Sports Marketing Campaigns

Using Paid Social To Drive Revenue

Prior to the 2017 season, the Chiefs introduced the Bud Light Gameday Pass, a mobile-only season ticket for just $200 across ten games. This ticket product was targeted to millennials and aligned with partner Bud Light, who used this as a way to amplify their “Famous Among Friends” campaign.

To sell this product, the Chiefs ticketing department inquired how they could make this a digital-only product. Our solution was to utilize the newly deployed Facebook Lead Generation tool through paid social ad placements.

The results: 

• Generated a $15.67 ROAS for the campaign.
• Sold Out the Program with over 1,750 tickets sold.
• 65% of leads were new to our CRM.
• The average age of those purchasing the Bud Light Game Day Pass and a similar Charlie Hustle Primetime Pass is 10 years younger than the average Chiefs Season Ticket Member.

A Social Campaign to Drive Ticket Sales

Just days before a primetime, Saturday night game against division rival Los Angeles Chargers, we were charged with a directive to make a late ticket sales push. With both teams coming into this late December matchup with identical records, this game would all but seal the AFC West Division and ensure a playoff berth.

We leveraged an opportunity to play up that the Chiefs players decided to wear a special red-on-red uniform combination to make a content series distributed solely through social media. Our task was to rally fans and encourage them to create a home-field advantage at Arrowhead Stadium.

Our video production team created a social media video to generate both organic and paid reach and support ticket sales.

The results:

• The campaign, which began three days before the game, had a direct impact on ticket sales over those three dates, as demonstrated by the blue line on the corresponding graph as compared to ticket sales for other home games.
• The total ticket sales exceeded the project business intelligence modeling by over 7,000 tickets.
• The combination of organic and paid social posts reached 1,181,840 users for 2,428,071 impressions, 67,826 engagements and 634,311 video views.

Uniting the World's Oldest Kingdom With the Loudest

Sometimes, the best social is not the social that a brand posts. Putting social in the hands of the fans creates more authenticity, excitement and engagement. That is what happened with the #KingdomsUnite campaign.

Season Ticket Members and fans were empowered to be social with this very innovative campaign that was truly a first in not only sports but across the social media landscape.

The creation of the custom clear plastic cards gave Chiefs fans a way to share their London experience, and it became much more—a rallying cry uniting two different Kingdoms, and countries to not only show but also build fan avidity.

Recognized by industry leaders like Darren Rovell to being copied by the Pope’s North America tour and Second City in Chicago, it provided a new way to encourage user-generated content and tell a story through visuals.

The Results:

• Gained 52,518 followers among the top three platforms (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram).
• Gained 24,747 new Instagram followers, an increase of 7.25%.
• Users generated over 4,600 Twitter posts and 266 Instagram posts using the hashtag #KingdomsUnite.

Activating For A Cause

As part of the legacy left by founder and professional sports pioneer Lamar Hunt, Red Friday is as much a part of the Kansas City Chiefs experience as the tailgating at Arrowhead Stadium. This annual event, which is held on the Friday before the first home game of the season, is a way to drive excitement for the season and raise money for a great cause. In 2013, the program was changed to sell Chiefs flags at area McDonalds locations for $5 with all proceeds going to Ronald McDonald House Charities of Kansas City.

In 2015, the Chiefs digital team was tasked with utilizing our website, eCommerce store and social media channels to drive awareness of the initiative and impact sales of the flags.

The Results:

• Sales of the Red Friday flag grew 150.4% from 2014 to 2017.
• eCommerce sales used in coordination with in-store McDonalds sales created the largest single-day user acquisition day in the history of the Fanatics team sites.
• The average revenue per order on the eCommerce store from targeted paid social efforts was over $12, which means fans bought more than just the flag.

Sponsor Activation To Bring the Most Refreshing Moments In Chiefs History Alive With Coca-Cola

As part of the longest-running partnership in the Kansas City Chiefs' 58-year history, Coca-Cola came to us with a new proposition in 2017: put Chiefs branding on a special edition 16-ounce can for the first time.

The “Most Refreshing Moments in Chiefs History” campaign was developed to support sales of this special edition Chiefs Coca-Cola 16-ounce can that was sold in grocery stores and gas stations throughout Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska. It was the first time in the United States that Coca-Cola partnered with a professional sports franchise to integrate augmented reality.

The initiative encouraged fans to purchase the cans and launch the Augmented Reality campaign through the Chiefs app to collect special codes that qualified them for a chance to win tickets to the Chiefs-Cowboys game on Nov. 5, 2017, in Arlington, Texas, as well as other prizes.

The Results: 

• The six different videos were viewed over 10,000 times.
• Generated over 2,500 new sign-ups to Chiefs Kingdom Rewards, which is our loyalty program and over 5,000 new app downloads.
• While Coca-Cola policy prevents it from sharing sales numbers, the campaign was so successful that Coca-Cola has already mirrored the program with the St. Louis Cardinals and will soon launch a similar program with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Click here for more information on the campaign.