and introduction of this blog? Sports organisations need to recognise the importance of engaging with their fans year-round, even if the event is only held once a year, like the Dutch Grand Prix. If you want to build a meaningful relationship with your fans, you can't stop engaging with them at the end of the sports season. 

In times of clutter and information overload, being relevant for each fan is perhaps one of the biggest challenges in marketing. You can complete the puzzle only by targeting the right audience with a meaningful message.

Year-round communication might sound complicated, but it's easy with the right tools. Great marketing automation tooling makes connecting with your fans any time of the year a piece of cake.  

The key is to ensure your marketing is built around a Customer Data Platform (CDP) to store first-party fan data and create meaningful fan segments. These segments are the basis of your communication, ensuring every segment gets the right message at the right time. 

2. Take a holistic approach 

The yearly Dutch Grand Prix at CM.com Circuit Zandvoort is the focal point for fan engagement. The challenge is to get fans to see what lies beyond this experience. By taking a holistic approach, the Dutch Grand Prix takes its fans on the yearlong journey surrounding the event. Storytelling is a great way to do so. 

However, telling stories is just the start. The media and channels you use to tell your story and share it with your fans can make or break it. Use a good mix of channels to ensure your fans' favourite channels are available.

3. Know who your fans are 

As mentioned in the introduction, there's no more diverse group of people than a group of sports fans. Targeting everyone might result in reaching no one, hence the need to create different fan segments. To do so, you need to know who your fans are: from demographics, to purchase and behavioural data. 

At the heart of this data is your CDP. Here, the Dutch Grand Prix stored all its data to segment based on relevant metrics. Collecting data was simple, as the Dutch Grand Prix integrated its tools with its CDP.

4. Personalise communication 

As we mentioned earlier, a common communications adage is that speaking to everyone runs the risk of speaking to no one. That's why personalisation is of the utmost importance.

Collect all purchasing and behavioural data in a CDP to create fan profiles and build relevant segments based on them to send personalised communications to each cohort.

5. Reward your biggest fans 

All the fans' relevant touchpoints are stored in a CDP. This helps the Dutch Grand Prix identify its biggest fans. If you want to take engagement to the next level, rewarding your biggest fans is a logical next step. Personalised communication based on your fans' preferences rewards them with the best possible experience. However, there are many more ways to reward your fans' loyalty. 

Take the learnings from the Dutch Grand Prix for your sports event and spends some time thinking about how you can reward your most loyal fans. 

Enhance Your Fan Experience with CM.com 

Did you know that CM.com offers all these solutions? The Dutch Grand Prix combines Mobile Marketing Cloud and Appmiral's event app to engage with fans year-round. 

The heart of our Mobile Marketing Cloud is the CDP – the Dutch Grand Prix event app integrates directly with it to collect and give access to every piece of data the event holds. With these solutions, you can collect relevant data points as well as use the data to improve fan engagement.   

Our solutions are ready to perform above and beyond to accelerate sports events to the next gear! Curious to learn what we can do for your organization? Don’t hesitate to contact us!

Was this article interesting?
Share it!
Brechtje van Houtum
Brechtje van Houtum,
Content Marketer
logo linkedin icon

Whether it’s developing content strategies or creating social media content, Brechtje is eager to contribute. She spreads CM.com’s message far and wide, stays on top of cutting-edge tech developments, and champions a 'customer first' philosophy.

Related articles

puzzle cm.com
Sep 23, 2024 • CM.com

The puzzle comes together: from pieces to platform

CM.com started as an SMS provider, yet today, we offer an integrated customer engagement platform to drive meaningful business interactions. Over the past 25 years, we have been assembling this platform piece by piece, with each innovation, product and acquisition adding to the bigger picture. Let’s explore how these puzzle pieces have come together to build the CM.com of today.

