Nick is the CEO of the Perth Wildcats basketball team, he was recruited for his experience in turnaround management as opposed to being a sporting specialist. He was brought on board to the Perth Wildcats to turn around their profitability and playing future.
All the TV ads in the world won’t move to you from a Carlton fan to a Collingwood fan you need to move people up the value chain. It’s very rare for people to change teams it’s for life. The commitment begins early and it set up my family direction or experiences kids have at school/in the community. On this basis the Perth Wildcats do 250 primary school visits per year – helping people to capture them for life.
Social Media is not all the answers!
It’s also not all about being successful as a club. You don’t have to win to have fans. The Perth Wildcats were in the finals for 20 years, but when Nick tool over they had a declining membership. He cited the AFL examples of non successful clubs like St Kilda, Collingwood and others who with very few premierships have managed to maintain and grow their membership bases.
Sport Nick said it about engagement – it’s tribal belonging.
28% of men and 20% of women citied they were facebook fans because of the sense of belonging
22% of men and 29% of women said because of the exclusive content
In general people follow less tha 5 brands and 72% of people follow less than 4.
Perth Wildcats have a number of staff utilising social media including:
- Coach
- Players
- Team manager
- Community Manager
- CEO
This helps to give a multidimensional view to customers of the organisation.
During a time of great change at the club Nick wrote an email to fans every week to ensure they felt part of the decision-making processes he was going through.
They have found a lot of success with doing offers with ticketmaster with special codes for twitter and facebook followers. Research shows people who are facebook and twitter followers are more likely to buy.
Nick believes you can’t have ghost writers people are looking for authenticity online and you lose credibility if people start to think you’re not who you say you are.
Behind the Line 