New Phizzle Platform Taps Social Media To Connect Teams and Fans

Big data is giving professional and college sports organizations a deeper understanding of their fan bases, but the amount of information can sometimes be too cumbersome to get a real handle on.

In response to the wealth of data available from social media and the like, fan-engagement–technology company Phizzle released the Phizzle Platform, a multichannel marketing-automation solution designed for sports properties, entertainment properties, and marketers.

It’s an alteration in the company’s business model targeted at helping connect teams and leagues with their customers.

The Phizzle Platform is a multichannel marketing-automation solution designed for sports properties, entertainment properties, and marketers.

“In working with lots of venues and lots of teams, we realized, in order to truly provide value to our customers, we needed to figure out how to capture and manage data from all fan-engagement touch points,” says Phizzle CEO Ben Davis. “Realistically, a fan is going to follow their favorite team on Twitter, they’re going to like them on Facebook, they’re going to be part of their text club, they’re going to sign up for the e-mail newsletter. In order to create a 360-degree view of the fan, we literally had to re-architect our entire platform to provide a sophisticated model to capture and manage this data.”

At the core of the Phizzle “behavior-centric” platform is the company’s proprietary marketing-automation technology, which integrates with various third-party systems (for example, point-of-sale systems, ticketing providers, CRM systems). Using its proprietary data algorithm FanTracker, Phizzle is able to build and design a profile of a fan and learn the best way to engage that customer in the future.

Phizzle added a major client for its new platform when it signed Learfield Sports, a multimedia-rights holder for colleges and university athletic departments. Phizzle joins Learfield Sports as a Preferred Solutions Provider (PSP), an exclusive collection of select technology partners endorsed by Learfield’s content group. The partnership leverages digital and enterprise software technologies to maximize sponsorship revenues and drive fan engagement through mobile marketing.

Phizzle’s Broadcaster iX enables the display of real-time user-generated content on a scoreboard, digital signage, or the Web.

“We have been looking to provide a digital-marketing-platform solution for our properties as we develop compelling sponsorship and promotional programs that drive fan engagement,” says Learfield Sports SVP/Chief Content Officer Joe Ferreira in an official release. “Phizzle has an incredible track record with innovative sports and entertainment technology in this space. We’re looking forward to maximizing those opportunities in the collegiate arena to provide yet another key digital asset to our properties and school partners.”

In addition to the Phizzle Platform, Learfield clients will use Phizzle’s Broadcaster iX, a suite of solutions designed to enable production environments to take user-generated content from multiple channels (SMS, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine, etc.) and display the results of that content in real time on a center-hung scoreboard, digital signage, or the Web.

“Learfield understands that there has been a void, so to speak, in the creation of digital databases across their properties and providing fun, engaging ways for fans to participate with their favorite schools and the brands associated with those schools,” says Davis. “They understand that digital advertising inventory is the most valuable inventory and the better they can provide a one-to-one relationship with the fans, the better they can monetize those relationships.”