Dr. Pepper Ballpark, Frisco, Texas | September 2016
Social Flash Media (SFM) engaged in a case study with the Frisco RoughRiders Minor League Baseball Team and it’s customers to evaluate the effectiveness of a SFM Free Range social photo system in a ball park setting. This 5 day case study was set to realize any benefit from an increase in overall branding, on-site engagement, Endorsement Based Marketing (EBM), as well as various co-sponsored campaigns.
The Challenge
Consumers are faced with many ways to spend their time and money for entertainment. The Frisco RoughRiders Minor League baseball team is one venue for such entertainment. The organization and their sponsors, including Dr. Pepper & Carnival Cruise Line, was interested in seeing if leveraging the goodwill and enthusiasm of the RoughRiders fans across social media could be done to increase brand awareness and ultimately convert that awareness to increased attendance.
The Solution
Social Flash Media (SFM) scheduled ever-changing campaigns that were managed remotely, removing the burden to the RoughRiders staff and management on the ground level. The staff did have to turn on the system each day and close it down each night, but only due to the outdoor location that is was placed to maximize visibility, per the management of the ballpark. The Free Range photo station allows patrons to take and share photos at their leisure and expand engagement via Facebook, Twitter, MMS/Text and email. The Sponsors of the RoughRiders baseball team will ultimately be the beneficiaries by adding an interactive and intimate touch point with the fans. Rotating promotions such as: upcoming baseball games, Carnival Cruise Lines travel specials, and continued brand awareness for Dr. Pepper are were made possible by leveraging each voluntarily shared photo experience, creating a viral loop by tapping into the patron’s social networks through the systems integration with Facebook, Twitter, Email and Text/SMS.
The Results
The system was an overwhelming success from a social media and website traffic standpoint. The total social media follow through was better than forecast, around 14% of all photos taken were shared directly to either Facebook or Twitter, compared to our across industry historical 10% average. The result from this social media exposure drove an impressive 1,216 clicks to the Rough Riders website season ticket page. Overall engagement was also quite impressive with every photo taken resulting in an additional 5 digital engagements with their brand and messaging.
The Engagement Statistics
“ total social media follow through was better than forecast, around 14% of all photos taken were shared directly to either Facebook or Twitter, compared to our across industry historical 10% average”
Conclusions
Raising brand awareness in the sports entertainment space is challenging. With a powerful Social Media Marketing platform connected to a Photo Kiosk that helped capture a striking amount of new content (300 photos taken each game) , the team was able to generate more than 9,000 digital engagements over the 5-game period including almost 3,000 Facebook Likes/Comments and over 1,200 visits to their website, https://www.RidersBaseball.com.
The overall engagement level in a campaign like this tends to be much higher than a paid advertising campaign but cost a fraction of the amount of money. Influencer Marketing is the key ingredient here. Happy patrons of the business share their Kiosk photos on their Social Media Network such as Facebook and Twitter. By sharing those photos with their personal social network, each photo gets shared to and viewed by many of their friends. On average, a Facebook user has 338 friends in their network. This is the first powerful element of Influencer Marketing – leveraging the hundreds of thousands of networked connections of happy customers. This creates tremendous brand awareness. The second and equally important leg of Influencer Marketing is the trust element. Members of a personal social network form a circle of trust. Increasingly consumers are relying on their circle of trusted friends for recommendations and relying less on company advertising. The Frisco RoughRiders turned their happy fans to their trusted brand ambassadors in the Social Media world. The digital “word of mouth” traveled fast and wide.
The cost of developing this level of brand awareness, brand recognition and trust through a Social Media advertising campaign would likely be 5X or more times the cost of the Social Flash Media solution.
