Since its promotion to the Bundesliga in 2011, the first-division club FC Augsburg has been one of the most reliable and innovative professional clubs. One of the latest projects is the development of an integrated cloud ecosystem for data-driven marketing. The aim is to address spectators and fans (B2C), as well as partners and sponsors (B2B), with new services through 1:1 communication. The new solution will use different channels to customise the communication strategy while allowing the club to keep centralised records of fan and partner communication. Fast and targeted handling of communication, the ongoing analysis of optimisation potential, invitation management for fan and sponsor events, and so much more will also be included. The central reporting of key service, sales and marketing figures, which can be accessed live, enables the responsible persons from the individual departments to make data-driven decisions.
FC Augsburg has partnered with adesso SE to oversee the technical implementation. With its own Line of Business Sports, the IT service provider is a well-known and respected player when it comes to digitalising sports clubs and associations. The elementary building blocks of the adesso-engineered digital platform include a data warehouse for customer relationship management (CRM), the marketing automation tool Salesforce Marketing Cloud, the Salesforce Service Cloud for efficient and personalised fan service and a Salesforce cloud solution especially designed for sponsoring processes. These solutions enable the envisaged personalised omni-channel approach to fans and sponsors, among other things. The new system makes it possible to address defined target groups with personalised content according to their interests on the basis of socio-demographic information or purchasing or clicking behaviour, to name just one example. That allows FC Augsburg to carry out multi-stage campaigns automatically on the basis of both master data and transaction-based data. The new cloud solution also brings together the available sponsor information to optimise contact,
account and contract management and offer sponsors enhanced service. In addition, the system creates automated reports and analyses.
“The partnership with adesso SE means a lot to us,” says Pierre Lemmermeyer, a member of the board at FC Augsburg. “With their extensive experience in IT and digitalisation consulting, we are confident that they will successfully drive our digitalisation strategy forward. We want to focus on the interests of our fans and partners, offer them a good time with FC Augsburg and stand by them with dedicated advice and support as advisers, trailblazers and drivers for joint projects. Rolling out the Salesforce cloud solutions will help us to fundamentally improve our communication based on a 360° view for fans and business partners alike. By linking customer service, marketing and sales in general, we are also optimising our internal processes to create more productive freedom for employees.”
Oliver Kowalke, Head of Line of Business Sports at adesso SE, says: “We are supporting FC Augsburg with our expertise as they take real steps towards digital transformation. Gone are the days of non-specific, scattergun campaigns. Instead, FC Augsburg can now take a highly personalised approach. That benefits not only the club itself, but also spectators, fans, partners and sponsors, who can look forward to exciting, individualised and targeted new services.”
