We sat down with Scott Dargis, NBC Sports’ Manager of Mobile Notifications, at our Elevate event. He revealed how NBC Sports has been able to keep people engaged during a wild year. 

Here are three lessons from NBC Sports’ strategy.

Test Your Notifications as Much as Possible

When you send notifications, you want them to feel organic. Importantly, you don’t want users to feel like something’s being pushed on them. To find a healthy balance between the two, NBC Sports A/B tested a wide variety of notifications. 

The result: NBC found that “tease” type notifications—messages that provide users with a nugget of the content within, but not the whole story—performed the best. These cliffhanger-style notifications have helped NBC Sports keep their direct open rates strong.

In testing, the NBC team found that notifications with emojis in the subject line outperformed those without. One or two emojis was the sweet spot for engagement. Icons, graphics, and other rich notification elements encouraged better engagement as well.

NBC Sports also gave their writers more control over the voice and tone of messages, particularly for individual team content. Personalizing team content in this way helps NBC Sports keep their notifications relevant and relatable.

Insight: Experiment with notification approaches and understand that your users want to see something interesting. Personalize whenever you can, and always give users a reason to engage.

Reconsider How Many Notifications You’re Sending

If people feel bombarded with notifications that they don’t find interesting, they’ll tune out. NBC Sports realized this when the pandemic hit. Because live sports were mostly shut down, their volume of notifications decreased — and so did their app uninstalls and opt-outs.

Now, NBC Sports uses a careful, analytics-backed approach to notifications. They segment their users with lists and groupings according to league divisions, common fanbases, and more. This way, NBC is able to send fewer notifications —and the ones that they do send feel more personal.

Insight: Focus on what you’re sending, not how many notifications you’re sending. If you can find a way to send fewer notifications and accomplish the same goals, do that.

Timing Is Important 

NBC Sports learned that when they send their notifications can be nearly as important as what they’re sending. People want to receive notifications at times when they’re interested in interacting with that content. NBC found that, for their app, lunch and dinner times (early afternoon and mid-evening) worked best.

It makes sense: People want to watch sports when they’ve got free time. As sports fans are scrolling through their phone at lunch or after dinner, they’re often looking for something to watch. NBC Sports capitalizes on this by sending timely messages during the periods when their users are most active.

Insight: Look at the analytics and figure out when your users want to receive notifications. Try to send your important notifications during that time frame.

The Bottom Line

2020 forced NBC Sports to reevaluate their strategy. They’ve emerged on the other side with an even more effective framework for sending customers notifications that they truly want to see. If you want to learn more about how Airship’s Push Notification platform can help your business, click the button below to get in touch. 

Let’s connect

Airship’s platform can help with customer retention.

Contact us today!

The post 3 Lessons from NBC Sports’ Mobile Retention Strategy appeared first on Airship.

While COVID-19 shut down the 2020 tournament before it began, the multi-platform basketball destination, managed by Turner Sports in partnership with the NCAA and CBS Sports, knew one of the MVPs for its record-setting results was a notification, and it all began as an experiment in 2017. 

But first, a little background. 

Few people are more passionate than a sports fan. Whether driven by alma mater, bracket picks, or region/mascot preference, March Madness fans want to immediately know the latest about the games and teams they care about. 

Over the years, Turner Sports has worked extensively to better understand how fans engage with different types of messaging and their broader expectations around content, timing and delivery. Airship’s analytics alongside Turner’s in-house analytics team provide a crucial foundation to optimize product and content strategies, as well as messaging and sponsorship programs. 

The Experiment

Years ago, most March Madness Live notifications provided game highlights and results as well as game time alerts tailored to users’ favorite teams — all aimed at driving users to the app to view live streams or highlights. 

In 2017, Turner Sports developed an algorithm to determine if a game is getting nail-biting close, or poised for an upset or Cinderella story. Excitement Alerts, powered by Airship, became its own category after the algorithm performed well within Games and Teams alerts — and today it is their most popular notification category driving a considerable amount of live minutes.

Excitement Grows 

Now Personalized Bracket Alerts customize the user experience like never before, using predictive scoring and the excitement algorithm with individual’s bracket selections. Alerts include scenarios of what games need to be won to move up in rank and when important games based on brackets are close in score. As a result, users are seeing notifications that are personally relevant and of immediate importance, resulting in live stream viewing that’s 26% longer than regular alerts.

It’s Game Time!

The Airship team couldn’t be more excited for the Tournament. Yes, for the games, but also to see how users respond to a notification system that will keep them in the know and engaged throughout all the Madness.

If you’d like to hear more from the team behind the app, watch their session from Airship’s Elevate 2020.

