The Los Angeles Kings Score a Digital Marketing Hat-Trick: Greater Revenue, Retention, and Fan Loyalty
1. The Los Angeles Kings Score a Digital Marketing
Hat-Trick: Greater Revenue, Retention, and
Fan Loyalty
All-Star Team of Neolane and FanOne Marketing Help Stanley Cup
Customer name: Los Angeles Kings
Champions Increase Customer Knowledge and Deliver Personalized Fan Industry: Sports & Entertainment
Experiences
Owned by Anschutz Entertainment “Like other professional sports teams, the “Thanks to Neolane
Group (AEG) the Los Angeles Kings are a LA Kings offer multiple products, including
National Hockey League (NHL) franchise single game tickets, multi-game packs, and FanOne Marketing,
founded in 1967. Overcoming seemingly group tickets, season tickets, merchandise, the LA Kings have
insurmountable odds, the Kings won and more, said LeValley. “Without a
”
their first NHL Stanley Cup in 2012, single, comprehensive view of fans’
been able to increase
becoming the first 8th seeded team in behavior and interests, we were limited revenue, retention, and
NHL history to do so. in our ability to tailor these products to fan loyalty—and do so
the right individuals or groups, and then
Challenge: Disparate Fan Data engage them with targeted marketing while maintaining an
and Limited Capabilities for messages. ” efficient, lean marketing
Driving Targeted Messages team.”
Solution: Open Platform and
Since winning the Stanley Cup, the Aaron LeValley,
Powerful Personalization Engine
LA Kings’ popularity has soared, with Director of CRM, LA Kings
season tickets expected to sell out for
Backed by Strategic Services
the first time in their history. However, The LA Kings evaluated several marketing
in Los Angeles, hockey has traditionally automation platforms against a specific BUSINESS NEED
been challenged to compete with other set of criteria that included the ability The LA Kings sought to increase
professional sports, including basketball to create a central marketing datamart; revenue, retention, and loyalty in a
and baseball. track individual behavior and responses; competitive market by integrating
multiple data sources and leveraging
and execute automated cross-channel its customer intelligence to drive
Thus, although the LA Kings have a campaigns that deliver personalized fan targeted, personalized marketing
passionate core fan base, their marketing experiences. campaigns.
department was tasked with finding ways
to generate new sales while increasing Based on this evaluation, Neolane’s
RESULTS
retention and loyalty in a competitive conversational marketing platform was
market. When Aaron LeValley, Director chosen over other leading automation • Enhance customer intelligence by
creating a single, 360-degree view
of CRM, joined the team in 2009, he platforms. The decision boiled down to a of fans
began thinking about how they could few key factors, including Neolane’s open
work smarter through better customer API, personalization engine, cross-channel • Increase revenues and ROI
by delivering personalized
knowledge and technology. capabilities, and future-proof platform, as experiences across channels
well as the deep industry knowledge of
At the time, the LA Kings were using CRM partner FanOne Marketing. • Automate marketing campaigns,
and email marketing tools provided by driving greater results while
their ticketing vendor. Because the team “Neolane and FanOne Marketing offered maintaining lean operations
couldn’t integrate multiple data streams the winning combination of robust • Increase online season ticket
(transactions, campaign responses, web technology powered by strategic services, ” renewals 10%, reallocating human
behavior, forms, social media activity, explains LeValley. “Neolane’s open API resources to higher priorities
etc.), they had a fractured and incomplete was crucial to integrating disparate data • Build the database via social
view of their fans. Moreover, the email sources and better understanding our fans. media, transforming anonymous
tool offered limited segmentation and Plus, we knew the platform could support followers into addressable
contacts
personalization capabilities. our increasing marketing sophistication
over time. Lastly, FanOne Marketing’s