
It’s football season time! And you know what that means, right? Right! Data analytics!
What? Maybe you didn’t pick data analytics, but you should have. Since 2016, pro sports teams, including NFL and the Minnesota Vikings (among other teams) have been taking photos during games in order to better understand their customers – the fans at the games.
Using technology from CrowdIQ and photos taken at intervals at the game, computer analysis now helps teams determine not only how many fans there are, but demographic breakdowns, the times fans arrive, how many watch the halftime show, and whether marketing promotions during games are impactful.
For example, the data shows the percentage of people looking at phones, or looking at something else. (In general, fans miss most of the action on the field with only about 40% seeing an actual ball snap!)
While CrowdIQ does not use facial-recognition, photos are also taken on the streets, and stadiums are surrounded by security cameras. And don’t forget the fans themselves who are snapping hundreds of pictures, and posting many, at any time during the game.
Using data analytics from the games can lead to specific marketing actions. For example, the Vikings learned that it attracts a younger crowd with more women at games in the evening. That can influence the halftime show, music, and promotions.
What were you doing at the big game?
Group Activities and Discussion Questions:
- Poll students: Has anyone observed crowd behavior at football games?
- What types of behaviors might be most useful to marketers.
- View CrowdIQ website: https://crowdiq.ai/
- Divide students into teams. Have each team develop a plan for the type of data they might want to gather during a game. Consider demographic and psychographic elements.
- After each team has at least five or six data sets, have them decide on how to use the data in marketing – before, during, and after the game.
- NOTE: A possible assignment is to have students do some of this data gathering at a university sports event, along with analysis for a marketing plan.
Source: Lemire, J. (29 June 2021). CrowdIQ will make you rethink pretty much everything about fan behavior in the stands. Sports Business Journal; Ramstad, E. (11 September 2023). Vikings may now watch fans more than fans watch games. Minneapolis Star Tribune.