NCAA March Madness Live is available now to download across mobile devices (iOS, Android) and 18 platforms, including Apple devices, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Xbox One and for the first time, Google TV, offering fans direct access to live coverage of NCAA Tournament games.

Read all about the all-new design and enhanced features of NCAA March Madness Live here.

The post Notification Innovation Is a Live Stream Playmaker for NCAA March Madness Live appeared first on Airship.

The COVID-19 crisis has made clear how we as a society rely on entertainment to enjoy ourselves. In other words, we’ve been dearly missing our movie theaters, our crowded concert halls, and — especially when it comes to marketing — our live sports. Consider that sports make up 26 percent of brands’ global content spend. Yet, due to public health concerns around the coronavirus, the only U.S. sports on TV for months were a few NASCAR and Grand Prix races. The MLB recently came back to record ratings, the NBA is back, and the NFL plans to be soon. Most of college football has been cancelled, and there’s a chance all of it will be.

When we see sports on TV, the viewing experience is different, due to arenas being nearly empty. The MLB is even requiring broadcasters for the visiting team work remotely to limit travel and novel coronavirus exposure. Because of such highly unusual circumstances, sports leagues and their broadcast partners are experimenting with engagement tactics for, not only the game, but the entire production. Here are a few technology-driven developments marketers can expect to see when tuning into games tonight and in the weeks ahead.

Digitizing the Game Experience

It’s been said many times that COVID-19 is speeding up innovation, making brands adopt technology overnight instead of over years. With that in mind, sports marketers were already beginning to lean into mobile and will now do so even more to keep fans engaged.

Last year, the MLB Network began offering real-time pitch-tracking stats on the league’s app. The Cleveland Cavaliers, the Sacramento Kings, and The U.S. Open Tennis Championships have been experimenting with how to engage fans in-stadium with push notifications and other promotions that mesh the jumbotron with smartphones.

Now, some post-COVID-19-era-inspired plans are getting unveiled. For instance, the NBA is using mixed-reality concepts that almost seem like a video game overlaying actual athletics. These aspects include virtual tickets as well as players and fans interacting in real-time via video screens and audio/digital platforms that allow people to “cheer live” for their team. The players can even hear such cyber-cheers in the arena similarly to what the home audience experiences. Indeed, the TV sounds coming out of folks’ personal fan caves may now resemble noises that emerged from dorm rooms back when college kids focused on PlayStations and Xboxes as much as they studied.

At any rate, it is all about keeping fans in their living rooms connected with the games and the broadcasts’ advertising partners. The NBA is looking to achieve those ideas by digitizing the TV experience in ways we’ve never seen before.

Gamifying the Action

Amazon, which has done extremely well as an e-commerce player and OTT provider in recent months, could be unusually well-positioned on yet another front for the weeks ahead. Since January, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has teamed with the MLB, NFL, NASCAR, and Formula 1 to bring more data into live TV action and — while details are few — the possibilities are numerous.

For example, what if AWS helped the NFL figure out the likelihood of different kinds of plays that could be called on third down and seven yards to go (waggle route, screen pass or a toss over the middle to the tight end?) or second down and one yard to go (halfback sweep, wheel route or fly pattern)? What sports fan wouldn’t enjoy such thoughtful, predictive analysis for each kind of situation?

And of course, of interest to CBS, NBC, and ESPN sales executives, brands could sponsor these engagement moments: “And this AWS data point is brought to you by the Ford 2021 F-150.”

Something similar could be accomplished with golf’s biggest event, The Masters, which was postponed from April to November due to COVID-19. Each golfer’s odds — based on their histories with the hole in front of them — could be explained by the broadcasters. “And you can see more predictive stats on the IBM-powered Masters mobile app, which can be downloaded via the Apple and Google app stores in a matter of seconds.”

Improving TV with Mobile Engagement

Lastly, the world will never be quite the same as it was before. Broadcasters and marketers are adapting to the new normal, and we will start to see it all play out with the NBA, MLB, NFL, PGA, and other sports this late summer and fall. On a more granular level, to achieve the greatest engagement, they should test and experiment with these mobile-minded experiences on consumer segments to see what features perform best.

From a longer view, many of these new digital bells and whistles will be utilized far beyond 2020 to generate increasingly better engagement and fandom. Though we have an inkling about what some of these features will look like, it’s going to be fascinating to see what broadcasters and marketers all come up with and where brands can fit into the experience.

Let’s Connect

Let us know how we can help with your messaging strategy during this time.

Contact us today!

The post What Brands Can Expect With Sports TV Back appeared first on Airship.

