Founded in 2009, Eleven Sports Media continues to have a huge impact on the world of sport, particularly football.
The UK company provides a range of in-stadium products, that give fans a better engagement experience at the stadium.
The company’s development team built both its StadiumTV and StatTV platforms, which are a big part of the match day experience for over 500,000 fans in the UK.
The StadiumTV platform has over 1,800 screens and is now showcased at over 50 sporting venues, making Eleven the biggest media network in UK sport.
Its StatTV and StatTracker channel brings live stats to stadiums and official club social media platforms.
While their products continue to garner widespread attention, brands associated with the company are allowed to engage with these huge audiences across the football landscape.
Eleven have provided various partners with comprehensive activations, including PR support, detailed campaign reports, social media amplification and organised marketing opportunities.
The company has had critical success with its Partner Programmes setup, with their model recognised as the best in the Football Business Awards.
Eleven have a partnership with the London Stadium as well as clubs such as Newcastle United, Rangers Football Club and Leeds United.
The company believes the expertise and knowledge they have is a huge asset in a commercial partnership programme.
“We realised that many brands failed to have a predefined activation plan when they were partnering with clubs,” CEO of Eleven Sports Media, Matt Cairns, told fcbusiness.
“They were spending money on acquiring rights but then didn’t have a plan in place to fully activate that sponsorship and make it work.”
Eleven identified that there was little structure to most commercial partner programmes, therefore they implemented an organised tiered structure.
The use of segmented LED with their proprietary inventory, as well as a strong focus on applying activation strategies, help brands pinpoint the commercial opportunities they can capitalise on.
“We’ve sold or facilitated over 300 partnerships in the last 12 months and everyone has had built in activation which has been delivered by Eleven.
“We advise each partner on the exposure to be gained from the media buy, but also ensure that their campaign is amplified by helping the partner celebrate the partnership and ultimately raise the profile of the brand by taking their association with the club beyond traditional football audiences.”
Many start-ups lack the resources to take advantage of commercial benefits in a partnership, so Eleven has tried to address this.
By arranging an end-to-end solution, Eleven takes accountability to ensure partnerships are fully activated.
“For a partner programme to have true commercial success, it goes well beyond having the correct list of assets.
“There are dozens of variables which will result in success or failure, at Eleven we believe that it is that attention to detail which sets us apart from anyone else in the industry,” added Cairns.
Eleven gives clubs access to in-depth insights, campaign analysis and sales training to improve aspects of each partnership.
The use of Eleven’s Insights department has already given clubs the opportunity to achieve their highest commercial numbers in a partnership.
“Although clubs have commercial teams, many don’t have that dedicated resource around insight that we have where they can really delve into that next level of commercial insight,” added Eleven’s commercial manager, Jordan Wilson.
“We found that we were delivering it so successfully for ourselves it made sense that clubs should get this too and they’re finding it really valuable.
“It also gives us that next level of insight when creating new partnerships, ones that are meaningful and built on something.”
Cairns adds: “When a company is investing in a high-level sponsorship it can achieve certain goals by a standard associated set of rights, but it won’t achieve the true value unless it is harnessed and leveraged by the brand to the point it becomes ingrained in every part of the organisation.
“We understand that and have got a proven track record in delivering this service.”
With over ten significant UK Clubs already using the model, the Eleven Partner Programme is looking to explore its possibilities in Europe and other areas.
Is this a viable proposition to those in Australian football circles?
