Mail Makes the Completion: A Look at Mercury Communication Group’s Targeted Sports Marketing Solution
Sports fans are always looking for outlets to engage their heroes. There is no better medium than mail, whether in traditional hard copy mode or of the electronic variety. A response to a fan correspondence can create a lifetime of cherished memories and a strong level of devotion to a player.
For athletes, fan mail can cultivate a loyal base, which if leveraged properly, can translate into endorsement deals and income opportunities on and off the field. In addition to monetary benefits, it can also bring an athlete a sense of humility. “I think it’s an honor that a fan thinks enough to take the time to write,” says Gena Pitts, who has experience handling fan mail for her husband Mike, a former defensive lineman for the Philadelphia Eagles.
But athletes are often inundated with commitments. Some do not have the time or resources to respond to every fan who reaches out to them. “It can be very tedious and time consuming,” admits Gena, who is also the founder and publisher of The Professional Sports Wives Magazine.
To face this dilemma, one company, Mercury Communications Group, has come up with a solution.
Using patented technology called My Fan Relationship Management (“myFRM”), a web-based software solution which generates responses to mail, athletes can now engage their base on a whole different level.
But myFRM does more than increase engagement. It also functions as a marketing tool which creates greater synergies for marketers, advertisers and sports leagues through targeted databases.
Mercury, which sports clients in all four major sports leagues, was borne out of a reunion at the Thunderbird, The Garvin School of International Management, in Glendale, Arizona. “I was teaching at the school,” says Jason O’Brien, the company’s executive vice-president of sales and marketing. “It was a rugby alumni weekend. One of my co-founders had been working in the area of fan mail fulfillment many years ago for an NFL player. He believed there had to be a better way to handle the mail, understanding that fan relationship management was a key priority for a lot of athletes. We got to talking and came up with a technology system which would allow things to be more efficient for athletes, fans and the business side of things.”
The company uses myFRM for both snail and electronic mail. “For hard copy mail, we capture the return address, scan the letter in to the system and it becomes an electronic copy,” says O’Brien. “For electronic mail, it’s simply sent to our technology platform. Then based upon the dialogue within the letter, the words go through an algorithm.”
“Based on a point system, a corresponding response letter is selected and sent back to the particular fan. We are able to catalog information and report on who the fan is, where they are, and exactly what they are saying. In its simplest form what we are doing is creating a multidirectional correspondence.”
Reader Comments.
No comments yet
Leave a Comment
Pages: 1 2 next page »
Tags: email_marketing and sportsArticle Sponsor
More Features
-
Loading ...
Latest News
- Facebook’s IPO: You Knew It Was Coming May 18th 2012 ADOTAS - It’s been a day of superlatives, as the [...] more »
- Infographic: The Evolution of Marketing Automation May 18th 2012 ADOTAS – Marketing automation — the process of automating a [...] more »
- Welcome Aboard: New Hires at BrightRoll, AdSafe, More May 18th 2012 ADOTAS – While one internet-related company has pretty much dominated [...] more »
- Now You Can Be a Certified Digital Media Sales Pro through the IAB May 17th 2012 ADOTAS – You think you’re a digital sales pro, but [...] more »
- Adometry Leverages Attribution Data in a New Media Modeler May 17th 2012 ADOTAS – Attribution and ad verification technology provider Adometry has [...] more »
- GM Yanks Facebook Ad Spend: Cluelessness, Bad Analytics or Strategic Statement? May 16th 2012 ADOTAS – General Motors‘ announcement yesterday that it was pulling [...] more »
- Velti “State of Mobile Advertising” Report: AT&T, Apple Crush Competition May 15th 2012 ADOTAS - Mobile advertising services provider Velti has shown a [...] more »
Features
- Infographic: The ROI of Tag Management May 21st 2012
- Digital Goes Offline: Can Brands Take Back the Store? May 21st 2012
- What Does the Ideal Publisher Look Like? May 21st 2012
- Thoughts on the Affiliate Brain Drain May 18th 2012
- Infographic: Big Brands Should “Think Global, Act Global” on Facebook May 17th 2012
Spotlight
Sponsormob Leads the Way Into RTB for MobileADOTAS – For more than half a decade, Berlin-based tech firm Sponsormob has remained relevant in an industry characterized by [...] more...
Reader Favorites
Classifieds
- Business Director-IEB-Microsoft Studios (792444)
- Marketing Communications Manager, Senior-IEB-TV &
- Senior Industry Marketing Manager - Media and Ente
- MARKETING DIRECTOR (medical software company)
- Senior Product Marketing Manager
Recent Comments
- Facebook’s IPO: You Knew It Was Coming: [...] For more insights on what GM’s ploy might mean for Facebook and for the
- Facebook’s Anticlimactic IPO | LNP Studios: [...] Get more details here: Facebook’s IPO: You Knew It Was Coming. [...]
- Bob Gordon: How has this circus helped anyone other than the sand hill crowd? Has it helped
- Facebook’s IPO: You Knew It Was Coming: [...] For more insights on what GM’s ploy might mean for Facebook and for the
