The Memories in the Mascot
Team mascots play a pivotal role in shaping the game day atmosphere. Mascots serve as a bridge between the sport itself and the broader fan experience, offering interactive entertainment that captivates both children and adults alike.
Experience Valuation: Showing How Fan Enjoyment Drives Revenue
The emphasis on experience is at an all-time high, with millennials and now older generations putting their dollars and time into what they see as valuable experience investments rather than product purchases. Fans spend more at games when they have an exceptional experience, yet often the experience details are an after thought to selling a ticket. The traditional mindset of sports teams just selling a ticket or sponsor package in a marketing campaign is a thing of the past, and teams who fail to invest in the entertainment and overall experience are leaving tens of thousands of dollars, or more, on the table.
Identify Your Why & Purposefully Looking Ahead
The first step to establishing your your purpose is to identify your mission and vision-in life and business. Companies do this regularly and post it on their website. Brands are built around this guiding principle. Your personal brand is no different.
Designing an Inclusive & Inviting Event Experience
Though organizations follow ADA guidelines and comply with requirements, they can fall short of creating a truly inviting and inclusive experience for guests with differences, leaving a subset feeling left out from the full experience. Guests attend live events to be entertained and forget about what is waiting in “real life”. As a business, it is important to look at not just policies, but also corporate tendencies to understand if they have truly set the stage for an inclusive environment, or if they are merely doing the minimum of what is legally required. Thinking beyond the needs of the dominant group and designing events that engage all guests, no matter their gender, ability, age, religion, or beliefs is what differentiates inclusive events from all others.
Balancing Sponsorship Content with Entertainment Value.
We hear a lot that games are overrun by sold sponsor obligations and don’t leave enough time to prioritize the fan entertainment. During this down time, set meetings with sponsorship departments to understand their objectives and share yours. In general, we recommend the guidelines below to allow enough flexibility to call a show that gives your team the home advantage and keep entertainment quality high.
Preparing to Welcome Your Fans Back post-Pandemic
With all that has happened, it is likely that fans will be wary of crowds for the foreseeable future. They will likely be guarded and nervous if they feel germs are being spread. The medical industry will undoubtedly have their advice, which should absolutely be followed by businesses, but we know that human emotions are a real part in all of this as well. People will be especially anxious in the wake of COVID-19, so providing amenities to both keep clean, but also assuage fears, will make your event stand out above the rest. Having supplies and procedures in place to make them feel comfortable and clean will pay long-term dividends in getting them back in the seats faster.
Understanding & Preparing for Fans' Needs Post-COVID-19
What you think your fans care about and what they actually do is often not the same thing. In addition to using your Evolved Scorecard data, we recommend using this time to conduct targeted research on what your fans prefer and what they are anxious about given the situation. Evolved has developed a standardized tool to help you get this information so you can understand how to prioritize resources heading back into the season to strengthen and enhance your event experience.
Preparing for the Fans’ Return: Five Strategic Priorities
For teams especially, having the season screech to a halt can create feelings of loss and lack of direction. While we don’t have an exact date of when events will resume, what we do know is that our fans will return to our buildings and we need to be prepared to put on an exceptional experience. And as the adage says, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” and with that, their expectations will have grown. Using this time to enhance your experience will position you to exceed expectations when events resume.
A Roadmap to Working Remotely.
Evolved Experience Solutions, Inc. is proud to be a fully virtual team and has been since its inception. While we do miss the day-to-day opportunities to connect in person, we’ve found it is great for our team and allows Evolved to best serve and support our partners across the continent by having staff based in regional markets.
Gaining organizational buy-in.
New programs of any kind are most successful when there is a clear, actionable plan for build-out and implementation. This plan requires understanding the key stake-holders and accurately interpreting their willingness or resistance to not just adopting, but embracing your new initiatives. Establishing strong relationships with key stake-holders and gaining buy-in early on is essential for advancing the program. This tool will walk you and your team through a discussion on what should be considered and how to overcome roadblocks to build a long-term plan for building your promoter alliance.
Identifying your company's core focus.
Establishing your mission and vision are critical first steps to implementing a strong, sustainable strategic approach. Clarify and communicate out your company's North Star will enable the team to focus on top priorities and achieve goals more efficiently.