Queen’s Park Rangers revamps data strategy
Queens Park Rangers is investing heavily in data as it looks to double attendances ahead of a planned new stadium.
The West-London club is overhauling the data strategy used across ticketing, retail and hospitality as well as its community and website sign ups in a bid to reach out to its fans of the club that do not attend matches. It will use the data to collect and manage potential customers until it is ready to fulfil its expansion plans.
Speaking to Marketing Week, Jon Davies, CRM manager at Queens Park Rangers, says the move could use data to create bespoke marketing campaigns for local families, offering them discounted stadium tours so the “kids can follow in the footsteps of their heroes.”
He adds: “With a limited capacity at Loftus Road and QPR’s increasingly global fan base, the Club use data to bring the match-day experience to fans who do not attend matches. Every club’s biggest marketing assets are the players on the pitch and when a fan is able to share in the excitement of match-day, it enhances their emotional attachment to the Club.”
The Premier League team’s owner Tony Fernandes revealed details about the stadium plans last month, saying that the club is planning a 45,000 seater stadium in one of two sites in West London.
QPR’s Loftus Road stadium is currently the smallest ground in the Premier League with a capacity of 18,439. Despite average gates of 17,295 in their first season back in the League the club believes that they can fill a stadium double that.
Davies adds: “There is a commercial element to the Club’s use of data and the key word is relevance. Targeting our house and commercial partner messages to specific groups within our supporter database has led to significantly higher email open rates and fewer unsubscribes. In the coming years the Club plans to move to a much larger stadium and our use of data will be pivotal in converting new local and international fans into match attendees.”
QPR will work with data marketing specialists Sports Alliance to develop the initiative, which it claims outlines a “clear vision for our future marketing campaigns.”
The club hopes to replicate the data strategies of Premier League giants Arsenal and Manchester United, which are putting their fan membership schemes at the centre of all their marketing activty.
Additionally, QPR will be using the data gathered during its pre-season tour of Malaysia last month to exploit interest the trip generated.