55% of millennials are spending on professional sporting events, and 75% of millennials are not willing to drive more than 60 minutes to attend an event, so we’ve identified the following as our major competitor’s regarding who our target market may choose over attending or viewing our team’s games. The Seattle Storm (a Women’s NBA Team), Seattle Seahawks (the National Football Team), and Seattle Mariners (the Major League Baseball Team) are the three main competitors that our target market may choose to attend over coming to a Seattle Sockeyes Game. All three of these competitors offer affordability, short commute distances, and a full experience to fans.
We identified our competitors and looked at how they engage with their fans, to determine how our target market expects to be engaged with. These findings then allowed us to develop and improve our app accordingly and enabled us to craft a campaign to engage with our fans.
KEY INSIGHTS
MOTIVATION FOR MILLENNIALS TO GO TO SPORTING EVENTS
- Affordability
- Driving Distance
- Total Experience (dinner, drinks, game, fun night out, etc.)
To reach our target market, we identified what motivates them to come to a professional sporting event and identified our potential competitors regarding which teams and what events our target market may choose to attend instead of our games and our team.
Affordability, drive distance and experience are the three main things that millennials take into consideration while choosing sporting events to attend. Millennials are interested in professional sporting events if they are affordable, less than 60 minutes away, and include aspects such as a fun game, drinks, food, and entertainment. Our target market is not going to events based off a teams win/loss rate, but instead attend professional sporting events because they offer a way to connect them to other people.
COMPETITORS
- Seattle Storm (WNBA)
- Seattle Seahawks (NFL)
- Seattle Mariners (MLB)
- Cultural Experiences and Hangouts
- Local Bars
55% of millennials are spending on professional sporting events, and 75% of millennials are not willing to drive more than 60 minutes to attend an event, so we’ve identified the following as our major competitor’s regarding who our target market may choose over attending or viewing our team’s games. The Seattle Storm (a Women’s NBA Team), Seattle Seahawks (the National Football Team), and Seattle Mariners (the Major League Baseball Team) are the three main sports competitors that our target market may choose to attend over coming to a Seattle Sockeyes Game. All three of these competitors offer affordability, short commute distances, and a full experience to fans.
HOW COMPETITOR’S ENGAGE WITH FANS
- Seattle Storm – Host Special Events
- Seahawks – Push Notifications Through App
- Seattle Mariners – Mobile Ticketing
The following are areas in which our competitors are engaging with their fans successfully, which affected our own course of action on how our app should engage with our fans.
The Seattle Storm hosts special events that show their appreciation for their fans by offering things like giveaways or free food/music on certain nights.
The Seattle Seahawks use push notifications through their app to “surprise and delight” their customers with flash promotions deals. The Seattle Mariners offer their fans a way to purchase tickets from their phone through their Ballpark Pass app.
CULTURAL EXPERIENCES AND HANGOUTS
Seattle is home to many sports bars where our target market often goes to socialize, enjoy food and alcohol, and watch the various sports games mentioned above. The following bars are ones our target market frequents to watch sporting events and ones in which we will target regarding connecting with them and encouraging our Seattle Sockeye and hockey fans to connect with them and us via social on game day, if they choose to watch the game from one of these locations. We will encourage them to still participate in our campaign via the app and utilize features that enable them to generate their loyalty and award points.
POPULAR SEATTLE SPORT BARS
- The Angry Beaver
- The George & Dragon Pub
- Quality Athletics
- Xtadium Lounge
- Sport Restaurant & Bar
- Buckley’s Belltown
- The Doghouse Bar & Grill
- The Westy
- Ballard Loft
- Rookies
ADDITIONAL COMPETITORS
The following are also places we will potentially be competing with for the attendance and attention of our target market. These are places that offer cultural experiences, like the Native American galleries at Seattle Art Museum, Pike Place Market, Olympic Sculpture Park, Living Computers: Museum + Labs, or the Museum of Pop Culture. There are also venues where they attend events and concerts at places such as at Neumos, The Crocodile, The Showbox, or Benaroya Hall, or any of Seattle’s other music venues.