Campaign Summary

Basketball fans use their mobile phones to enjoy digital content but also to manage their relationships with their favorite teams. The Miami HEAT's marketing team wanted to use the mobile data it collected to better engage fans and deliver a more personalized experience. It also wanted to increase revenue opportunities by running more efficient operations and leveraging additional sponsorship opportunities on digital platforms. It created an app that gave fans a personalized experience.

Strategy

Objective and Context:

Research showed that Miami HEAT fans did not simply want a mobile app. They wanted a platform that offered a seamless experience, whether they were in the arena or at home. Most NBA team apps were not mobile-friendly and did not have content that was customized for mobile. This created an opportunity for the Miami HEAT to create a platform that would become the premier mobile experience of the league.

Additionally, the HEAT recognized that a digital platform could help the organization realize its business goals by creating a one-to-one connection with fans that was fueled by data and insights to deliver a better experience for app users all around the world.

Target Audience:

The target audience included all Miami HEAT fans, including both season-ticket holders and buyers of individual tickets. Since the fan base was diverse, marketers talked to fans to get a better understanding of their differences.

Creative Strategy:

The strategy was driven by several insights:

• Some fans are interested in statistics and other aren’t, so the app needed to speak to “fan types” differently.
• All HEAT fans regardless of their interests wanted information, including facts and figures, presented in a visually appealing way. 
• Every data point had value, so the platform would need to measure what fans did, where they did it, and what they purchased.  
• A great fan engagement platform complements and enhances the games.
• The app should be more than a second screen for the game, and should be worth checking every day, even in the offseason.
• The HEAT’s fans are located around the world.

The Miami HEAT wanted to ensure that three goals were met:

• Put the fan in the center of the experience by designing the app to speak in a personalized way to fans in different places with different interests.
• Leverage content by enabling fans to easily find, consume, and share different types of content.
• Ensure that the app would be part of a scalable platform capable of collecting key data and better guiding the HEAT organization as a whole.

Execution

Overall Campaign Execution:

In the app, fans could select their "fan type" to enjoy content curated specifically for them. For example, a fan who was interested in statistics could see detailed data, and a fan who wanted to see large, retweetable pictures would see them via his/her personalized "HEAT Stream." The app could also determine fans' locations and whether it was a game day to serve the right story at the right time.

Mobile Execution:

The HEAT wanted the app to have a strong graphic look to contrast the text-heavy, journalistic look of most other NBA apps. It used full-color backgrounds, bold type, and clean iconography. To serve custom content, the app used "fan types" that let fans self-identify as stat lovers, socially-focused fans, or somewhere in between. Paired with location data and the timing of the next game or season, the HEAT app reconfigured in real time to present the latest, most relevant content. This resulted in 27 different permutations of fan experiences based on 1) fan type, 2) location, and 3) game status. The HEAT Stream took all of these variables into account to give fans a living, breathing, customized connection to the Miami HEAT.

Results (including context, evaluation, and market impact)

The first season of the HEAT fan engagement platform saw numbers that exceeded the campaign's objectives. There were over 140,000 daily users during the season, creating more than 2.5 million user sessions and over 13.2 million screen views. These users spent an average 5:41 minutes per session, accessed 5.26 screens per session, watched over 120,000 videos, shared more than 29,000 pieces of content, and bought over 43,000 tickets.

Users of the app's mobile wallet spent 20 percent more money than fans who paid in cash. Additionally, with more ad placements, more sponsorship opportunities, and more exclusive content, the HEAT began making more mobile revenue than all of the other teams in the league combined.

The HEAT fan engagement platform was the first of its kind for the NBA and quickly became the standard for fan mobile experiences. Since its launch at the beginning of the 2015-16 season, the HEAT organization has met with 12 teams that were interested in partnering to leverage the platform.