Driving Attendance and Sales Growth Through Multichannel Marketing
The North Carolina Courage, a professional women's soccer team, implemented a successful multichannel marketing campaign that resulted in record-breaking attendance figures and merchandise sales during the 2024 season. The comprehensive strategy combined traditional and digital channels with sequential messaging to guide fans through the purchasing journey, ultimately achieving the highest season attendance in club history.
How We Got Started
The NC Courage marketing team faced the critical challenge of maximizing revenue and fan engagement across multiple revenue streams during the 2024 season. With women's soccer growing in popularity but still competing for attention in a crowded sports marketplace, the team needed a cohesive strategy to convert casual interest into ticket purchases and merchandise sales.
The Challenge
The organization identified three primary objectives to address this challenge: increase ticket sales for the 2024 season, boost merchandise revenue, and achieve higher overall attendance at games. Success would be measured not just by total numbers but by sustained growth throughout the season, indicating building momentum and fan loyalty.
- Increase Ticket Sales: Attract new audiences and transplants in the growing Raleigh/Durham market
- Boost Merchandise Sales: Motivate current and new fans to buy more branded merchandise.
- Higher Overall Game Attendance: Increased energy, concession sales and engagement with the brand
The Strategic Approach
The NC Courage campaign strategically blended traditional and digital media to create a comprehensive marketing funnel. This approach ensured that potential fans encountered the team's messaging across multiple touchpoints, increasing the likelihood of conversion while building brand recognition and affinity.
A key innovation in the NC Courage campaign was its sequential messaging approach, delivering increasingly specific content to users as they progressed through the purchasing journey. This strategy recognized that different audience segments required tailored messaging to move them toward attendance and purchases.
By tracking engagement across channels, the marketing team could identify which users were ready for more specific conversion messaging, optimizing ad spend and avoiding message fatigue.
Awareness
By utilizing a broad reach of campaigns, Walk West was able to engage new and existing fans without focusing solely on one channel by introducing the team and season schedule to potential fans. Broad messaging highlighting team spirit, competitive excellence, and the excitement of live women's soccer.
- Traditional media (Billboards, Radio)
- Digital Platforms (Social media, Display Ads)
- Implemented advanced bid strategies for efficiency
Consideration
Walk West utilized targeted messaging to engage audiences. This powerful strategy for fostering deeper connections and driving fan engagement goes beyond generic announcements, delivering content that resonates emotionally and intellectually with fans who are already invested in the team or sport.
- Team Stories
- Player Profiles
- Upcoming Match Excitement
With the successful deployment of the first two components, Walk West was ready to dive deeper and provide more tailored, 1:1 engagements to personalize the experience for the fan and make it easier for them to engage with the various offerings from NC Courage. Walk West utiltized content featuring player stories, team achievements, and the unique atmosphere of NC Courage matches.
- Direct response tactics
- Utilizing promotional offers and simplified purchase paths
- Streamlined experience for increased conversion metrics
The final part of this strategy focused on expanding on the fans post game day experience to continue to drive sales around merch and tickets. By encouraging repeat attendance with a mix of special promotions, Walk West was able to keep the fans energized and coming back for more!
Dynamic Media Implementation
The campaign leveraged various dynamic media formats to maintain audience engagement throughout the season. Content was continually refreshed to highlight upcoming opponents, player achievements, team milestones, and special promotional events. This approach prevented creative fatigue while allowing the team to capitalize on momentum and trending topics.
Key dynamic content elements
- Game-specfic creative refreshed for each home match
- Player spotlight features rotating throughout the roster
- Real-time social media content capturing game highlights
- Limited-tie merchandise promotions tied to special events
The Key Takeaways and Business Impact
These impressive metrics reflect not only the campaign's ability to drive awareness and engagement but also its success in converting that interest into tangible ROI. The $3.2 billion in STC portfolio growth represents a substantial return on marketing investment while strengthening SECU's market position. Key takeaways:
Privacy-Compliant Marketing Excellence
The campaign demonstrates that financial institutions can achieve remarkable marketing results while maintaining the highest standards of customer data privacy. By developing innovative targeting approaches that don't rely on first-party data, SECU created a blueprint for responsible digital marketing in highly regulated industries.
Multi-Channel Integration Benefits
Walk West utilized platform-specific targeting capabilities across major social networks to reach both current and potential members with engaging, visually compelling creative assets. Custom audiences were built using interest-based and behavioral signals that indicated financial service needs without requiring member-specific data.
Data Strategy Innovation
The creative application of third-party data sources proved that effective targeting doesn't require compromising customer privacy. This approach offers a valuable model for other financial institutions facing similar challenges with first-party data limitations.
Attendance Increase
Year-over-year growth, achieving highest season attendance in club history
Second-Half Growth
Increase in attendance between first and second half of season
Top 5 Games
Matches ranking among the club's highest all-time attendance
Merchandise ROAS
Return on ad spend for merchandise campaigns, demonstrating profitability
The campaign's effectiveness was clearly demonstrated through these metrics, which show not just initial success but building momentum throughout the season. The 25% increase between first and second half attendance is particularly significant, as it indicates growing fan engagement and word-of-mouth promotion supplementing the formal marketing efforts.
Conclusion
The NC Courage's 2024 marketing campaign demonstrates the power of a strategically integrated approach to sports marketing. By guiding potential fans through a carefully designed journey across multiple channels, the team achieved record-breaking results while building a foundation for future growth. The principles applied—multichannel reach, sequential messaging, and dynamic creative—provide a valuable blueprint for other sports organizations looking to drive attendance and sales.