The University of Cincinnati Athletic Department and its UCATS program sought to build their database of identified Bearcats fans and increase both the breadth and depth of their donor base. Realizing that a very large portion of their members participate in annual giving to receive the opportunity to purchase season tickets for football and basketball, UC sought to build a robust value proposition that scaled far beyond its season ticket base and appealed to a broader fan base.
Stoneacre Acquisition Company reached an agreement with the University of Cincinnati to build and manage the Bearcats Fan Advantage (BFA), a value delivery platform and acquisition engine for its UCATS athletic giving program.
Stoneacre has a great deal of experience and expertise in the development of a member based value proposition. We constructed the BFA value proposition by collecting the best available assets ranging from generic to custom products and services. All benefits are organized into one of five “silos” and enable the delivery and usage through the deployment of our Central Fan Management Utility (CFMU). The five silos of the consumer value proposition are:
Deals and Discounts for brand specific offerings as well as everyday discounts to create an immediate perceived value in savings for the Member. Stoneacre continues to work closely with UC Athletic Department stakeholders to deliver value on internal programs as well as discounts from UC partners and advertisers. Brand specific offerings on merchandise and events increase affinity awareness and loyalty to products and events. Additionally, everyday discounts are aggregated to include nationwide chains and local retailers and restaurants.
Exclusive Content is delivered through a password-protected website on the BFA platform, which creates exclusivity of the information and a new valued asset. The website is with the most advanced content management systems that allow dynamic content to be quickly updated and integrated to create a unique user experience. Stoneacre creates, aggregates and delivers content through today’s most popular social networks including Facebook and Twitter. Additionally, we enable our platform to support blogging from a variety of UC sources.
VIP Treatment and experiences at UC-related events. Stoneacre works with the UC Athletic Department to create, distribute through its proprietary Reservation Allocation System special opportunities for BFA Members to participate in exclusive Members-only events. Stoneacre’s proprietary technology integrates with UCATS’ point system that accounts for member behavior, thus allowing the best UC-BFA assets to be allocated to our best Members. Members can reserve their experiences through the Reservation Allocation System, which allows orderly distribution of events.
My Team utilizes Stoneacre’s proprietary “micro-site” technology in order to facilitate each UC coach in disseminate sport-specific information, develop relationships with highly-contextual fans and increase donations directed to each sport’s program.
Member Acquisition
Stoneacre has deployed its proven methodology and technology to acquire customers utilizing post-transaction, self-liquidating offers of products (SLOOPTM) and lead generation to conversion (LG2CTM) techniques leveraging Outbound Telemarketing, direct Mail and E-Mail campaigns.
- Post Transaction - It’s important to note that all Post Transaction Marketing occurs at the conclusion of a contextual, credit card commercial transaction. There are 3 channels of Post Transaction that Stoneacre will deploy and manage:
- Post Transaction – eCommerce (PTX)
- Post Transaction – eMail (SLOOP)
- Post Transaction – Interactive Broadcast Media (ITX)
eCommerce PTX – A banner with a URL is served on the confirmation page of a purchase on any ecommerce site that is contextual to UC fans or that UC has the rights to. The banner promotes an incentive such as “free shipping on your order” or $10 back on your next purchase. Once the consumer clicks on it, they will be directed to a separately hosted landing page explaining the benefits of the BFA along with the incentive they will receive for trying out the BFA “free for 30 days”. If accepted and the customer credit card is authorized, the customer enters into their 30-day review of the BFA.
eMail SLOOP– Self Liquidating Offer Of Product (SLOOP) - An email is sent to a contextual lead database offering a Free contextual Product/Merchandise (with a nominal S&H fee), just for trying out the BFA Free for 30 days. The email entices the customer to view the offer. The 1st landing page is to capture the personal information on the customer. 2nd landing page is the credit card entry page. Once their nominal shipping and handling fee passes billing on the 2nd page the customer will be entered into their 30-day review of the BFA.
Interactive Broadcast Media (ITX)- Utilizing Interactive Broadcast Media to create Interactive Transactions. Stoneacre acquires new BFA members through an interactive broadcast media strategy, utilizing UC athletics broadcasts on radio or television. As an example, UC encourages viewers or listeners to participate by calling in to vote. Once the viewer/listener dials in to vote, they are presented with an opportunity to listen to a contextual offer; It is here we offer a SLOOP via telephone to acquire new members through this media (see SLOOP offer definition above).