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InCrowd announce Stepathlon partnership

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InCrowd is pleased to announce a new partnership with mass participation and wellness experts Stepathlon.

InCrowd will be helping the team to drive forward their “movement for movement” initiative to improve physical and mental health with maximum inclusivity, a mission that has already engaged fans from some of the world’s largest sports organisations.

Stepathlon will be utilising InCrowd’s Content Management System and Fan Data Platform alongside their soon to launch upgraded fan and community engagement app to deliver targeted and relevant content to the right audience, at the right time.

It’s so great to be working in partnership with  InCrowd; the passion and world class expertise the team always bring is both hugely reassuring and exciting.

Nick Rusling, Managing Director

InCrowd shortlisted for Sports Technology Award

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InCrowd is thrilled to be shortlisted for Partnership Of The Year at the #STA2023 awards with Crystal Palace Football Club.

This recognition honours a hugely successful year working with the brilliant team at CPFC, helping to deliver fully connected, data-led digital experiences for fans and new exciting commercial opportunities for the club and its brand partners.

Together, CPFC and InCrowd have delivered a suite of new fan-facing digital channels, managed by a central Digital Experience Platform and underpinned by a connected Fan Data Platform, enabling CPFC to create an unrivalled digital experience with personalised experiences for fans, and driving commercial growth. Results include:

  • Record membership revenue
  • Record subscription revenue 
  • Record hospitality enquiries and conversion 
  • Record online retail revenue
  • Enhanced commercial partnerships including significant digital inventory 

“It has been apparent from day one that InCrowd approaches our relationship as a true partnership, and are committed to helping us solve business challenges and drive commercial growth.”

James Woodroof, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, Crystal Palace FC

Gymnastics Australia appoints InCrowd

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Gymnastics Australia, the national governing body for gymnastics within Australia and the 8 State & Territory Associations have agreed an exciting partnership with InCrowd to launch new digital platforms at the end of this year.

Established in 1949, Gymnastics Australia’s mission is to promote, develop and grow gymnastics for the enjoyment of all, and a key part of this strategy is to enhance the digital experience for its new and existing audiences. Having undergone brand and data transformations in the last couple of years, Gymnastics Australia’s focus has turned to the website platforms and how the online experience can be improved to drive better value for the organisation and its members.

InCrowd has a proven track record of producing industry-leading fan technology, data driven solutions and professional services for it’s portfolio of clients that includes UEFA, Major League Soccer, United Rugby Championship (URC), Premiership Rugby, EuroLeague Basketball, Formula 1, ECB, Rugby Football League, World Snooker and a number of Premier League and Championship football clubs.

In Australia and New Zealand, InCrowd is currently working with organisations such as the AFL, Fijian Drua Rugby and Golf Australia, and delivers in-stadia LED display technology across 41 venues including the SCG, GMHBA Stadium, Stadium Australia and CommBank Stadium.

The new websites will be built upon InCrowd’s Digital Experience Platform, Bridge, which includes a sports specific headless CMS, digital asset manager, fan activations, reporting & insights and audience targeting tools that enable personalised content delivery and communications based on 1st party data.

InCrowd’s Head of Partnerships AU & NZ Seb Lear said “the sport of Gymnastics in Australia is heading into an incredible period.. With the Commonwealth Games coming to Victoria in 2026, and the Brisbane Olympics in 2032, InCrowd is extremely excited to support Gymnastics Australia and the State & Territory associations in capitalising on these milestone events. By delivering best in class digital platforms that engage new and existing audiences,

InCrowd believes that these fan-first developments by Gymnastics Australia will enable the sport to continue to grow and thrive for years to come.”

Alexandra Ash, Chief Executive Officer at Gymnastics Australia added “We’re thrilled to partner with InCrowd, an organisation which constantly pushes the boundaries in providing a unique digital experience for sports fans around the world. ”

“This is a significant and welcome partnership for Gymnastics in Australia as we enter what is an exciting decade of sport in this country. We look forward to working with Seb and the entire InCrowd team to engage further with our members and supporters.”