The Super Bowl is undoubtedly the most watched sporting event in the United States with more than 30% of US population tuning in to watch. In 2018 over 100 million people watched as the Philadelphia Eagles took the win over the New England Patriots in “Super Bowl 52.” Of those viewers, more than 2 million of them were streaming the game on their desktop, mobile devices or connected TV (CTV). Keeping in mind the viewership of this annual tradition and the high rate of adoption among smartphone users in the United States it’s safe to assume that a vast majority of Super Bowl viewers are also smartphone-enabled.

As the cost of 30-second ad campaigns rises to over 5 million dollars during the game, marketing managers are being tasked with finding the most effective ways to target audiences and drive revenue. Understanding user behavior during these games will help you build successful strategies.

Ask the Right Questions About User Activity

By taking a look at the aggregated app open data collected across Airship customers over the course of last year’s Super Bowl Sunday, we’re able to pick out some key moments of audience engagement. With more than 100 million app opens taking place during the course of the game—the question isn’t “Should I engage my audience?” but “When should I engage my audience?”

Take this into consideration:

• During the pre-show, mobile apps saw a 10% uplift in usage over the previous Sunday. As people were gathering to watch the game, sports, social and media apps all saw an increase in activity.

• During the first quarter, app engagement trended downward with it’s lowest engagement point coming just 15 minutes after kick off.

• During the halftime performance, audience engagement hit a game-time low dropping 17% from the games first quarter. However, the minutes following the halftime show had a 25% uplift in app opens with 36% increase over that time the previous week.  

• During the third & fourth quarters, app engagement had leveled to that of the first quarter until the last five minutes of the game where only media and sports app opens saw an increase.

• Post-game is where the magic happened. 30% more app opens occurred in the minutes following the games end than the first quarter average. With media vertical apps taking a large percentage of the app opens, social, sports, gaming, and retail all saw significant increases.

Using data analytic tools like Urban Airship Insight, marketers can track their engagement campaigns down to the specific user making re-engagement more successful than ever. In conjunction with Send Time Optimization, you can place content in front of your users when it’s most impactful.

Take Advantage of Cross Channel Campaigns

With the explosion of engagement channels over the last decade the importance of a moment is more powerful than ever. Leveraging multiple channels is key and we’ve provided some examples below:

SMS – While your audience is messaging their friends about the halftime show and collecting on bets at the end of the game this is a pivotal moment to get quick responses and high open rates for flash deals and immediate content. With global SMS open rates being nearly 95% this channel streamlines the engagement process and gets your content front and center fast, so relevant information key.  

Push Notifications – During Super Bowl 52 Urban Airship customers sent more than 200 million push notifications. The power of push is unparalleled, with 99% uptime, Urban Airship is the global leader in push. With tools like in-app messaging and message center you can reach 100% of your audience. This channel is an effective way to reach your customers for app engagement at peak app time pre and post-game.  

Web Notifications – Provide a straightforward experience for your users by using web notifications to bring your audience back to your website. Whether you’re running a special offer or promoting web content the power of a well-segmented web campaign can drive users to take action. Since a large number of purchase events are still taking place on the desktop, make sure to get your users attention while they are checking game highlights and social media.

(Urban Airship now supports web notifications for Safari – Upgrade your SDK today)

Email – Email is your advocate if your content isn’t urgent. As a largely opted-into channel email gets a lot of traffic once the initial hype of the game has ended. Use email to re-engage your audience and bring them back to your campaigns to take action.

Social – The buzz around the game doesn’t end with the final field goal. Social engagement continues long after the game and it’s more than just a hashtag. Keep your content moving with your audience. As users dissect the plays, the performances, and the commercials you can leverage their interests to bring them back to your brand.

The Super Bowl and other widely viewed events create an opportunity for marketers to reach end users with relevant and timely content that captures the audience in the moments that matter most. With powerful cross-channel platforms like Airship’s Channels Platform, SMS, Email and Web Notifications, we make it easy for brands to build relationships and monitor campaign success.

The post Data Tells a “Super Bowl” Story – Engage Your Audience During the Big Game. appeared first on Airship.

Considering he markets an NBA franchise in the midst of its third straight NBA Finals appearance and includes global icon LeBron James, Michael Conley — the Cleveland Cavaliers’ vice president of digital —  is rarely, if ever, short on material.

But the value digital marketing professionals like Conley drives by engaging with fans has become nearly as important to the franchise as the value James and his Cavaliers provide on the court.

Especially now.

With fans in Cleveland and around the world constantly seeking more information about the team — especially on their mobile devices — Conley and his digital team are always looking for ways to keep fans connected and engaged. One of their key tools is the Cleveland Cavaliers’ mobile app.

