SEG3 2023 - Key Takeaways

InCrowd's Joshua Holland-Bedson and Ben Hayward attended the SEG3 event on the 28th and 29th June, at the iconic Emirates Stadium. Two days of incredible insight into the roles of new technology in creating valuable digital experiences. Josh and Ben sat down with Helen Nicholls to discuss key takeaways from the event; what's "hot" and what's "not", what the future looks like in this space and importantly how we can utilise new tech effectively for sports audiences.

Key takeaways:

• Community sits at the heart of great fan engagement piece. The network effect cannot be understated and should be fully embraced to propagate marketing campaigns and digital platforms, by: Building communities; empowering individuals to forge their own experience; leveraging social media platforms and chat applications to drive the conversation.
• Community presents itself at different levels, from friends watching sports around a TV at home, to swathes of fans cheering for their team in a stadium. Use of technology must enhance these social experiences as opposed to abstracting-away from them, and this should influence which technologies we use in any given scenario. This was evident in the use of Augmented Reality to enhance the at home / in-stadia experience throughbring additional stats; data and views.
• Emerging fan engagement enabling technologies allow rights-holders and brands to connect with fans on a more personal level, by harnessing the essence of fandom: emotion, community, and loyalty.
• The digital space allows us to engage fans beyond traditional matchday focused campaigns, enabling continuous contact points with fans even in the off-season.
• While many WEB3 technologies are still in their infancy, it's important to build effective user journeys using appropriate technologies to ensure that engagement experiences are made accessible to all fans, as this empowers communities to grow and creates a feedback loop of engagement.
• Every fan is different, but gamification and fan engagement technology gives us the tools to create unique experiences for each individual, bringing them closer to the action and celebrating their personal achievements. Hyper-personalisation helps sports bodies to focus-in on who their fans are and understand them better than ever before.
• The most successful use-cases resulted from using new and emerging technologies in applications which provided added utility to fans, solving real problems instead of using them as a off, before potentially losing interest.

Making it work for sports audiences:

Gamification and emerging WEB3 technologies present a new and incredibly exiting layer of engagement opportunities on top of sports.

Although the barrier to entry is high for some WEB3 technologies, other industries (including the digital fitness and gaming spaces) have demonstrated with great success that mainstream technologies can be used to great effect to deliver equally, if not more, engaging experiences right now.

As it stands, the sports industry is somewhat at the start line but by embracing new technology and applying them in a way that works for sports audience and doesn't just "tick the technological innovation box", we can bring fans closer to the action; build valuable communities; help fans feel rewarded and valued; and open up the excitement & passion of fandom to fans of all walks of life, irrespective of their individual circumstances or ability to attend.

By enabling all-new digital inventory for rights-holders and brands, and by building upon the habits, emotions and communities which sit at the core of sports fandom, these technologies are set to revolutionise the digital sports experience for fans around the world.

Furthermore, the benefits don't stop with the fan; there is a wealth of untapped commercial benefits for any club, league or rights-holder who wants to maximise on this opportunity to create added value. The ability to reach new audiences domestically and internationally through connection and the capture of first party data brings the ability to incentivise new habit-forming behaviours among fans including membership/ticket purchases, and educating & encouraging fans to engage with other teams beyond the first-team. There is also the opportunity to create significant new revenue streams for brand partners and sponsors across the array of brand new, high traffic and high engagement digital inventory.

Want to discuss this further with InCrowd's experts? Get in touch via [email protected] in order to set up a no obligation, 30 minute chat.