Without fans — their attention, their reactions, and their support — the stories we tell, the games we play, and the events we enjoy don’t fully come to life. Media and entertainment brands know the power of personal stories and human connection, but not all have nailed down the art of creating dynamic, hyper-personalized fan and audience experiences.
Powering personalized experiences in real time at the scale of millions takes a special MVP on your team — data. If you can capture zero and first-party data, you can use it to attract and hold the attention of your fans with next-gen experiences that turn every engagement into entertainment.
“Personal” means different things to different people
Experiences mean more to people than products do, which is why fans are always looking to capitalize on the best experience possible. Experience expectations are different for everyone. Someone viewing the big game from home is likely to have different priorities than someone sitting in the scout seats behind home plate. When creating head-turning experiences for fans, it helps to prepare for these expectations in advance.
Meeting fan expectations typically falls into one of four categories:
- Keep them close to the action. Make fans feel like they’re part of the action from wherever they’re participating — in person or at home.
- Give them a frictionless experience. Whether it’s parking and entering the venue with ease or streaming an upcoming game, it’s important to connect with fans in hassle-free and engaging ways.
- Extend the Excitement. Get the community conversation going early to build anticipation and help fans relive the memories.
- Make every fan feel like a VIP. Drive loyalty by delivering exceptional and tailored end-to-end experiences from pre-event through post-event communications.
Fan-worthy experiences are driven by meaningful data
The more you know about your fans, the more you can cater the experience to their unique preferences using data as your guide. As we move toward a cookieless future, the hold companies have on some data is in jeopardy. It will no longer be possible to gather insights into fan behavior and preferences by collecting passive, third-party data. To keep your finger on the pulse of your fandom, you’ll need to make the switch to a first- and zero-party data strategy.
The good news is fans will willingly give you their information if it means they get a more valuable, personalized experience.
Your go-to data sources
First-party data is collected directly from customers and includes demographic information, purchase history, website activity, transaction history, email engagement, feedback, interests, and behavior. It can be captured passively on your owned channels.
SkyUK, a leading UK-based telecommunications and digital entertainment brand, is taking full advantage of first-party data. With Adobe’s help, SkyUK uses data and AI to collect information about customers’ habits, such as their favorite television programming and who in the household is watching certain genres, to provide conversation starters for customer service representatives. Marketers have a better understanding of the customer at the outset and can spend more time on customer concerns and offering relevant services.
Zero-party data is a component of first-party data that accounts for the information a customer proactively shares — such as preferences and specific interests like a favorite team, player, who they like to watch the game with, and more.