Images from the Cleveland Cavaliers mobile app  

“When you download a sports-related app — whether it’s an app for a sports news site, a sports association like the NBA or a team— there’s a lot of passion, emotion and high expectations  behind that decision,” said Bill Schneider, Urban Airship’s senior director of product marketing.

But when brands fail to effectively communicate with their users through their apps, there’s an increased risk of losing their attention and loyalty.

For Conley, who oversees the infrastructure of the Cavaliers’ digital platforms– including the team’s mobile app — understanding what types of information fans are seeking — and delivering it — is golden.

In a SportTechie podcast interview, Conley said competition for attention is high. For example, more and more fans are utilizing multiple screens — including mobile devices —  to experience games that once were being watched primarily on television. That’s a challenge — but also an opportunity.

What Data From 63 Million App Users Reveals About Fan Engagement Best Practices

Push notifications sent from mobile apps are one of the most effective ways for apps to stay connected with users. Sports apps have an especially unique opportunity to deliver what fans are looking for in push notifications: personalized, real-time, messages — which can even include video replays and pictures —  to keep fans in-the know with lineups, scores, stats, upcoming games and much more.

So what do the most successful apps do to make sure they’re delivering the information their users want most in the moment they want it?

In early 2017, Urban Airship completed a data study analyzing 63 million new app users from 1,500 different apps across eight industry verticals to determine the effect push notifications have on mobile app retention rates.

The key finding in the study overall: app publishers lost 95 percent of their audience within 90 days if they didn’t engage them with push notifications.

But, if users received at least one push notification within 90 days after downloading the app, retention rates went from 5 to 10 percent. If notifications arrived weekly, retention rates tripled to 30 percent. And if users received notifications more than daily, 50 percent continued to use the app.

App retention rate trends were even more pronounced on sports-related apps specifically. Urban Airship found apps that effectively communicated through push notifications more than once a day retained 51 percent of Android users and 54 percent of iOS users in the first 90 days. (See more on how the NBA, NHL, PGA Tour and U.S. Open engage users on mobile.)

That’s a powerful endorsement for sending a significant volume of push notifications. But how do you keep users engaged without overdoing it?

How the Best in the NBA are Winning With Push Notifications

Not all push notifications are created equal. Sports apps must be thoughtful about the push notifications they send, making sure they’re relevant to their users’ needs and interests, says Schneider.

To stay competitive in a 24-7 sports news environment, NBA teams like the Cavaliers and Kings are making the most of push notifications sent from their app with rich notifications, which can include video and emojis, as well as text notifications that alert fans to highlights, stats and scores.

“The best thing to do — and t is part of our core principle — is to listen to your fans, listen to what they want, look at what they’re engaging with and don’t try to fool yourself that you can out-smart them,” Conley said.

Like Conley, Ryan Montoya, the Sacramento Kings’ chief technology officer, remains diligent in his efforts to guarantee the information the Kings offer in their app and promote through push notifications is not only meaningful, but engaging.

Images from the Sacramento Kings mobile app

Doing so, Montoya said, goes a long way in keeping the Kings ahead of the curve — and their digital competition.

“We know our audience is informed and can get information from multiple sources,” Montoya said. “Our objective is to push breaking news and player updates, as well as content that engages fan beyond the lines of the court.”

Conley and Montoya agree: getting granular in understanding what app users want to know about is critical for delivering an engaging experience.

“With mobile,” said Urban Airship’s Schneider, “it’s possible to understand in an extremely detailed way what content your users are interacting with the most by tracking app usage patterns. User-level customer intelligence is a critical factor in creating an ultra-personalized experience that keeps fans coming back. It’s also now possible, with machine learning, to understand which of your users are at risk of going dormant or deleting your app, so you can take action to re-engage them before they go.”

Download the Sacramento Kings case study for more details on how the Kings are boosting fan engagement with mobile.

Staying in the Game

All the best, most sophisticated communication technology in the world won’t matter if no one’s paying attention. Because of the unique power of push notifications as a channel (opt-in rates for push notifications are at 44 percent – up from 41 percent just two years ago) it’s a communication tool modern marketers can’t afford to ignore.

Conley remains committed to remaining as connected to his audience as the NBA audience is to its heroes.“If we really approached every single project and every day with that mindset — with the idea of being able to deliver a great fan experience and solve problems for our fans with technology,” Conley said, ”we look at that as a success.”

Download the Urban Airship data study How Push Notifications Impact Sports & Rec App Retention Rates to learn more about mobile app and push notification best practices, including ideal push notification frequency for sports & recreation apps.

