2stations

I imagine there is an awful lot of business generated by fans traveling to see their team play. Event companies specialise in this and it´s a growing segment. The experience can be huge, there is the travel itself, usually meeting some other like minded fans, the whole matchday event and the travel home again in glory or in sorrow. A quick search on Flickr shows how much is actually posted from match day.

But I think there is a lot more that can be done to make the fans feel special.

Recently I went to see the two quarter final games of the Champions League played on consecutive days at Anfield and Old Trafford. We travelled on Tuesday morning from Oslo. The plane was packed. From what I could see most of the passengers were there for the games. There was plenty of team shirts, scarfs, beer bellies and all the talk seemed to be about the fixtures or memories of other trips.

This must happen with predictable regularity. Football fans flying to a big game. Did the airline, in this case SAS, make anything special out of it? No. Could they? Yes. Should they? Definitely! If they start to take the themes of new marketing thinking seriously then they have to look at giving niche groups like travelling fans something extra. Many of the fans are normally business travellers and used to getting well looked after but going to a match is a different context.

What would have worked for me? A simple announcement from the Captain relating to the games, something similar from the cabin crew. There was even a TV commentator on board who was willing to do his pundit job en route over the intercom. It would have created a positive feeling towards SAS and made the flight memorable. Southwest Airlines are supposed to be very good at this so I am sure it can be done.

There´s a lot of business in keeping the traveling fans happy and loyal. There´s a lot that can be done with web and mobile to add value to the travel. I´ll be coming back to this topic soon.