When it comes to digital publishing, what are the challenges and opportunities sports organisations face?

Sports organisations are in the media game, with a need to serve fresh content to a hungry, engaged digital audience of fans across a variety of platforms, 24-7.

And so much like the digital transformation and acceleration that more traditional media groups have had to undertake, we’re seeing sport clubs, leagues, player associations and national federations in a race to refocus their models from physical to digital – to establish and grow their own branded platforms, sustainable digital communities and critically, transactional relationships with their fans.

This includes establishing digital ecosystems that can meet the critical digital trends in sportstech right now, including media rights management, media workflow, fan engagement, gamification and D2C video streaming.

What can publishers learn from sports organisations?

Community engagement in the digital era is an area that sports organisations are able to pioneer in a way because of the passion that fans have for their club, athletes or national team for example.

Because of this, I think sport has had more success in facilitating digital engagement between their brand, the fans and sponsors in a way that is incentivised and brings value to all stakeholders. Whether it’s through campaigns or some form of gamification, fans are always eager to register and contribute – building further loyalty and knowledge of the user base – but of course key to all of this is having the branded platforms and digital infrastructure in place to facilitate this engagement.

Traditional media just don’t enjoy that level of loyalty and so I think publishers need to be more creative and more focused on putting the digital capabilities in place to attract sponsorships and entice their audience to engage and contribute on their own branded platforms, where audience members can register and be rewarded – with the end goal of transforming registered users into paying subscribers.

Publishers need to be more creative and more focused on putting the digital capabilities in place to attract sponsorships and entice their audience to engage

When it comes to increasing fan engagement, what techniques have proved most successful?

At PT we’ve seen the value of transforming fans into content contributors through branded UGC campaigns – to increase genuine fan media co-owned by the organisation while unlocking previously untold community stories that resonate with other fans.

The trick is in enticing the casual fan on social media into your own branded ecosystem. Gamification and reward are the key elements – creating a sense of competition among fans. In terms of the incentivisation, it’s not always about a physical prize, discount or experience on offer – it’s about tapping into the competitiveness of the fan with things like leaderboards that crown the “Super Fan of the Month” for instance that bring a level of prestige within the fan community.

It’s critical that at the beginning stages of your journey that your “ask’ of the fan is extremely simple and that you provide an excellent user experience and simple registration process to avoid drop off. Once the casual fan becomes a registered fan, you can then look at further enticements to collect further fan data and begin to understand your audience better and provide more personalised experiences.

How can sports organisations improve the opportunities for their sponsors and commercial partners?

Campaigns that create a genuine sense of fun and interaction between the fans and partaking sponsors is key in terms of offering more digital value to commercial partners – and therefore sustainability.

Sports brands should be looking at their fan-facing digital properties as akin to a “digital stadium experience”, where fans can come and interact with sponsors in a dynamic way that creates memorable interactions.

For example, AR brand scanning via an official club app is a way in which sponsor brands can come alive via the simple act of scanning a logo to unlock “hidden” or bonus content, discount offers or more.

Interactivity is the key.

Sports brands should be looking at their fan-facing digital properties as akin to a “digital stadium experience”, where fans can come and interact with sponsors in a dynamic way

Where do publishers need to focus their resources on, over the next twelve months

The objective when publishing any form of content, be it a news or feature article, service offering or sponsored content, should be to entice further engagement or to generate a transaction.

Whether your commercial model relies on sponsored content, advertising or subscriptions, or a mix of the three, the basic needs remain:

• Who’s the intended audience? It’s important to get to know your customer profiles, if you don’t already. This is a huge focus in sport right now.
• What’s the expected call-to-action for further engagement? Seamlessly direct users around the your site and retain their attention.
• Is there a form of transactional outcome? Ensure appropriate advert association and coverage; look at the expected sponsorship value of your content; and look to incorporate brand activations or subscription services to unlock premium content.

What’s in the pipeline from Publisher’s Toolbox?

PT stepped into the sports market in 2019 with the launch of our PT SportSuite brand, following an exciting decade of product development alongside global media groups. We’ve been fortunate in the past three years to prove the viability and suitability of the PT digital media ecosystem to meet and adapt to the sports market’s needs through partnerships and via multiple rollout programmes with large brands – taking any learnings along the way back to our traditional media clients.

We’ve learnt that our scalable ecosystem – allowing for a staggered digital acceleration approach – makes us extremely attractive to multi-brand or multi-tenant organisations. We’ll be looking to forge new relationships with leagues, associations and tournaments to increase our current market share while continuing to adapt our PT suite of tools and products for sports’ specific needs.

This article first appeared on www.inpublishing.co.uk

Keen to learn more about PT’s approach to community engagement and sponsor value? Book a demo with the PT team by dropping us a line at info@publisherstoolbox.com

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How did your partnership with SIG initially come about?