This article originally appeared in SportTechie

The post How the Cavaliers and Kings Drive Fan Engagement With Push Notifications appeared first on Airship.

If you’re a digital marketer, you’re always looking for the best ways to keep your customers connected to your brand. GameStop is no exception.

GameStop’s extremely popular app keeps their customers connected to their brand, helping them stay up to date with the gaming news they care about the most.

The app also makes it easy for GameStop customers to keep track of discount codes and coupons, make purchases and see their PowerUp RewardsTM  loyalty program points anytime.

The goal for GameStop is to be wherever their customers are.

“We don’t see our business in terms of channels, and we work hard to focus on the user to fulfill their needs regardless of where, and in what context they choose to interact with us,” said Bill Graham, director of multichannel operations at GameStop.

Personalize Messaging Based on User Preferences

The GameStop app uses our solutions for push notifications, message center and mobile wallet to communicate with users. Users can pick and choose what sorts of notifications they would like to receive such as promotions, PowerUp rewards, and account activity.

“By using our business system of record to create lists and Urban Airship’s mobile messaging capabilities, we can deliver a customized experience for our users to give them content related to what they care most about,” said Graham.

GameStop’s push notifications preference center allows users to choose exactly which message they do — and don't — want to receive.

Why This Works

Taking a personalized approach creates better engagement. In fact, our research shows targeted push notifications earn 4-7x higher response rates when sent to a more curated audience.

“By using our business system of record to create lists and Urban Airship’s mobile messaging capabilities, we can deliver a customized experience for our users to give them content related to what they care most about.”
– Bill Graham, Director of Multichannel Operations, GameStop

Combining Push Notifications & Message Center Content

When GameStop sends push notifications, they often pair them with in-app message center content. When they combine the two, they typically see an 8x increase in read rates. (Which, coincidentally, is exactly the lift our mobile engagement benchmark research shows marketers can expect when combining these two channels.)

For example, a promotional offer for a “Buy 2 pre-owned products, get 1 free,” could be delivered via push notification to its list of “Top Scoring Pro Members” (their most loyal members who had met a reward point threshold), with content also appearing in the message center.

GameStop’s team develops custom HTML5 pages to create a visually compelling message center. When a user taps on the content, they’re taken to the related destination in the app or GameStop’s mobile website. 

GameStop’s HTML-rich message center content is another way to deliver mobile marketing campaign messages to their app users. Message content is often paired with a push notification and deep links back to the most relevant place in their app or on their mobile website.  

Why This Works

Combining push notifications and message center messages just makes sense. In addition to the increased read rates, message centers on their own are a great way to reach users who have opted out of receiving push notifications.

Message center content also stays in the app (although marketers do have the option to “expire” content to keep the inbox clutter free) making it an ideal channel to share information or offers customers will want to refer back to.

Another example of GameStop's message center content.

Explore Adding Mobile Wallet to the Mix

GameStop also provides a mobile wallet loyalty card and mobile wallet coupons for easy access when shopping online or in store.

“GameStop’s PowerUp Rewards loyalty program is one of the fastest growing loyalty programs in retail, and we continue to make enhancements so rewards can be issued monthly and customized to each customer’s preferences,” said Darin Smith, senior director of GameStop’s PowerUp Rewards program. “Mobile wallets give us another highly visible and convenient way to reach more customers with the personalized benefits of our exclusive loyalty program.”

According to Loyalty360, PowerUp members drove 71% of GameStop's sales volume in the U.S. last year, so providing an easy way to access their rewards card is important.

“Mobile wallets give us another highly visible and convenient way to reach more customers with the personalized benefits of our exclusive loyalty program.”
– Darin Smith, Senior Director, GameStop PowerUp Rewards Program

More than 339k users have downloaded the GameStop loyalty card, and nearly all of them keep it — GameStop sees retention rate for this pass consistently over 90% month-over-month.

Why This Works

Research shows consumers want to use digital wallet more often. Mobile wallet passes help brands reach new customers and extend their mobile footprint. Use it to grow loyalty programs, share coupons, boarding passes, tickets or gift cards and much, much more.  

PowerUp Rewards loyalty members can also add their membership card to their phone via Wallet.

Invest in Mobile to Grow Your Business

GameStop has seen their mobile traffic and revenue grow significantly over the last year. They attribute much of their success to better engaging their most loyal customers on mobile.

“Our aim is to connect and unify [all of our] different touchpoints to drive engagement, loyalty, and ultimately purchases — regardless of channel,” said Bill Graham, director of multichannel operations at GameStop.

