September 21, 2011 | Volume 10, Issue 9

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Dear Faithful Readers,

In an ideal world, sports facilities would be spread out having their own distinct market, eliminating competition between surrounding sport teams. And while we are at it, wouldn’t it be great for every team to have continuous success on the court to build fans’ desire to purchase tickets. Unfortunately, this isn’t an ideal world...the reality is that many sports teams struggle on the field, which affects their ability to attract fans, especially with competing franchises and facilities that are in their backyard. This is why I was drawn to what the Minnesota Timberwolves are doing to generate more season ticket holders. Their work with Full House Marketing has allowed the Timberwolves to pinpoint the exact prospects they are looking for and host them in person to demonstrate the unique business opportunities each has with the team. Take a look at the article and see if personalized direct email would be a fit for your organization.

Enjoy the Feature,

Joe Shapero
[email protected]

P.S. Love the feature? Hate it? Wish we covered a great idea or program your organization is doing? Email me with your idea or any and all of your comments from this week's issue and we will include them anonymously on our NSF LinkedIn Discussion Board!

Timberwolves Beat The Odds With Direct Email Campaign to "Decision Makers"

Timberwolves look to Full House Entertainment to increase traffic during a challenging time.

CONTACT

Advertisement

Britt Alisse Carlson
Director, Premium Seating
Minnesota Timberwolves
Phone: (612) 673-8366
Email: [email protected]

Ron Contorno
President
Full House Entertainment
Phone: (866) 280-0637
Email: [email protected]

ORGANIZATION

Minnesota Timberwolves

PROGRAM TITLE

"Business & Basketball"

OBJECTIVES

It's a challenging circumstance when your team is in a geographical area that is also home to multiple other sports entities. When you add that your team is playing in an older arena and has been dubbed a "losing team," you can pretty much assume you're struggling to stay afloat. This is precisely the situation the Minnesota Timberwolves were facing at the beginning of 2011. "Entering the second half of our NBA season, we were finding it difficult to get meetings with quality prospects as people had preconceived ideas about our product that were hard to break through over the phone," Britt Carlson, Director of Premium Seating for the Minnesota Timberwolves, explained, "Competing for corporate dollars is a challenge and it's hard to get new prospects to come to a game when the team is rebuilding." Knowing something needed to change, the team set out to create a personalized campaign that would allow them to get their prospects into the stadium so they could give a face-to-face sales pitch.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

To get the "right" people in person, the Timberwolves partnered with Full House Marketing, a firm that helps sports, entertainment, and amusement organizations by providing targeted sales leads for direct marketing campaigns.

The partnership led to the personalized email campaign, "Business & Basketball" which targeted decision makers within 50 miles of the Target Center and included corporate headquarters, attorneys, doctors, and company contacts with the title of Owner, President, CEO, COO, Partner, Chairman, or Executive Director. In addition to the pre-mentioned titles, the prospect’s company was required to have over $1 million in sales or over 50 employees. "Business email is an excellent way to get qualified business owners, executives and professionals to your special event. Having an opportunity to meet your prospects face-to-face, show off your available inventory and educate them on client entertainment is crucial," said Ron Contorno, President of Full House Marketing.

The email blast, sent on January 18th, 2011 for a January 26th event, appeared to be sent from the Minnesota Timberwolves with a subject line of "VIP Event Invitation for (Contact or Company Name merged)". The exclusive event included a pre-game "Business & Basketball" discussion with both Team President - Chris Wright, and Team President of Basketball Operations - David Kahn, access to four suites with complimentary food and beverages, as well as the opportunity to network with other attendees during the game. "An invitation to simply attend a game wasn't generating a significant response from high level executives, so we used a networking angle and the opportunity to hear behind the scenes information from our team Presidents," Carlson stated. Keeping in mind the importance of networking, the Timberwolves also offered a complete contact list to account for the inability to mingle with every attendee at the game.

Attendees enjoy the networking aspect of the "Business & Basketball"
event over complimentary gourmet food and drinks.

MEDIA

The only media used to promote "Business & Basketball" were the targeted email invitations sent to business owners, professionals and executives by Full House.

PARTNERS

The Timberwolves partnered with Full House Marketing to make the "Business & Basketball" event a success. Full House segmented the potential prospects, coordinated the email transmission as well as provided the team with the list of decision makers for phone follow-up.

RESULTS

The Timberwolves sent out 4,584 invitations for the January 26th "Business & Basketball" event. They received 134 RSVPs with 119 actually attending. "Business & Basketball" generated $27,000 for the Timberwolves with a proposed revenue of $201,000 for the 2011-12 season. Total investment for email marketing and hosting the event was less than $2,500. "We had a bigger ROI on this event than any other event. If the Timberwolves can succeed with events like this, given our current situation, than any other team can as well," believes Carlson.

The personalized "Business & Basketball" email sent to local decision makers. For a better view, click here.

LOOKING AHEAD

Due to the large success of "Business & Basketball", the Timberwolves held the second "Business & Basketball" event on March 1, 2011. The team will continue to hold these events and will look into bringing on sponsors in the future.

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