Revolutionizing Fan Experience at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia

After the excellent results achieved in the first three years of collaboration, the challenges of the fourth chapter of the partnership between FIT and IQUII were those of:

1. enhance fan experience by bringing the app to the level of the main Grand Slam tournaments;
2. continue the database enrichment process started in 2016-17.

The constant exchange with the client has allowed to highlight the reference macro-areas as regards of the Federation needs:

1) Fan Experience

• greater integration between physical and digital, for a strategy involving supporters that is increasingly transversal among the various active channels;
• strengthening of fan engagement activities, with particular attention to the enrichment of the experience within the village.

2) Data Acquisition/Enrichment

• following up on the growth path of the profiled user base started in 2016;
• deepening the level of detail of users in the database through surveys and questionnaires, in order to prepare more effective communication activities.

To meet these needs, IQUII developed a platform with a new UI / UX starting from a design in line with the new visual identity of the Tournament. The features on the platform have contributed to:

• inform, narrating the event through news, photos, videos, display boards, programs, results and live scoring;
• involve, allowing the user to express preferences about the athletes to follow and thus personalize their in-app experience, and proposing features such as custom stickers, IBICam to take IBI branded photos and share them with their own network, and mechanisms of Instant Win to offer the chance to play and win during all the days of the Tournament, demonstrating their knowledge of the tennis world;
• simplify the experience, providing the user with the opportunity to purchase food and drinks directly through the app, taking advantage of the priority line to pick up their order comfortably at the stands, eliminating waiting times and fully enjoying the show. A strategic tool also for the same stands present at the Village of the Foro Italico able to bring the user to the purchase on a digital channel and therefore generate more sales.

During the reference period of the Tournament (6 – 19 May 2019), the results proved to be significant:

• compared to the previous season, the total downloads of the app grew by +16%, with a significant +48% of registered users compared to IBI18;
• in terms of engagement (overall iOS and Android), there were more than 24 thousand unique users on the Instant Win on tournament days for a total of over 60 thousand applications delivered; from the point of view of analytics we have more than 3 million screen views, more than 350 thousand sessions in the app with an average duration of about 7 minutes, more than 150 thousand accesses to the Live Scoring view;
• in terms of positioning and app store optimization, the app achieved first place in the ranking for keywords such as “ibi”, “ibi19”, “International”, “International BNL”, “International BNL of Italy”, “tennis Rome “, in addition to being in the TOP 10 for other keywords related to the Tournament (nadal, djokovic, wta, ibi calendar).

The digital platform was designed to support the tournament strategy approaching the next #IBI20. The app will be a reference point for staying up to date on the world of great tennis, offering fans exclusive news on the way to the new edition of the tournament.