‘One Platform’ led the spring of professional basketballThe championship match (4 out of 7), which is the highlight of the men’s professional basketball (KBL) 2022-23 season, is being held. Seoul SK Knights and Anyang KGC Ginseng Corporation met in the championship game for two consecutive seasons.
In the first season after the COVID-19 quarantine was eased, KBL set a meaningful record. Ticket revenue from 10 stadiums exceeded 8 billion won for the first time in 25 years since the league was launched in 1997. Including the championship game, it is expected to reach 8.5 billion won. The total number of spectators has only recovered to about 70% of its pre-coronavirus level. But how did the admission revenue hit the all-time high? The main role that brought back ‘Basketball Spring’ was ‘platform integration’.
Price per guest, from 8,300 won to 12,500 won
The Korea Professional Sports Association (KPSA) is an organization that has seven organizations (basketball and golf separate for men and women) in five domestic professional events (soccer, baseball, volleyball, basketball, and golf) as members. Receives funds from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and is in charge of support and plans for the development of each event. In 2020, KSPA proposed platform integration to KBL. The plan was to integrate the main functions of the homepages operated by the 10 clubs into KBL to conduct ticket reservations and sales, public relations and marketing, member management, and souvenir sales. The homepages of each club were unprofessional compared to the management manpower and budget.
After 8 months of work and pilot operation, an integrated DB was established on the KBL website in December 2020. The number of subscribers exceeded 100,000 in November 2021, and after taking 150,000 in March 2022, the number of subscribers as of April 28 this year is 278,231.
An important change occurred as the number of integrated DB members increased. The percentage of paid spectators has risen significantly. This is thanks to the accumulation of basic information (address, age, gender, favorite teams and players, etc.) of members, enabling customized marketing for them. The percentage of paid spectators, which was 77% in the 2018-19 season, exceeded 90% in 5 years. As the number of paid spectators increased, the number of ‘free guests’ from the club’s parent company and the home game local government naturally decreased. Of course, the unit price (cost per person to watch the game) went up. The unit price for the 2018-19 season was 8,338 won, but it increased to 12,493 won this season.
Another meaningful indicator is the change in repurchase rate. It is the percentage of spectators who went to the stadium for the first time to see a basketball game and bought tickets again. It was 19% in the 2019-20 season, but in the 2021-22 season it rose 28 percentage points in 3 seasons to 47%. This is thanks to the ‘regular campaign based on the life cycle of fans’ conducted by KBL to prevent member churn. It is to track whether a person who has signed up as a member has purchased a ticket or has been dormant for a long time, and constantly provides benefits and incentives such as discount coupons, thank-you letters, and event invitations to manage them so that they do not leave the basketball court.
Another notable change is the sales of KBL and club souvenirs sold online. Compared to the 2020-21 season, KBL store sales increased by 1003% in one year. This can be seen as an aggregation effect caused by the gathering of information and products of each club’s star players in one place. KBL’s point policy also played a role. When purchasing a ticket, 3% of the payment amount is given as points, which can be used to purchase products. As ticket sales increased, the merchandising product market also grew, creating a virtuous cycle.
Sports marketing performance based on customer data
The more data is collected, the more meaningful the interpretation becomes, and based on this, a customized strategy can be established. For example, member A living in Suwon went to watch 9 games, and two of them were Suwon KT home games. However, A watched Seoul SK games seven times throughout the home and away matches. From the point of view of the KT club, A can be seen as a KT fan who came to the home game twice, but from the KBL integrated data, he is a true fan of SK rather than KT. Therefore, it is an effective strategy to give A a discount coupon for SK games or an event opportunity.
The response from the 10 KBL clubs is also hot. Each team encourages spectators to install the KBL app on their mobile phones and enter the stadium with a smart ticket. This is because various online marketing can be carried out using the basic information of fans. Immediately after the game, SK sends letters of thanks written by star players such as Kim Seon-hyung and Choi Jun-yong to fans, and also sends a 3,000 won discount coupon for weekday games. Changwon LG holds events such as ‘Guess the first assist player in today’s game’, which only visitors can apply for, and gives generous gifts.
Choi Hyeon-sik, head of the KBL marketing team, said, “This season, professional basketball has achieved meaningful results such as an increase in spectators, an increase in the percentage of paying spectators, and an increase in ticket revenue. There was an integrated marketing platform at the center.” Chae Jong-hoon, secretary general of the Professional Sports Association, said, “KBL’s integrated platform has shown that professional sports marketing can only reap results when it starts based on customer data. For the substantial growth of professional sports, we will closely consult with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to provide support and cooperation.”
Along with the recovery of the popularity of professional basketball, there is a rising character. It’s KBL Friends ‘Gong Aji (Basketball + Puppy · Photo)’. It was produced by the company that created Soohorang and Bandabi, the mascots of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the launch of professional basketball last year, KBL created five types of characters from number 1 (point guard, bath rabbit) to number 5 (center, blin) according to basketball positions, and then voted on their preference. No. 2 (shooting guard) Gong Ah-ji was overwhelmingly in first place. Heo Woong (KCC), the top star of KBL, is in the position, so it is presumed that fans who like him cast no votes.
KBL sold KBL Friends dolls offline for the first time at a cup competition held in Tongyeong, Gyeongsangnam-do last October, and Gong-Aji was the first to sell out. On the day the KBL store sold 500 sheets of ball paper on a first-come, first-served basis, the KBL homepage was paralyzed due to the influx of buyers.메이저놀이터
The balls were sold out in no time, and one basketball fan left a message saying, ‘After buying the balls, I plan to only eat cup noodles for three months.’
KBL took the momentum and opened the ‘Gong-Aji Contest’. Members made Gong-Aji in various forms such as painting, knitting, and sculpture, took pictures, and posted them on the KBL website. These photos became a hot topic among basketball fans.
Lee Soo-jin, head of KBL’s public relations team, said, “As the number of members of the integrated platform approaches 300,000, we are realizing the ‘attraction effect’. Stories and good feelings are formed within the platform, and this is leading to offline game viewing.”
The ‘basketball movie’ wind blowing in the theater is also a good news for KBL. ‘Rebound’ (director Jang Hang-joon), based on a true story of the Busan Joongang High School basketball team, ranks third in the box office rankings, and the Japanese animation ‘The First Slam Dunk’ is cruising for a long time, attracting over 4.5 million viewers.