“Changing the game”: WEURO22 Content

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InCrowd’s Women’s Football Content Lead Helma von Zadow and Content Team Lead Sam Adams reflect back on the highly collaborative effort from both the InCrowd and UEFA teams, creating a content strategy that smashed through objectives, welcomed new audiences and helped to usher in a new era for women’s football.

“Having some of these experiences… it doesn’t feel like work. We are creating content for sport which is something we are all truly passionate about. We love what we do.” Helma von Zadow (Women’s Football Content Lead)

Read the full article HERE 

Norwich City FC & InCrowd launch new official app

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Another really exciting day for InCrowd!

The new Norwich City Football Club app is the “one stop shop” for all things Canaries, right there in the pocket of the NCFC fans.

Fans now have easy and instant access to all the latest news, live match updates, online shop, games and much more.

With new rich push notifications, fans will never miss an update, and be the first to know with the apps ‘breaking news’ feature. Matchday notifications will deliver fans line-ups, goals, stats, half time and full-time results.

Fans will also be given there say, with the delivery of a new player of the match featured poll.

With easy access to Canaries TV, users can also watch and listen to available content through the app on your mobile.

Next on the agenda, the team will work together to increase the app’s functionality and user experience, whilst working towards an advanced mobile ticketing feature to allow fans to keep all matchday tickets in one place.

Download the app now to see for yourselves!

📱 Apple App Store

📱 Google Play Store

InCrowd drives big numbers for Finalissima 22

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The InCrowd content team turned their attention to Finalissima 2022 last week, creating content across UEFA EURO social channels and website for the showdown between EURO 2020 winners Italy and Copa América victors Argentina.

With Messi in town, hopes for a trademark performance were high and it was no surprise that the top posts across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok all featured Leo! Highlights include:

  • 11.5 MILLION views of Lionel Messi highlights video on Facebook; the biggest post across EURO channels this year
  • 1.9 MILLION plays and 300k likes of the Messi arrival Reel on Instagram, in collaboration with Copa América

Next, the team turn their attention to the UEFA Women’s EURO, already gathering momentum in the build up to kick off on Wednesday 6th July at Old Trafford as England take on Austria.

To find out more about InCrowd’s content services, visit www.incrowdsports.com or get in touch directly on enquiries@incrowdsports.com

InCrowd and The ECB win Sports Technology Award

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Last night InCrowd and England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) were delighted to be named Sports Technology Partnership of the Year, at the Sports Technology Awards 2022, expertly run by The STA Group.

This was a highly competitive category, with the other shortlisted contenders all having great years. Thanks again to those at The STA Group for hosting such a special evening!

Here’s to another great year and summer ahead with The Hundred!

For the full list of winners, click here

InCrowd and the ECB now look to Summer 2022 and the plans already unfolding to make the return of The Hundred even bigger and better than 2021 – download the app now, and keep an eye out!

To find out more about InCrowd Customer Data and Fan experiences products, visit www.incrowdsports.com or get in touch directly on enquiries@incrowdsports.com to set up a quick all


Euroleague and InCrowd launch new official app

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Euroleague Basketball launch new official app!

To accompany their new website, built by UNRVLD and powered by InCrowd’s digital experience platform, Bridge, Euroleague and InCrowd are pleased to announce the launch of a new iOS and Android app.

The new app allows fans to keep up to date with the action from all three competitions, this time right in the pocket of the Euroleague fan. Live match updates, box scores, play by plays, video and dynamic news feeds mean that fans will never miss a moment…

Find out more HERE

Exciting times ahead as InCrowd expands it’s broad product and services offering into a more diverse roster of sports. To find out more visit www.incrowdsports.com or get in touch directly on enquiries@incrowdsports.com


InCrowd Welcomes Simon Thomas as Chairman

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With significant growth in the UK and International markets in the last three years, InCrowd has appointed Simon Thomas, as Chairman of its Board of Directors. A leader in the evolution of commercial sports marketing during his time at TEAM Marketing, FIFA and Fox, Thomas will guide the Board and shareholders, whilst offering strategic advice and support to the senior management team.

