If you’re looking for ways to improve fan engagement in stadiums and arenas, there are many great places to start. Your events space needs to be able to not only get audiences in the door but keep them coming back for more. A surprising amount of fans will consider not attending events if they don’t like the venue it’s being held in.
Event spaces that refuse to digitize, rebrand, and rethink their future strategy will quickly be lost to the ones that do. So, here we look at 5 creative ways that you can improve fan engagement in these environments, helping to keep them coming back again and again without fail.
1) Use Digital Indoor Maps
Modern arenas and forward-thinking stadium owners are digitally mapping stadiums to create engaging fan experiences. Indoor mapping software can be synced with the smartphones of attending fans, helping them to find their seat and find the closest toilets, merch stand, or food and beverage area without problems.
Blue dot positioning can be used to make locating friends and family in the stadium easier, which is another plus.
As well as improving the user experience by helping foot traffic to flow more efficiently, you can also use this software to your advantage by branding your company on it and using the platform to advertise discounts, offers, and deals within the stadium. If you’ve got a sale on merch or food, make sure they know about it!
2) Upgrade the Stadium
Sometimes your event space is just tired and old.
If you can afford it, consider a large-scale upgrade of your arena or stadium. Fans appreciate things like comfier seats, more legroom, better toilets, and other things that improve the experience.
You may also want to improve your lighting and sound systems, making sure that the game or event is crystal clear and nice-sounding for all in attendance. There’s nothing worse than a poorly set up stadium.
Having a clean and state-of-the-art stadium is appealing to more audiences. They’ll remember their experience in your stadium as a good one. They’re also more likely to want to experience games in your arena if they’re comfortable in it. In addition, a modern venue is social media-worthy. Hence, your stadium gets more social media exposure as an indirect marketing method.
3) Use Alternative Media To Your Advantage
TV and radio are so old-fashioned nowadays. If you want to get the attention of people, you need to go digital and explore the realms of new media.
Look into streaming on Twitch, starting a YouTube channel, and engaging with fans on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Create unique and engaging content that gets fans excited about future shows and events while simultaneously raising your brand awareness and promoting your space as the go-to events space in the local area.
This could mean interviewing bands who are playing at the venue, speaking to sportspeople before and after their games, and other forms of commentary and discussion centered around the events that take place in your venue.
You can broaden your fan base with the help of digital content distribution services to grow your online presence and reach. Through digital media, you can get more sponsors and partners, including fans. Click here to learn more about improving your sports fan engagement with the help of a digital media distribution platform.
4) Diversify Your Food & Beverage Offerings
It’s the 2020s now, and if you’re not offering a diverse range of foods for different dietary needs, then you’re going to start annoying a lot of people who would otherwise fill your stadium.
The days of nothing but bad hot dogs and burgers are gone – look into healthy options, vegan and vegetarian options, and options for restrictions such as kosher and halal.
Why diversifying food and beverages a trend in these locations? Providing healthier food and beverage options makes more health-conscious people more enticed to come and watch stadium and arena events, like football or basketball games. They worry less about preparing and bringing their own nutritious meals because they are already available in the venue.
Give people more and more reasons to visit.
5) Provide Incentives & Discounts
If you’ve got fans who come to events sporadically, consider reeling them in with personalized discounts, offers, and sales.
Email marketing and the indoor mapping software we mentioned earlier are both perfect for this, tailor-making offers to the exact needs of the customer. This way, you can maximize the number of tickets you’re selling for every event.
Remember that the recent pandemic makes people more financially conscious nowadays. Hence, they want to get the best value for their hard-earned money. Watching live is fun and exciting, but some people may find it unnecessary and just an added cost because they can watch online. Therefore, providing incentives and discounts is very effective in encouraging more people to participate in stadium and arena events.
Whether you’re using indoor mapping or getting new food options, there are many ways to improve fan engagement at your stadium or arena.
