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Melbourne Storm hopes for member boost from new loyalty program
- Apr 19 2015 at 12:00 AM
Melbourne Storm hopes a new membership program kick-starts fan numbers.
by John Stensholt NRL club Melbourne Storm has launched a unique rewards program it hopes will assist to turn around a slowing of its increase in membership numbers.
The Storm earlier this month launched its Lightning Rewards program, the first for an Australian professional sporting team. The club's members have received new smartcard enabled membership cards that will double as a payment device at the stadium and with sponsors.
Fans are able to earn rewards points for buying merchandise and food at the club's home ground AAMI Park, after linking the cards to their bank accounts, which the Storm's marketing director, Mike Billing, said is encouraging members to turn up to matches earlier with bonuses for entering the stadium more than 30 minutes before kick-off.
Points can also be earned for actions such as registering for football tips, attending the Storm's social club, referring new members and liking the club's Facebook page and Twitter account.
"We're a challenger brand in this market so we need to continue to break new ground," Mr Billing said. "Research from [sports consultancy] Gemba tells us that our likeability and awareness brand metrics are really high, but we need to work on converting that interest and get people to engage further with the brand and develop a stronger affinity for our players and team."
The Storm has a larger social media presence than just about all AFL clubs, but is behind its targets for its 2015 membership after a record 17,000 figure in 2014.
It is hoped the new loyalty program will attract more members and create a deeper engagement with those that have already signed up. Points earned can be redeemed for a variety of rewards, including attending training sessions, meeting players, travelling with the Storm to away matches and travel vouchers with club sponsor, Tiger Airways.
Traffic to the club's website has also been boosted substantially with points offered for reading online news stories and watching videos. "It has been good for the digital side of our business," Mr Billing said. "We've found the average time spent on our website has gone [up] from 4.53 minutes to 6.51 minutes in the first three weeks. And, page impressions are up about 30 per cent already. Video views have also risen nearly 300 per cent when compared to our average for the first four rounds of the season."