Ready to Get Started?

Want to learn more about the solutions that power GameStop’s Success? Check out these resources:

Urban Airship’s Engage solution: Send personalized push notifications, in-app messages and message center content with our easy-to-install SDK.

Urban Airship’s Reach solution: From coupons to loyalty cards, use mobile wallet to increase your mobile footprint. You can get started with minimal developer resources, and be up in running as quickly as two weeks.

Want to chat? Talk to one of our solutions experts to talk through where you may be missing opportunities to drive mobile growth for your brand. Contact us anytime.

The post GameStop’s Playbook for Winning With Mobile Marketing appeared first on Airship.

While retailers like Toys R Us plan to open at 5:00 pm Thanksgiving Day and stay open 30 straight hours, REI is choosing a different path for Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year.

For the second year in a row, REI will close its doors and give employees the day off on Black Friday, encouraging people to #OptOutside — encouraging people to spend time outdoors instead of shopping. Online, REI’s shoppers can put items in their cart, but no orders will be processed on Black Friday.

This year, REI has united more than 365 partners — non-profits, government and corporations — doubling the partner organizations participating last year, to build momentum and inspire millions of people to hit trails, parks, slopes and waterways on November 25. With the increase in partners and more than 1 million people signed up to join REI in choosing to #OptOutside on Black Friday, the business impact is sure to be even higher this year.

The #OptOutside Mobile Experience

REI is using many marketing channels to get their #OptOutside campaign messages out. They’re also using multiple mobile messaging channels in really smart ways.

Let’s take a look at the mobile engagement experience REI is creating this year with its #OptOutside campaign — from push notifications to rich landing pages to social media.

1) Push Notifications

It starts with a push notification announcing the campaign, together with an invitation to join in:

2) Rich In-App Landing Pages

Sliding the notification takes the user to a rich landing page within the app providing more information, including a video that takes the view from audio reports of Black Friday shopping madness to the loud, chaotic sounds of a shopping center…to the peaceful sounds of nature in the beautiful outdoors.

Hitting the “Join us” button takes the user to another page in the app with more information on the campaign, and the invitation to “#optoutside with us.”

From there, the user sees more landing pages with visual examples of outdoor activity, and the ability to search by location or by activity to find ideas to participate in:

3) Linking Mobile & Email 

The next page takes the user to a signup option within the app, where they can enter their email address to hear more about the campaign, together with more ideas for opting outside.

4) Linking Mobile & Social

And to take it one step further, REI invites the user to “tell the world” on social media that they have joined the movement, to inspire others to join in. In 2015, more than 1.4 million used the hashtag on social media; 96% of those posts were positive.

5) Leveraging App Update Page in the Apple Store for Campaign Messaging

REI even promotes the campaign as part of their app update, using that often-overlooked space as another touchpoint to share their message:

Authentic Customer & Employee Engagement

REI has hit the mark on many levels with this campaign, from brand awareness to PR to mobile engagement to business results. Why does this campaign work so well for REI?

It’s true to their brand promise & values: The message of this campaign is authentic to REI’s brand promise: helping customers enjoy all that nature and the outdoors have to offer. #OptOutside is becoming nothing short of a movement about a shift in priorities.

REI is creating a new holiday tradition, while also deepening its investment in its brand. #OptOutside is one facet of a year-round effort to encourage people to spend time outside. Other aspects of the campaign include REI’s suite of apps, including the National Parks app, Hiking Project, MTB Project, and Trail Run Project apps.

Leveraging both customer & employee engagement: REI’s President & CEO Jerry Stritzke told The Associated Press that last year, the company’s #OptOutside campaign gained momentum on social media from various outdoor groups. He said he saw more than 20,000 social media posts from REI’s 12,000 employees alone. This enthusiasm is certain to come through when they get back to work and interact with customers.

Bottom Line Results

Not only did last year’s decision to close its stores on Black Friday generate significant amounts of positive press for REI, according to industry journal Retail TouchPoints, it also resulted in a 9.3% increase in revenues and a 7% increase in year-over-year store sales.

But perhaps the most intriguing result was a 23% uptick in digital sales.

Then again, perhaps we shouldn’t be so surprised. After all, in 2015, for the very first time, the number of people shopping online surpassed the number venturing into traditional stores, according to the National Retail Federation’s 2015 Thanksgiving weekend survey.

And of those Black Friday online shoppers, more than half — a whopping 57.2% — were shopping on mobile devices, a 174% rise from 2014, according to IBM.

Does Your Mobile Strategy Measure Up?

