Ticketek's data division and flybuys bring together their first-party customer data sets to connect a brand's live events engagement to shopper behaviour
Proving the brand value of live events sponsorship by connecting the dots from fan engagement through to shopper behaviour is the latest ambition of Ticketek’s sister division, TEG Analytics, following a new partnership with flybuys.
TEG Analytics is the data division of Ticketek’s parent company, TEG Group, and was launched in 2016 to commercialise the group’s wealth of first-party events insights. This week, the business officially joined forces with flybuys on a new solution connecting its 16 million active live entertainment customers with flybuys’ 8.6 million-strong member database.
TEG Analytics general manager, Andrew Reid, said connecting FMCG shopper data with TEG’s ‘affinity’ data reflecting the passions, interests and intent of live entertainment and sporting attendees is all about helping FMCG brands close the loop on the value of Australia’s $4 billion events sponsorship industry. He claimed the world-first partnership will give brand marketers a mechanism by which they can clearly articulate not only reach and top of the funnel impact, but connect through to sales and conversion.
Despite the perceived value of events sponsorship, “there’s little in the way of measurement in a deterministic way to understand the connection between fans and their engagement in the live space with brands sponsoring these events”, Reid said.
Challenges to articulating this value include how you evaluate ROI and sponsorship strategy; obtaining customer and fan data for addressable insights; measuring contribution to awareness through to product sales; and applying ROI learnings from these activities.
“These issues have been addressed in part by traditional market research, samples and recall. But that’s not sufficient anymore,” Reid said. “Without having a means to engage with customer data and fans, it’s hard to prove the case out, see if they are engaged with a brand’s website or through to sales of products in-store.
“We’re bringing together fans with their spending behaviour and brand associations into one single view. Ultimately, we’re trying to get to the point where we can see how sponsorship leads to more product sales and impacts a brand’s sales.”
TEG’s first-party data convers demographics, engagement in live events categories and spend, frequency of engagement and location details. Flybuys meanwhile, has data on how frequently shoppers shop, where they shop, regularly purchased items, weekly basket value, and distinct shopper styles, such as ‘feed your family’.
“If a consumer loves a particular sport, and if a brand is associated with that sport, we can connect that engagement through to buying the brands in-store,” Reid explained. “Live experiences are where consumers are highly engaged and emotionally connected.
“We are natural partners, we are leaders, and have large scope across our audiences. We have been undertaking a data match exercise one-to-one of customers across our data sets to create a unique audience segment for insights, digital activations and sales analysis.”
As an example, Reid pointed to Gillette’s sponsorship of the Summer Series of Cricket, which stretches from on-the-field branding to using the event’s visuals on its packaging and in advertising collateral. As a joined force, and using data matching undertaken through an encryption and cookie/device ID process, TEG and flybuys can connect known shopper behaviour (men’s grooming shopper) with live entertainment affinity (such as being a cricket fan), to create a target blended segments.
A brand like Gillette could then use this customised segment for programmatic or other digital campaigns to ascertain who and how frequently these target consumers saw its advertising, connect that to whether they purchased Gillette products, then report on key measures of success, such as an increase in new customers, return of lapsed customers, conversion rates and loyalty, Reid said.
TEG and flybuys will share this chain of connection via a customisable reporting dashboard using Tableau’s data visualisation platform. Elements on offer include demographics, psychographics and geographic insight, financial / sales, entertainment affinity and attendances, as well as digital marketing campaign measurements. This will be updated as a regular feed based on a brand’s campaign frequency, or seasonal activity.
Reid said the pair’s combined sales taskforce will be going directly to brand owners first, with major event sponsors from the FMCG and liquor category firmly in their sights.
While the first ambition is to prove out the sponsorship model using their own data, Reid agreed there was also an opportunity to unite these insights with a brand’s CRM data to build even more tailored solutions.
No formal brand customers have yet been announced, but Reid said the two companies have conducted proof-of-concept work with FMCG brands such as CUB, Nestle and Gilette.
“We wanted to make sure it applies and affirm their interest in this and how it solves their problems. Will tailor / customise from there,” Reid said.
With a very high percentage of crossover, TEG and flybuys have also already noted a few interesting examples of category and events affinity from their matched audiences. For example, Reid said it had identified esports fans skew towards cider drinks, pasta and have a particular focus on dental health.
“Comedy fans skew towards craft beer, herbs and spices as well as nutritional snacks,” he told CMO.
Flybuys claims to have 8.6 million active members (shopping twice per week), 25 per cent of all retail sales in Australia each year, access to 4000 physical outlets, and a wealth of insight into what people buy and when. TEG claims 16 million active customers, 30 million tickets sold annually, and to have relationship with a majority of Australia’s stadiums and venues.
TEG launched its own data insights business, Doppler, last year combining its data sets with its consumer panel insights and offering the combined product up to advertisers.
TEG and flybuys' news came just days after Nielsen debuted a ‘Sponsorlab’, another multiple data set-based offering bringing together existing individual data sets across the measurement firm to help brands appraise partnership or sponsorship rights within the sports industry. These data sets include Nielsen’s Sport24, Sportslink, Fanlinks, N-Score social content ratings for sports and rights valuations inputs.
Among the tools included for brands are property health status, consumer category connections, asset bundling and market-level valuations, the company said. These have been packaged into two key offerings: A property selection scorecard, and a market valuation toolkit.
“Our data coverage ensures an independent and competitive assessment of the entire landscape for sponsorship trading purposes,” said Nielsen Sports head of product for Pacific, Glenn Channell. “Sponsorlab allows for robust assessment across any event, league, team or venue in the market.”
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