amnesia
Sep 18, 2024 • Live

Building a superclub: behind-the-scenes at Amnesia

When you think of superclubs, you probably think of Amnesia. For five decades this Ibiza institution has set the beat for the island’s party scene and the global clubbing landscape as a whole – a mainstay on lists of the World’s Best Clubs and a bucket-list destination for clubbers the world over. Amnesia has always been a place of innovative thinking. Today, the club is a globally-recognised brand, having long ago embraced the possibilities of social media. Its ticketing is also ahead of the curve. Working with CM.com, Amnesia have developed an integrated, highly sophisticated solution that allows them to sell tickets, connect with fans all year round and retain ownership of their data through one platform. Where does this spirit of innovation come from? The answer lies in Amnesia’s history. It has got there by always moving forward. By seeking out new sounds and promoters, and by refining the in-club experience season after season. More recently, it has got there through investing in digital and working with CM.com to evolve its ticketing and fan engagement. Here, we take you inside Amnesia to understand how this family-run business became a global brand. From its counter-cultural roots through to its digital transformation over the last few years.

whatsapp-business-blog_image-deals-offers
Sep 16, 2024 • WhatsApp

Increase conversion with promotional messages on WhatsApp

In an age of mass marketing, it’s safe to say peak sales periods, especially Black Friday and the holiday season, can be overwhelming for consumers. Consumers receive irrelevant information from companies that doesn't match their personal needs and desires, so it's no surprise people might want to switch off and tune out all forms of marketing until the season is over. As an eCommerce player, you should always be looking to avoid this by diversifying and personalising your marketing strategy in a way that suits your customers' needs.

Jeroen-buitenland
Sep 09, 2024 • CM.com

Pushing boundaries: the path to global expansion

By 2010, CM.com knew it was time to expand beyond its roots. What began in nightclubs had grown into a broader client base across various industries. It was time to push boundaries—both literally and figuratively. Here’s the story of our international journey, filled with challenges, triumphs and lessons.

blog-25-years-diy-to-high-tech
Aug 05, 2024 • CM.com

How CM.com expanded from clubs into TV, banks and beyond

What started as ClubMessage — focused on SMS marketing for nightclubs — quickly evolved into an organisation capable of handling millions of messages. Within just five years, the company had not only built a vast reach among young people but also developed its own technology to manage high volumes of SMS traffic. This rapid growth saw CM.com become the Netherlands' largest SMS buyer, with its technology branching out into new sectors like television and banking. Let’s take a closer look at this journey.

blog-25-years-highstreet
Jul 08, 2024 • CM.com

Will you join me at Highstreet?

Picture this: you're leaving a bustling club, but all around you, people are tossing aside paper flyers meant to draw them back for the next big night. Jeroen and Gilbert watched countless flyers hit the floor, when they thought, "There’s got to be a better way!". Gilbert sent a simple text to Jeroen: "Will you join me at Highstreet?" That message changed everything.

engage-platform-effect-customer-service
May 13, 2024 • CM.com

Happy clients, happy agents: the platform effect in customer service

As a member of the customer service team, you stand on the frontline of customer interaction every day. In a world where customers demand quick and personalised service, long wait times, impersonal responses, or worse, incorrect answers, can quickly drive a customer away. Your goal, however, is to connect customers with your organisation and deliver the best answers and service possible.

live-blog-raptor-blog-featured-uk
Apr 26, 2024 • Live

How Jagermeister found their flow to throw immersive house parties for students

The rewards of running immersive events – those that are highly conceptual and bring the attendee behind the curtain – can be exciting. Attendees want to be a part of them, journalists want to write about them, and events teams can’t wait to get creative. But immersive events need to deliver an experience! And not just at the event itself. Because experience-hungry consumers demand that the immersion begins well before the day – with every touchpoint fuelling their anticipation and excitement for what’s to come. One misstep – a rogue SMS or confusing customer journey – and the whole thing falls down. One organiser that has successfully run the high-wire of immersive events is Raptor, a marketing agency who were tasked by Jagermeister to put on a series of multi-city parties for students. Here, we unpick the nuts and bolts of their strategy – and the smart automations that made it all flow seamlessly.

cashless
Mar 18, 2024 • Live

Introducing Box Office: the solution for on-the-door sales

We're excited to release our latest development for on-the-door ticket staff; a solution that enables sales before and during your event or club night. Powered by the CM.com Ticketing platform and enabled on a variety of hardware and operating systems, we help your staff connect online sales to offline sales, seamlessly. In this blog, we look at some of the key features of Box Office.

Is this region a better fit for you?
Go
close icon