One more stat to leave you with: a recent survey from Adobe and Econsultancy found that 48% of organizations still do not have a mobile strategy in place. Don’t be one of them. The business case is clear for your brand to follow in REI’s hiking-boot-prints and think mobile first this holiday season and beyond. 

Check back on this blog (subscribe now if you haven’t already!) to get your copy of our upcoming 2016 mobile shopping holiday report. You’ll see how mobile’s role in holiday shopping continues to evolve — and learn new tactics and approaches that can help you build your mobile strategy, and increase mobile engagement. You can see our 2015 Holiday Shopping Report here.

If your brand needs to get up to speed on mobile — or elevate your current approach — our Strategic Services Team can help. We bring together all the key players on your team, from developers to IT to product managers and marketers, to help you create a cohesive strategy, value proposition and executable plan. Contact us today to set up a free consultation.

The post REI #OptOutside Campaign Highlights Mobile Messaging Best Practices appeared first on Airship.

Growing up on Long Island and being an avid tennis player, I always yearned to go to the US Open. But for various reasons, I could never make it happen. I would watch matches on tv or read about them online or in the paper, wishing I could have been there to experience all the action up close and in person.

So imagine my happiness when I had the opportunity to go for the first time this year. And not only that, I got to take along my Dad who, at 83, had wanted to go almost as badly as I did for years, but had never gone either.

And after so many years of anticipation, the event was everything I had dreamed it would be. It was magical. And a big part of what made it magical was, believe it or not, the US Open app.

A Mobile Experience That Felt Like Having a Personal Concierge at My Fingertips

How many event apps have you downloaded that don’t go beyond the basics? Many do little more than list out the day’s events – basically the same experience you could get from a paper program or a website.

As an on-site guest at the US Open, I had a completely different experience. The app covered the basics, but went way, way beyond. The Open team clearly spent time and effort considering what elements would surprise and delight guests, and executed against them flawlessly.

The result was an app that met and anticipated my needs while surprising me with extras and perks with a wow factor.

 Urban Airship is proud to work with the US Open to meet their goals and enhance the app user experience by creating amazing mobile moments. Learn more in our case study.

Here’s a highlight reel of how the US Open app helped make my experience magical:

Red-Carpet Welcome  

It started with a beacon-powered welcome message when I passed through the entrance gates. The message immediately got me oriented to the basics: the day’s schedule, events around the grounds and how to access free wi-fi to make my digital experience free, fast and friction-less.

In-App Message Center

Once in the app, I found a number of great features to help wrap the Open around me so I didn’t miss a thing!

The Inbox offered me a central place for me to see and manage all of my messages for the day. It would provide me with details on the grounds that day, services that I hadn’t yet taken advantage of like the fancam or on demand video replay — and of course, a reminder of featured matchplay.

Personalized Content

The app invited me to follow my favorite players so I could stay up to date on their latest scores. This was really handy when I had to pop out of my seat to grab a drink and a pretzel.

Real-Time Notifications on Match Play, Rain Delays & More

The app also gave me up-to-the-minute updates on match play so I didn’t miss a thing, even if there was a rain delay. And they wisely gave me control on whether I wanted to receive notifications on my favorite players.

Extra Mobile Perks

While not directly connected to messaging, two extra mobile-related perks were extremely memorable.

The first was the “Charge & Watch” device. This allowed me to get instant replays of the action AND charge my phone at the same time.  (Who wouldn’t want to replay that beautiful Wawrinka backhand over and over and over again?)

The second was the in-stadium fan cam that allowed guests to take a selfie from a number of cameras in the stadium. I wish I had taken advantage of it, but I was so wrapped up in match play that I forgot! Oh well, next time.

Integrating Mobile into Your Next Event: Going From Great to Epic

Bottom line, I had an incredible, memorable experience watching amazing athletes from around the world vie for their chance to win one of the biggest prizes in sports. What’s not to love.

But it was even better with a virtual concierge in my pocket keeping me up to speed and in the know on everything that was happening.   

That kind of experience is what takes mobile engagement from great to epic.

Want to brainstorm ideas for your next event? Our team is ready and willing to share what works for brands of all kinds and sizes. Get in touch anytime and let’s get started!

The post The US Open Mobile App: A Personalized Mobile Concierge appeared first on Airship.

Not only can Sprint customers watch every live match of 2016 Copa América Centenario for free with no data charges when they sign up for the fuboTV app (after 60 days, pay $9.99/mo plus data usage), Sprint’s next-level sweepstakes offers the chance to win daily prizes including a VIP trip to attend the final match. (No purchase necessary to enter. See details at sprint.com/copa.)

