With the sports industry consuming the highest level of content ever, channels to engage with fans are changing dramatically. Our Chief Strategy Officer, Patricia Peiró Hergueta, was pleased to be a guest speaker on the World Football Summit (WFS) podcast, where she shared relevant insights about engaging and monetizing mobile audiences.

So, have you ever wondered what it is like to support sports properties implementing mobile-related projects that have the potential to increase revenues significantly? If so, we invite you to continue reading and check out some of the takeaways from that amazing conversation. Enjoy!

1. The mindset of clubs has changed, and now they are looking at the mobile side as an important part of their strategy beyond tv, smart tv, etc. This means that the gap between fans’ content expectations and the reality of what football organizations implement is getting smaller. 

2. Sports organizations need to offer fans the experiences they ask for beyond the 90 minutes of a match: a mix of technology, content, entertainment, and information, among other things.

3. Technology has no limits today. We are seeing great developments in AR, VR, metaverse, AI, etc. The challenge is to make all these innovations profitable, and the key lies in making all the innovation developments accessible. 

4. Offering fans what they ask for will drive profitability to organizations – for example, at Telecoming, we are doing for some sports properties things that fans can personalize, such as AR filters, visual assets, stickers, etc. Fans want to share the official assets of the club they really like. They are willing to pay for everything that is official, which can demonstrate their passion for the club and make them feel different.

5. Clubs are realizing that Direct Carrier Billing is a very convenient payment technology. It is an opportunity for them to integrate many people into the digital economy and, therefore, to bring their services to other countries.

6. Sports fans have very similar characteristics: they have an emotional connection with the brand, are used to double-screen consumption, and are very creative because of this emotional connection. And all these characteristics are common, whether they are young or not.

7. Mobile consumption is quite different from other devices, and it is the short-form format. This is a very interesting consumption model because brands need to offer supporters small things they can digest easily. 

8. To begin “mobile experience-related” projects, clubs’ first step should be thinking about their strategy. They need to ask themselves the right questions, such as, where do I want to go? Where is my audience? What am I going to offer them? What do I have? What can I do? Which kind of help do I need, if any? 

9. Once they have decided their strategy, and in order to develop those mobile-related plans, properties may need to choose between relying on a partner (which is the safest bet), staying out of the game (but they are going to miss the big opportunity that the mobile economy is), or doing it on their own. 

10. The power of a sports brand is much bigger than the team itself. That is why it is very important to remain loyal to the brand identity and its values. This is something that all sports clubs share.  

11. An advice for football industry leaders looking to fully embrace “mobile technology” within their revenue-generating activities would be to keep it simple. Remaining simple makes things easy and accessible for users.

12. Sports organizations may need to prepare their internal teams to embrace technology if they have not done that before. 

These are just some of the insights our CSO, Patricia Peiró Hergueta, shared at the WFS podcast. We invite you to discover the full conversation here. 

We hope you enjoy it as much as we did!