“We are absolutely thrilled that Simon has agreed to join InCrowd as Chairman. His appointment adds to a number of new senior executive appointments we have made in the past year. The level of experience that Simon brings both in terms of his standing in the industry and as a specialist in organisational transformation and development, should turbo-charge our next phase of growth across multiple new territories .”

Thomas adds, “I have great respect for Aidan; as the founder of Opta Sports, he has a great track record and enormous experience in this area. At InCrowd he has built a strong team and the progression of the business in just 6 years is impressive. Product innovation to crack the digital challenge is paramount, along with client success and the creation of strong and trusted relationships. It’s an exciting era for the business and I’m very happy to join the team.”

Over the last 18 months, sport has seen a distinct acceleration in its digital transformation, as organisations realise the importance of truly knowing, connecting and engaging with fans on a deeper and personalised level through better use of first party data and premium fan facing platforms.

In response to this, InCrowd chose to focus on product development, ideating, building and delivering new and innovative solutions to respond to the rapidly changing requirements of clients and their commercial partners. Over the last 2 years, InCrowd has almost doubled in size to over one hundred team members, with 65% of the workforce focussed on R&D.

At the heart of InCrowd’s product innovation is their Customer Data and Experience Platform (CDXP), Bridge, a “one stop shop” for querying and using customer data to create personalised fan experiences across digital platforms via a best in class headless CMS and direct to fan content, messaging and engagement tools, all analysed across a range of tailored reporting suites.

“The very foundation of our business lies in our belief that fans are your greatest asset and that creating great digital experiences through high-quality fan facing platforms, data driven content & messaging and innovative activations is the most effective way to drive swift ROI.” says Cooney. “We empower clients to be bold in their digital and data transformations and support them fully at every stage of their journey. These are the organisations that are now reaping the rewards and we’re excited to help others reach their full potential.”

Thomas agrees;

“We are in an era of digital disruption, and clearly the industry is moving towards greater and more effective use of data. InCrowd are market leaders in this space. Everyone’s talking about the need to connect directly with fans and consumers, but at the moment it seems to be more talk than action. InCrowd are actually making things happen, facilitating monumental digital changes for their clients and demonstrating tangible returns, which is one of the things that sets them apart.”

About Simon Thomas
A sports industry veteran, Simon will take on the role of Chairman alongside his role of Partner at Colgan Bauer. An influential boutique firm, Colgan Bauer offers international sports strategy consultancy for many of the world’s top governing bodies, rights holders and investors. Prior to this, Simon was Chief Commercial Officer at FIFA, where he extensively restructured the digital and commercial teams. His further experience includes 15 years at TEAM Marketing, UEFA’s commercial agency for the development of UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League competitions in various roles culminating in Chief Executive Officer; and 3 years as EVP Global Sport and Content Sales at Fox where he acted on rights acquisitions for Fox Sports internationally and established a global content sales team selling entertainment, factual and sports content. Simon also established his own advisory agency, Talisman Sport & Media.

For more information, contact enquiries@incrowdsports.com

NEWS: Success Story – The RFL, InCrowd & Rewards4 blend engagement and loyalty

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The RFL and InCrowd have worked together with Rewards4 to expand the highly successful Rewards4Rugby League loyalty programme, utilising fan data-driven push notifications to increase engagement.

Overview

Over the last 3 years, InCrowd has worked closely with The RFL and their partners to produce Our League, a world-class membership platform that boasts over 145,000 active members to date. During planning for the 2020 season a priority was placed on an enhanced integration with loyalty scheme provider Rewards4. For the launch of the platform back in 2017, Rewards4Rugby League, InCrowd and The RFL built a scheme that rewarded predictor performance. The predictor is a season-long engagement feature in which fans votes for match outcomes and try to climb the leaderboard to win money can’t buy prizes. Points won during the season counted towards discounts off a variety of rugby league tickets including The Coral Challenge Cup Final, and the Betfred Super League Grand Final. Since the start of the 2018 Betfred Super League season, nearly 27,000 predictor players have won a combined total of £70,000 worth of Rewards4Rugby League points, from this single touchpoint.