PT’s relationship with Sport Industry Group kicked off in January 2020. At the time we were looking for a partner to help us take PT into the sports market and soon after we came on board as award partners at the annual SIG Awards in the Cutting Edge Sport category – which resonated well with our team’s culture of innovation. SIG have proved to be a valuable partner and collaborator in enabling us to share our digital experiences with the sport tech community and we’re excited to enter into this new phase of the relationship as official web platform partners too.

What did SIG want to achieve with the new site?

The SIG website had not changed in over a decade. As well as reinvigorating the website design, SIG wanted our help to make the website more interactive, dynamic and visual.

Although SIG still practises its important position within the industry as providers of daily industry news, they wanted to make sure they were offering more – engaging the audience in more interactive ways than just the reading of a news article.

This project was about the evolution of an ageing website – to pull it into the modern era

Which notable additional features have been added to the SIG website. 

Interaction and engagement were key pillars of SIG’s vision and PT SportSuite’s plan.

Firstly, upgrading SIG’s current offerings of news stories and features. This included more dynamic and visual news articles – with wide, impressive spaces for its wealth of sporting imagery and a variety of different article styles. More flexibility was also important – giving SIG the option to create more user-friendly galleries, Q&A and interview pieces than they had offered before.

There are also some completely new capabilities integrated into the site. New video capabilities give them more options and flexibility when it comes to publishing video content. There is also the ability to add interactive features such as quizzes and polls.

What is it that keeps the train on track for a web project of this scope?

For a project like this there are many stakeholders involved, including various internal teams, providers, as well as SIG, and so it’s critical that key stakeholders are communicating, that project milestones are met to keep within time and budget, and that team members have what they need to progress.

We set clear goals for each milestone, which helps our team keep tight focus. Regular check-ins with stakeholders are important for cultivating open dialogue, and agility when it comes to any change needed.

How did you approach the initial stages of this project?

Any project or programme always begins with a holistic understanding of the client and the goals they’re looking to achieve. Only then do we gather information from a user’s perspective to formulate all the requirements for the project. Thereafter, we specify a phased approach and set our goals and milestones we need to reach during the project.

Once achieved, we execute the design phase, which includes some deep analysis, user journey workflows, creating wireframes, prototyping and defining design specifications.

For the SIG project, we looked to incorporate an interactive experience for viewers when they consume content, as well as making the website as flexible as possible for the client to represent their content and supporting media professionally and in line with their content and brand strategies.

How would you describe PT’s design philosophy?

Our goal is always to reward users with digital uniqueness and quality. We always put simplicity and the user in mind before making any design decisions, but also making sure that any design call we make takes the user on a digital journey that excites, encourages engagement and loyalty within a branded ecosystem.

We strive for a strong content design, which is not just about applying your brand  identity or basic design principles, but to implement good storytelling and delivering a core message through visual communication and interactivity.

What elements of the site are you most excited about?

Flexibility and dynamism were two important words for SIG at the start of the project. To not have any ideas ruled out because of the website’s capabilities or lack thereof.

Now, the shackles are off for SIG, and this allows them to move forward in an exciting time for the company. Editorially, the new site allows them to be more adventurous and experimental. I am really excited to see what content is to come.

GAME TO LEARN MORE ABOUT PT’s WEBSUITE FRAMEWORK? DOWNLOAD THE BROCHURE

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Our ambition is to establish the world’s leading digital content ecosystem – it’s what gets our  juices flowing. Every action our team takes is driven by our desire to help organisations of all  kinds transform digitally and establish digital communities where there were none before.

We have a number of modern web products that require a strong React and React native JavaScript focus. Our market offering will expose you to a range of exciting technologies and integrations across our delivery teams.

Our Coding Environment
Our in-house methodology is unique in its agility, coordination and prioritisation; requiring  regular calibration due to our sprints being structured around product development, technology streams and project implementation. As a small team, we feel our ability to care, support and motivate each other across sprint lines allows us to make sound architectural decisions.

Role Description

• Work with an experienced team of designers and developers on a range of languages and technologies that make up the Publisher’s Toolbox
• Being part of the JS web product team, owning software quality and integration
• Development of reusable React code, making use of Redux, SASS and TypeScript.
• Working in Kanban methodology

Qualifications and experience required

• Relevant qualifications (Degree, Diploma or at least 2 years work experience)
• Keen interest in working in a sports media, publishing software environment

Attributes

• A desire to learn new technologies, apply them and then share with the rest of the  team
• Excellent analytical and problem solving skills
• Proven ability to plan and organise
• Ability to work as part of a team
• Excellent communication and listening skills
• Ability to adapt to changing situational requirements
• Handles pressure confidently and appropriately

Date Required
Immediately

Salary (Total Cost To Company/Total package)
Market related depending on experience

Send your CV to careers@publisherstoolbox.com

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While the discussion around digital acceleration within media seems to focus exclusively around consumer-facing platforms and new commercial models, just as much change is happening in the “back office” – the back-end digital processes that teams use to publish and stream content to public-facing platforms; and effectively and safely collaborate, access and share media IP in this new, shifting remote working world.

