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Sports organisations should shift focus from collecting more fan data to proving what supporters actually do if they are to deliver greater value to sponsors according to former Optus chief marketing officer and now Delphize chief growth officer, Melissa Hopkins.
Delphize describes itself as a behavior verification and outcomes platform.
Everyone knows the sports industry captures extensive customer data through membership databases, CRM systems, ticketing platforms, apps and loyalty programs, but Hopkins says they should consider verifying fan behaviour.
The challenge facing rights holders therefore, is no longer whether they know who their fans are, but whether they can prove what those fans actually did after purchasing a ticket or engaging with a campaign, she added.
“As a global CMO [recently ex-Optus and Seven West Media], I spent years being asked to prove return on investment in a world where much of marketing and sponsorship was still built on assumptions,” Hopkins said.
“We became incredibly good at measuring attention, but not necessarily proving actual behaviour. That's what inspired us to build Delphize.”
Sponsorship budgets are coming under greater scrutiny, she continued, with CEOs seeking stronger evidence that partnerships influence customer behaviour rather than simply generating attendance or impressions.
Most organisations already know who their customers are, but “very few can verify what those customers actually did across physical and digital environments and then use that verified behaviour to create commercial value.”
Delphize sits as a verification layer within clients’ existing technology stack rather than replacing systems, she said.
The platform uses a lightweight software development kit inside client apps and uses existing customer databases rather than creating another one.
“When a verified action occurs – whether attending an event, engaging with a sponsor or redeeming an offer – we securely attribute that verified behaviour back to an existing customer or membership record.
“The result is a trusted, auditable view of what people actually did, not what systems inferred they did.”
The platform does not hold personally identifiable information and instead connects verified actions back to client’s existing first-party systems.
The technology can also improve the fan experience.
“For example, if you check into the Australian GP app and spatial awareness determines you are in a bottle neck bridge area, we can then ping you, suggest you take the bridge down and reward you with money off a drink at the Heineken Bar.
“We will then know when you get there and what you redeemed.”
Hopkins says the approach differs from location tracking technologies because participation is voluntary and designed to deliver value for fans.
“This is not about creepy tech. Everything is opted in and reward driven.”
Delphize points to work in the US where the platform verified more than 268,000 attendees at Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas from an audience of about 525,000.
It also worked with Bacardi to verify customer engagement to offer redemptions, rather than relying on activation foot traffic.
Privacy was a major focus during the platform's development.
“We are all about trust and reward. We have just achieved a 10/10 with a major ASX [company] on privacy conditions and customer experience.”
