Sports Marketing 2.0 | Pat Coyle

What does success look like?

I get asked this question a lot. My boss wants to know. Sponsors want to know. Heck I WANT TO KNOW!

But by what measuring stick should we evaluate our success?

By the number of people who register into the system?
By the number of return visits?
By the number of ‘clicks’?

Or is there some other, deeper value to our online community?

Traffic figures are what media buyers and sponsors are looking to buy. We HAVE to have traffic.

But there’s something bigger going on here. Something quite special.

When you look at this site you see what fans are made of. You read stories about how they became fans…how they experience the Colts, and you see their families and their pets and their friends. You get a little window into their lives. Sure, some of the stuff you see is off the wall and even a little sophomoric. But many folks in our community are doing what I hoped they would do. They are CONNECTING with other people and forming new friendships.

It is these friendships that makes the Colts experience more fun. It is these friendships that will cause more and more folks to become connected and make Colts games into rituals, habits that will be hard to break. It’s these friendships that make Sundays the best day of the week. It is these friendships that will help them in other areas of life as well and on other days of the week.

It’s all about community. That’s where the value is for the FANS.

Now, how can we get sponsors to invest their TIME as well as their money to engage with our community?

That’s the MILLION DOLLAR question.