But putting new platforms in place is just the first round of what can become an epic 12-round heavyweight slugfest if effective change management is not planned for. Securing the buy-in of active role players who will make or break the success of any digital acceleration project is crucial if organisations are going to see a healthy ROI.

Here’s how PT plans for successful change management …  

WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?

It’s a natural question to ask and so it’s important that role players understand the short- and long-term benefits for themselves, for their teams and finally for the organisation as a whole.

An internal campaign with video or other material that builds hype and excitement (see example below, produced by Publisher’s Toolbox in collaboration with Major League Rugby) is an effective way to lay a foundation for effective change. It’s about managing attitudes and resistance by creating a sense of anticipation.

CLOSE AND PERSONAL

User guides and training material are great, but in the final stages of any digital programme, personalised sessions with smaller teams where real workflow situations can be simulated – allowing users to get their hands dirty, ask pertinent questions, and experience the benefits for themselves – is PT’s preferred method.

BITE-SIZE IS BEST

A digital programme rollout that follows an iterative approach is a great way to minimise organisational disruption, and can prove less intimidating for users. This also allows onboarding and training to be conducted in stages for those who might otherwise feel daunted by the prospect of getting to grips with an entirely new digital ecosystem in one go.

PT’s modular media ecosystem allows for such an approach, where all media assets can be migrated to the cloud in the first phase, setting a strong foundation for further integrated platform rollouts across media workflow, video OTT, websites and apps.

It’s about evolution, not revolution.

GROWING PAINS

As they say, sometimes the best laid plans can go awry. Effective change management is not a once-off tick box, it’s a continuous effort to upskill, train and educate users in order to change organisational behaviour for the long-term.

Continuous training and support should be in place, but equally important is for a regular process of honest reflection where successes are noted, but equally where shortcomings can be measured in the form of user feedback and available data.

It is often in these periods of review where patterns can emerge and important roadmap requirements are identified.

Thank you for reading. If you would like to learn more about PT’s modular media ecosystem, click here. 

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Hospital Management Asia (HMA), a media, event and awards business for Asia’s hospital management community, have become the latest partner to join PT’s WebSuite programme.

HMA join the likes of Clarion North America, Enlit Asia, Enlit World, Bristol Sport Foundation and TechForge in partnering with PT to migrate, upgrade, optimise and redesign their core website – leveraging PT’s WebSuite technology stack and status as AWS Official Partners.

HMA have partnered with PT to migrate, upgrade, optimise and redesign their core website

The new website serves as a community space for HMA’s 27 000 strong group of healthcare leaders in the region, serving a variety of informative content on global trends in the sector; information and registration facilities for upcoming events and awards; and on-demand video capabilities for streaming of webinars, interviews and other content.

Says PT CEO Rich Cheary: “A warm welcome to HMA as they join our WebSuite community. We are confident our web framework and cloud hosting solution will deliver immediate ROI in terms of a simplified editorial process for HMA’s editorial team as well as future scalability and cost saving as their digital community grows further.

We look forward to scaling our relationship to help deliver on the strategic objective to grow HMA’s registered, invested user base with our Publisher’s Toolbox of products.”

LEARN MORE ABOUT WEBSUITE – PT’S WEB FRAMEWORK AND CLOUD HOSTING PLATFORM

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Having recently collaborated with major sporting brands Major League Rugby and the British & Irish Lions to launch branded fan challenge platforms for their fans – Mojo Community represents the latest step in a journey towards establishing Publisher’s Toolbox as a leader in the community engagement space across transitional media, brands, education and sport.

Mojo Community represents the latest step in a journey towards establishing Publisher’s Toolbox as a leader in the community engagement space

“We enjoyed working with MLR and the Lions immensely to bring behind-the-scenes fan stories to life,” says Publisher’s Toolbox communications manager Nick van Rensburg. “Mojo Community is our platform that aims to create a community of like-minded content creators looking to get creative and test themselves by responding to our incentivised Challenges.

“We envision our community playing a role in the discovery of talented, up-and-coming content creators and influencers who brands might want to work with. Our long-term vision is to provide brands of all kinds the opportunity to conduct branded Challenges on our platform, to unearth unique UGC content for social campaigns and other marketing related activities that will set their brand apart.  