Given the unprecedented level of engagement with Our League’s predictor along with polls and player of the match voting, all parties were keen to build on these the strong foundations and further enhance the Rewards4Rugby League experience for Our League members.

The Solution

In time for the 2020 season, InCrowd, The RFL and Rewards4 collaborated to introduce an advanced push notification integration that would drive further engagement with the Rewards4Rugby League platform, through tailored and automated notifications in relations to points accrued by the fan. With this new development in place, predictor, polls and player of the match participants receive an automatic push notification informing them that they have earned points. This push notification’s call to action is relevant to the individual user’s Rewards4Rugby League account status. If they are already registered, the push prompts them to directly access their account. If new to the Rewards4 programme, the push encourages them to create an account at that moment. 

Integrating this smart push notification system increases the benefits of the loyalty scheme beyond those who perform well on the predictor, to Rugby League fans who take part in any of the fan activations within Our League. The programme now delivers four ways in which Our League members can accrue points:

  • Achieving streaks of correct predictions
  • Participating in the predictor, polls or player of the match voting

How it works

Results

The launch of the Rewards4Rugby League push notification integration has surpassed all expectations, with Our League members responding positively to seeing tangible benefits from their enhanced engagement with the Our League platform. 

Over the course of the 2019 season (February to October), Rewards4Rugby League members participated in 14.4% of the polls, player of the match and predictor questions available.

During the period of February to mid-March 2020 (pre Covid-19), participation from the same users rose to 32.9%, a 128% increase.

Nichola Spencer, Membership Manager, RFL: “For The Rugby Football League the further integration with Rewards4 and InCrowd has been a real win for our Members. We are able to offer members an extra financial incentive which encourages further engagement fans can spend on Rugby League ticketing and retail with no additional costs for The RFL. The integration is now a seamless experience for users and we look forward to adding more engagement touchpoints for them in the future.”

The numbers:

  • 85,000+ interactions with Our Leagues polls, predictor and player of the match vote.
  • 15,177 users have linked their Our League and Rewards4Rugby League accounts since the launch of the programme in 2018, an average of 419 accounts a month.
  • 2,305 accounts were linked in February 2020 as a result of the push notification integration.
  • 9,500 unique members have collected points as a result of Our League engagements.
  • 6,900 of these were existing Rewards4Rugby League members
  • 2,600 were new members
  • 1.7 million cumulative points have been collected.
  • 9, the average Rewards4Rugby League related engagements per member, where points have been collected

Tom Cowgill,  Director Rewards4: “It’s clear from these early results that if you make it simple and seamless for a fan to collect points for engaging with your app and those points actually have a value to the fan then, a) you have happy fans and b) they engage more with the content in your app.  Our integration with InCrowd enables OurLeague members to collect points within the app for voting on man of the match, entering a predictor or a poll.  This has clearly resonated with fans and the feedback has been wholly positive (as is evidenced by the Trustpilot review from Lee).  We are looking forward to working with the RFL and InCrowd to introduce more points collection touchpoints within the app and seeing even higher levels of engagement once the season recommences in August 2020.”

Benefits

  • Fans receive clear, monetary benefits for engaging with the sport that they love. These can be redeemed against ticket purchases such as the Coral Challenge Cup Final.
  • The RFL benefits from both greater engagement and satisfaction from rugby league fans, and increased revenue from discounted purchases by the fans using the programme.

Lee left a five star review on Trust Pilot: “An excellent concept. I earn points for picking man of match for instance by effectively a few clicks. Those points turn into pence which add up to pounds and recently turned the pounds to a voucher which was spent easily. A very good and easy way to earn money for that jersey you want or tickets to see your team.”

Darren Parsons, InCrowd: “We were confident this addition would be well received by the rugby league fanbase that are already highly engaged with the Our League platform, but the numbers seen straight from launch were even more positive than expected. As a result of a few strategies consulted on by InCrowd and actioned by the RFL, there has been a marked increase in engagement across a wide variety of Our League features which is great to see. We’ll continue to monitor this closely and explore how we can develop the offering to fans further.”

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