Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) has unveiled an in-app program designed to drive engagement and loyalty among younger fans of Toronto’s NHL club.
Select fans will have the chance this spring to win Maple Leafs playoff tickets, tailgate-party passes, tours of Scotiabank Arena and other prizes from MLSE during the pilot phase of a new “Fan Access” program. Additionally, the “Fan Access” platform will feature exclusive behind-the-scenes content from the Maple Leafs and private-auction items.
A full launch of the program this fall will make “Fan Access” available to the broader public in both the Maple Leafs app and the Toronto Raptors app.
“From a strategy perspective, and where we’re going in terms of creating emotional loyalty versus a point system, this is very different,” says Shannon Hosford, MLSE’s chief marketing officer. “It’s an access platform. No one else is out there (in the sports category) doing it.”
“We think, just given our brands, our venues and our reach, we have a very different offering that we can offer MLSE, and that’s why it’s MLSE ‘Fan Access,’ and not one specific team that we can cross promote and provide different experiences,” Hosford says.
Hosford says the fact that only 2% of fans are able to watch games live inspired the creation of the digital-sports concierge aimed at bringing supporters closer to the team.
“It’s where our fans are, it’s where they are interacting,” explains MLSE’s chief strategy and innovation officer Humza Teherany.
“We have one of the largest fan bases in the apps and actually for the Raptors and Leafs in their respective leagues,” Teherany says.
Teherany tells strategy that MLSE has consistently built on the app’s capabilities to serve as a landing spot for everything from tickets to food, contests, promotions and other playoff-game offers. It also has games and private chat capabilities that were popular with prior iterations, and embedded them into the app, which in the past were were treated more as features and modules, and now are native to the app.
The first 15,000 fans who sign up via the Maple Leafs Insider network will be eligible to use the ‘Fan Access’ program.
The six-month process of developing the platform used fan feedback and focus groups to make onboarding process “as simple as possible.”
“We’re in an environment of test and learn,” Hosford says. “We want to understand what benefits and what activities our fan base is engaging in.”
To get the word out, MLSE is using internal-marketing communications, earned media, CRM and paid media developed by a small firm called Society.
“Fan Access” will be integrated into Toronto FC and Toronto Argonauts team apps as the rollout continues.
“In the future, we will see all of our teams falling under ‘Fan Access,'” Hosford says, “turning passion into brand loyalty.”