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Nestled in the heart of the city’s exclusive Bantry Bay lies Ellerman House, one of South Africa’s oldest and most exclusive hotels, set apart by its spectacular positioning between the iconic Lion’s Head and Atlantic Ocean.

For travellers, the old Edwardian mansion that dates back to 1906 represents much of the best of what Cape Town has to offer, and while the Ellerman House of today takes care to not lose sight of its origins, reinvention and innovation remains a key criteria for an establishment that opened its doors to the public in 1992.

Reinvention and innovation remains a key criteria for Ellerman House

Nowhere is this more evident than with the Ellerman House art collection, assembled over 30 years and featuring modern South African masterpieces alongside works from local, up-and-coming artists.

“The Ellerman House Art Collection is a South African collection like no other and expresses the true character of our land, our people and our unique South African heritage,” says Ellerman House marketing manager Nicolene Enslin.

“As the majority of our guests live abroad, a guest may find a fascinating art piece during their stay, but will possibly not know the artist or the history around this specific art piece.

“ArtScan assists our guests in learning about the artist’s journey, works and the significance of the specific art piece.”

Using the ArtScan app, guests can scan the art on display with a mobile phone – unlocking a written or audio biography of the specific art piece and artist – providing guests with their own private art tour – simply by scanning.

At any time in the future, guests can relive the experience by visiting their scanning history in the app, which stores a digital representation of the art piece and links to learn more.

Guests can relive the experience by visiting their scanning history in the app

“The wonderful benefit of ArtScan is that you don’t even have to be an art connoisseur,” Enslin continues. “But when you fall in love with a piece, you can instantly have the information on hand and enrich your knowledge and a deeper understanding for both the artist and the art. ArtScan truly does bring art to life for all – new and older art lovers.”

Publisher’s Toolbox and the ArtScan team will be partnering with more galleries in 2022 to enable art collections for scanning – part of PT’s mission to digitally accelerate the art industry.

Are you an art gallery or educational institution that wants to bring your art collection to life and give your guests a digital surprise? Learn more about ArtScan.

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The launch is the result of a strategic decision to re-position PT as a full service provider of SaaS platform and consulting services

Kicking off this new offering, the PT Engagement team recently collaborated with global rugby brand, the British & Irish Lions during their 2021 tour to South Africa, to allow fans to contribute to the tour in a meaningful way.

Via a number of sponsored UGC Challenge campaigns, fans were able to share their behind-the-scenes media to create a digital “Sea of Red at a time when fans were not allowed to travel or attend matches due to Covid-19 restrictions.

“Through our experience of working across traditional media groups, brands, sports organisations and campuses, we’ve learned that internal capacity issues are often a root cause of organisations failing to reach their campaign goals,” said PT engagement manager Nick van Rensburg. “As a business we’ve realised that we can do better than simply handing over the keys to our SaaS platforms and expecting maximum value to be achieved by clients.

“We’ve learned that internal capacity issues are often a root cause of organisations failing to reach their campaign goals” – Nick van Rensburg, PT Engagement Manager

“We have the experience and know-how to unlock the real value of our engagement platforms across web and app and we’re looking forward to working closely with all our partners to achieve some amazing results.”

Let’s chat. To learn more about PT’s community and brand engagement platforms and services, book a demo with our team: Email: engagement@publisherstoolbox.com

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The partnership culminated in the relaunch of sportspromedia.com, the company’s main web property. The process saw PT and SPM’s task teams collaborate closely to migrate, redesign, restructure, and optimise media and activate one of the world’s most trusted sports media and news websites.

The process saw PT and SPM’s task teams collaborate closely to activate one of the world’s most trusted sports media and news websites

The project represents a further growth of PT’s web offering, which has seen Bristol Sport Foundation, Clarion Events US and Enlit Asia look to leverage PT’s status as official AWS Partners.

PT COO and project lead Sally Arnold said: “With PT traditionally focused on news and events publishing platforms and PT SportSuite on sports organisations – SPM represented a perfect opportunity to bridge these two worlds together.

“As a team, we’re highly encouraged and motivated by the reception our PT Web platform offering is receiving. We saw this as an opportunity to showcase our web capabilities to the sports industry as we are mostly known for our DAM, apps and Video OTT services. It was a pleasure to work with the SPM team.”

“As a team, we’re highly encouraged and motivated by the reception our PT Web platform offering is receiving – Sally Arnold, PT COO

SportsPro Media managing director Nick Meacham said: “A big thank you to the entire PT team for helping us achieve a much needed upgrade and redesign to our core website. This upgrade has equipped us with the flexibility we need to continue to scale our digital offerings. We’ve enjoyed working with the PT team through this project and look forward to working with them moving forward.”

CHAT TO OUR TEAM: An account manager is standing by to learn more about your web requirements. Drop us a line

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