Data Driven Marketing in Soccer

Arjen Robben – a soccer player who is commonly viewed as one of the best players of his generation – decided to enrich his career by going back to the soccer club that started it all for him: the Dutch Premier Division Soccer Club FC Groningen in the Netherlands.

This club’s success is driven by on-location sales, sponsorship deals, and their connection to Dutch soccer fans. Robben sought to increase the impact of FC Groningen’s marketing efforts, and Spotzi’s Profiling platform soon proved to be key in their new data-driven approach to advertising.

Spotzi’s solution aimed at driving the club’s popularity and funding by helping FC Groningen develop a more data-driven marketing strategy towards the Dutch soccer fanbase and potential sponsors. This was done by profiling their existing fans and partners in order to identify the unifying traits amongst their audiences.

FC Groningen could use Spotzi’s platform to:

• Profile existing club fans in order to target like-minded audiences.
• Gain insights into fans’ interests and spending behaviour in order to acquire sponsorships with compatible brands.
• Profile soccer fans across the country.

In 2021, FC Groningen’s partnership with Spotzi and subsequent data-driven approach to their campaigns allowed them to secure lucrative sponsorships and helped put this soccer club on the map.

Data driven Fan-Base marketing

Spotzi’s profiling tools can offer insights into the demographics and behaviours of a company’s existing clients/customers, store visitors, or OOH audiences. FC Groningen was able to use Spotzi’s platform to analyze their current fanbase in order to build a concrete profile of their target audience. This audience data could then be used to target like-minded consumers across the club’s most promising markets.

Data-Driven Sponsorship Acquisition: The Power of Profiling

FC Groningen began using Spotzi by visualizing their existing fanbase geographically using our custom mapping interface. They then used our dashboards — a powerful data visualization tool — to categorize this fanbase into audience segments.

Spotzi’s dashboards can be used to locate like-minded audiences all across the country, or to share detailed audience profiles with potential partners when securing new sponsorships. The support of reliable, real-world data helps to not only power marketing efforts but also to improve sponsors’ trust in the FC Groningen brand name.

Want to check out the power of Spotzi’s Mapping, Profiling, or Targeting solutions for yourself? Contact us and book a free demo with us today and see how Spotzi can help you find your best-fit customers.