IMS POV describing the key emotional motivators driving the fan's relationship with their teams, and implications of how teams can tap into these motivators.

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Topic: Key Motivators of an Awesome Fan Experience
Overview:
What drives the fan experience? What are the psychological and motivational needs fans seek out while
watching a sporting event or supporting a team? Do those needs change based on the venue – whether
at the event, in a social setting outside of the home, or in home?
IMS believes fan motivations are grounded in the core motivations we all share. When teams or venues
deploy strategies and tactics that tap into these core motivators, they have the opportunity to more fully
develop and deepen their relationship with those fans.
The following is the foundation for our thinking, along with IMS implications.
A Theory of Human Motivation
Maslow’s Motivational Needs Still Apply:
The father of Motivational Theory, Abraham Maslow, developed his initial Hierarchy of Needs back in
the 1940’s. He believed that every individual strives to achieve the highest possible level of emotional
fulfillment they can. At any given point in time, individuals achieve some degree of fulfillment against
every level of motivation highlighted above, but the basis of consistently achieving higher levels of
emotional satisfaction is grounded on being satisfied at lower levels. If a person is found wanting at a
lower level of motivation, it is harder to consistently achieve a higher level of fulfillment.

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Motivational Theory Applied To Sporting Event Participation:
IMS believes a specific sub-set of motivators are highly exaggerated for the sports fan, revolving around
Belonging Needs: Feeling Connected To Team and To Each Other
This sense of belonging and connectedness goes beyond a fellow kinship and camaraderie; it’s a
“singular oneness” committed to a higher goal or purpose.

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Pending the venue, we believe this same need for connection and belonging can be enhanced in the
“sports bar” environment as well

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Of course, when taken to the extreme, this “madness of crowds” creates a dysfunctional environment
Esteem Needs: Being Recognized and Acknowledged
The vast majority of fan recognition activities are one-off promotions such as

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Fans want more personalized recognition and esteem. In the absence of more formal team driven
acknowledgment, Social Media helps provide a forum
Fans express their knowledge and expertise through various activities

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Cognitive Needs: Improving the Fan’s Knowledge about the Team and the Sport

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Aesthetic Needs: The Appreciation for the Athlete & Their Natural Abilities
Fans deeply admire and appreciate the acts of natural beauty, balance and form exhibited by top level
athletes.

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So What’s This Mean For Your Fan Engagement Strategies?
Observations:
• Without formal help, fans will create opportunities to rally together around the common cause.
• Fans view of their interactions with their teams as a relationship, not just isolated interactions.
• Because deep, lasting relationships are never one sided, fans want individual reciprocation for
their support and loyalty.
• Fans continue to strive for reward and recognition on a more personal level.
• Fans want to increase their intimacy with the team and more specifically with the players.
Implications:
• The in-home live event viewing experience cannot match the in-venue experience for providing
the deeper emotional needs related to belonging and esteem.
• Develop more formal and frequent ways of encouraging fans to connect with each other and the
team.
• Create more formal and frequent ways of rewarding, surprising and delighting fans based on
their individual needs.
• Deploy a Promotions Platform that can connect and unify fans through common promotions on
an event by event, and in-event basis.
• Make sure your Data Integration platform provides real-time, fan-centric transaction data to
gather insight on what individual fan purchase habits and preferences are.
• Segmenting fans becomes more relevant and actionable when insights are driven by fan-centric
data.
• Make sure your Data Integration platform can easily integrate and provide this same data with
other networked venues.
• Your Promotions Platform must be able to deliver fan-specific rewards and acknowledgement,
preferably in real-time to surprise and delight fans.
• Make sure your Promotions Platform can take advantage of your fans’ social media engagement
with real-time cross-channel promotion.
See our “Key Enablers of an Awesome Fan Experience” to see how fans are using newer
mobile and social media technologies to deepen their emotional connections with teams.