The Minnesota Timberwolves ran a 10-day social media campaign called #WolvesMadness to increase engagement with fans. During games, they promoted the campaign on screens and had fans participate in contests using hashtags. This led to over 325,000 website visits, a 27% increase, along with 12,000 new fan profiles collected. The Timberwolves were able to better understand their fans and increase fan lifetime value through the integrated online and offline promotion.

1. Shoutlet, Inc. 2014 • v14.01 shoutlet.com • facebook.com/shoutlet • twitter.com/shoutlet
NBA TEAM INCREASES FAN LIFETIME
VALUE WITH ONLINE-OFFLINE PROMOTION
THE MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES LEVERAGE SOCIAL DURING BASKETBALL
GAMES FOR INCREASED REACH, REFERRALS, AND DATA COLLECTION
GOAL
ACHIEVE CONNECTION AND STRENGTHEN RELATIONSHIP WITH FANS
NBA team The Minnesota Timberwolves looked to directly connect and
communicate with their fans in real-time conversations by bringing social
media into the arena during games. They sought to increase reach and
referral traffic to their website, collect data on their fans, and ultimately
increase fan lifetime value to drive ticket sales and merchandise.
CAMPAIGN
#WOLVESMADNESS
The Timberwolves initiated a ten-day campaign around
a single hashtag: #WolvesMadness. Timberwolves
fans followed the hashtag for opportunities to unlock
incentives, including giveaways, foundation donations,
and player meet-and-greets. Random winners were
selected throughout the duration of the campaign
to receive prizes available exclusively through social
media. The campaign ended with Social Media Night:
an interactive, live-streamed pregame show hosted
by the Timberwolves’ web and social teams.
In addition to social, the Timberwolves brought the
campaign to live games. In-arena promotions included,
“Tweet #WolvesMadness” displayed on the scoreboard,
social contests encouraging fans to submit votes using
Twitter, and audience members holding #WolvesMadness
letters during the third quarter. The campaign also
received promotion on Fox Sports North during
Timberwolves telecasts.

2. Shoutlet, Inc. 2014 • v14.01 shoutlet.com • facebook.com/shoutlet • twitter.com/shoutlet
“As a sports organization,
we know fan engagement
leads to ticket purchases.
Shoutlet allows us to
create and manage fan
moments, making them
feel more connected
with our team. In sports,
fan engagement is
everything!”
Bridget Anderson
Social Media Coordinator
The Minnesota
Timberwolves
HOW SHOUTLET HELPED
The Minnesota Timberwolves used Shoutlet Social Contests™ to filter in the use
of #WolvesMadness and other supplemental campaign hashtags to monitor
participation and sentiment. The in-arena contests that asked fans to vote on
certain outcomes using hashtags were monitored similarly to the #WolvesMadness
hashtag, through contest filters. The intuitive and efficient nature of monitoring
contests through Shoutlet afforded the team additional time to improve strategy
as the campaign progressed.
Additionally, the team used Social CRM to monitor and respond to fans interacting
with the contest and the Calendar to plan and schedule promotional posts for the
entire campaign in advance, allowing for more structure and organization
throughout.
Shoutlet provided an end-to-end solution, which enabled the Timberwolves
to connect an online promotion with an offline campaign, ultimately improving
the lifetime value for each of their fans. The crossover increased reach and
engagement, boosted web traffic, and abetted the collection of new Shoutlet
Profiles providing a full picture of the Minnesota Timberwolves customer for
more targeted efforts in the future.
RESULTS
The campaign referred over 325,000 visitors to the team’s
site during the time it was live, a 27% increase over an
average time period of the same length, driving merchandise
and ticket sales. The team noticed the highest traffic to
their website came during promotions on Fox Sports
North, proving the importance of socializing TV viewing.
On social, the team noted a 12.4% increase in Twitter
engagement attributable to the campaign, and fans
used hashtag #WolvesMadness over 5,000 times while
the campaign was live. In all, the campaign attained a
social reach of 334,356 and made over 628,000 social
impressions in ten days.
The social aspect of the promotion allowed the
Timberwolves to gather data and insights about their
fans, which flowed directly into their Shoutlet Profiles
database. In all, over 12,000 new fan profiles were created,
a segment the team plans to target with future sales and
marketing campaigns.
KPIs for the Timberwolves to measure customer lifetime
value include website referrals, social engagement,
and fan data collection. Optimizing each through the
#WolvesMadness campaign will help achieve higher
downstream value with fans.
ABOUT SHOUTLET, INC.
Shoutlet is a leading independent enterprise-class cloud-based social marketing platform that
enables marketers to publish, engage, and measure social marketing campaigns and activities on
social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and YouTube. Its industry-
leading, enterprise class functionality includes tools for social CRM, creative design, social listening,
ads, workflow management, contest design and execution, and top-notch analytics for easy integration
with the industry’s leading web analytics tools from Google Analytics, IBM Digital Analytics, Omniture,
and Webtrends. Shoutlet’s SaaS-based model gives customers the control and flexibility they want
and need, and is rooted in a strategic partnership that provides the necessary resources and counsel
to execute successful social campaigns.
27% INCREASE
IN WEBSITE
REFERRAL TRAFFIC
325,000 VISITORS
TO WEBSITE, DURING
CAMPAIGN PERIOD
12,000+
NEW SHOUTLET
PROFILES COLLECTED
628,385
SOCIAL
IMPRESSIONS
334,356
SOCIAL
REACH
12.4% INCREASE
IN TWITTER
ENGAGEMENT