To fulfill both short- and long-term engagement objectives, Sprint is enabling sweepstakes participants to download a personalized mobile wallet pass powered by Urban Airship Reach.

“Wallet offered us a new and impactful way of reconnecting with soccer fans throughout the tournament,” said Luis Martinez, Digital Lead, Multicultural Marketing at Sprint.

“Wallet offered us a new and impactful way of reconnecting with soccer fans throughout the tournament,” said Luis Martinez, Digital Lead, Multicultural Marketing at Sprint. With 16 teams and 32 matches taking place from June 3rd-26th, fans’ excitement is already high with thousands of wallet passes downloaded in the weeks leading up to Copa.

Mobile wallet passes offered Sprint a highly visible way to engage sweepstakes entrants, opening up an ongoing mobile messaging channel and keeping fans informed of extra entries earned based on the number of goals their favorite team has scored throughout the tournament.

The back of the pass contains links to keep entrants connected to the broader world of Sprint and Copa including its dedicated website and Sprint’s social channels where various activities also earn extra sweepstakes entries.

¡GOAL! Why Sprint Turned to Urban Airship Reach

Urban Airship Reach offered an ideal solution for Sprint to engage with soccer fans in a highly visible way and on a short timeline — from conception to execution, the mobile wallet campaign only took three weeks. In addition, the brilliant way that Sprint is utilizing Wallet extends a traditionally short-lived sweepstakes time period into a longer-term play for fan engagement.

“In the short-term, we hope to add value to the sweepstakes and the Copa experience via fans’ mobile wallet,” said Martinez. “In the longer term, we hope to create a new marketing channel, targeting soccer fans with relevant messaging and offers, ultimately designed to move the pass holder down the funnel to conversion.”

For Sprint, Copa is a chance to reach out to the millions of soccer fans in the U.S. who are coming together to witness these historic games, and mobile wallets are key to easily extending that engagement.

An example of a game time notification a pass holder would receive on iOS.

Go For the Win!

Click here with your mobile device to enter the sweepstakes, download the mobile wallet pass and get your game on with the chance to win daily prizes such as a TAG Heuer Watch, Samsung electronics, Nike Soccer Gear, soccer memorabilia signed by David Beckham and other legends and, of course, a VIP trip for 2 to attend the final game!

As more and more companies explore the new world of mobile engagement that wallets unlock, don’t hesitate to contact us for inspiration on your winning game plan, or get started now with a free trial of Urban Airship Reach.

The post Sprint Goes for the Goal at Copa América with Mobile Wallet appeared first on Airship.

Looking at the app, there are a lot of things they are doing really well to drive greater mobile engagement with their primary audience: fans.

1) The Opening Tip: Mobile App Onboarding

Upon opening the app for the first time, you are greeted with a timely, custom “Finals Edition” homescreen. The app then asks for permission to send push notifications and use your location to provide a better user experience.

The NBA app takes advantage of increased engagement during the playoffs by releasing a special edition.

2) Driving Toward Conversion

After completing the notification and location permissions, you’re brought to the main screen of the app and shown a game schedule (which is great utility, as schedule and score updates are likely the main reasons most fans go to the app).

You are also given the option to set alerts for the game, which could be considered a conversion since that person is then much more likely to check back into the app to stay up-to-date on the score, or even tune in to watch it on TV while using the app to stay current on in-game stats. The fan can also select a “favorite team” to make sure they don’t miss any important events or information related to their #1 team.

3) Scoring with Mobile App Retention

The NBA app sends notifications related to your favorite teams and allows you to watch game recaps and highlights, which can keep users actively engaging with the app. Fans can get a custom feed of updates, such as when one of their favorite players breaks a personal record, or excitement alerts for big moments. This is a great way to use a user’s loyalty to their favorite players and teams to create loyalty to the app — and brand.

4) Off-Season Re-Engagement

The off-season is a natural time for fan engagement to drop off within the app since there are no games scheduled. But, this time also provides the opportunity for the NBA to re-engage its audience by sending alerts about draft picks and team roster announcements, as well as classic content and clips based on their preferences. Those users with an NBA League Pass subscription can use the app to watch entire on-demand archived playoff and regular-season games from their favorite device, including classic NBA games.

All of this is a great way to keep fans engaged in the off-season, and then once again get them excited for the next season’s tip-off when the time is right!

Mobile App Best Practices

Mobile app marketing, when done right, provides true utility to users and the NBA app demonstrates many mobile best practices. Want to learn more about how your app can keep users engaged? Check out our guide, 10 Mobile Engagement Best Practices Explained, for more tips and tricks.

The post How the NBA App Engages Fans appeared first on Airship.