Solutions Provider: United Print Group (UPG: size ~6 staff)
Client: Rugby Football Club
Industry: Sports and Recreation
Project: Augmented Reality Member Engagement
Client profile:
The client is a prominent rugby football club with around 100 staff and 15,000 members.
Overview:
Following a sport is a mainstay of many people’s lives, but followers often don’t think about what makes the clubs behind the sport tick. Sporting clubs rely heavily on game attendance and registered members. The reason isn’t mainly the revenue they bring in directly. It’s that high-level sponsors, who pay big dollars to build brand recognition across those audiences, want to see them.
Challenge:
In the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, sporting clubs, like many other community engagement businesses, were hit hard because members and fans couldn’t attend games, functions and venues. Many clubs found it very hard to engage and keep engaged a “socially distanced” member base, so membership numbers started to fall, and so did the revenue tied to member activity.
This case study shows how a small but innovative print franchise business turned its client’s problem into a turning point for the brand.
The Approach:
Engaging a detached audience is hard at the best of times, and harder still when an audience that’s usually well connected is suddenly pushed into virtual remoteness. Absence doesn’t always make the heart grow fonder.
UPG was given the job of solving the problem. It knew any solution would have to cut through the growing digital clutter consumers face and be engaging enough to deliver a real WOW factor. The answer was Augmented Reality enabled print, also known as Interactive Print. It combines print’s ability to get attention and build trust with digital’s talent for engagement, especially when the digital part shows off augmented reality’s endless capacity to amaze.
The Solution:
UPG put augmented reality into both new and existing print collateral to deliver interactive print solutions. They caught the target audience’s attention and wowed them like never before, and more importantly they drove levels of engagement not seen since the start of 2020.
The flagship solution behind this revival was a birthday card sent to members in the month of their birthday. When members read the card, it prompted them to scan a QR code on it to “Receive their exclusive birthday wish and gift” from the club.
Scanning the QR code showed members an animated birthday message from a variety of club players, who appeared standing on the card in miniature, almost “hologram like” form (done very simply with green screen video content). Once the message finished, a clear call to action prompted the member to go to the club’s online store and receive a “Birthday Discount” on any sport memorabilia they bought.
The Birthday Campaign was a big success and restrictions were gradually lifting. UPG used the same Orpington Omni Media technology again, this time for full-size player animations (green screen video) on pull up banners and posters inside venues.
The club is so pleased with the results that it has asked UPG to scope a rewards-based interactive treasure hunt delivered from in-club posters and signage, plus an AR-enabled fridge magnet that members can scan at any time for club updates and, more importantly, offers that change regularly.
The Results:
With card open response rates of 87% and AR experience click through rates of 327%, the success in engaging the member base is beyond question. Interaction with the AR content even had a viral effect.
The real success of the campaign shows in the significant drop in the average annual member attrition rate, from 29% to 11%, and in the extra revenue from “Birthday Gift” purchases at the club’s online store, which lifted overall revenue by a massive 22%.
Setting aside the production of the 4 x ten second green screen player videos and the birthday card design, it’s amazing that the AR component, which drove so much activity, took only around 3 minutes to set up.
The campaign is still active, and results for the AR-enabled Birthday Card continue to excite everyone involved.
On a side note, UPG is now in active discussions with a number of other sporting clubs interested in a similar Augmented Reality Member Engagement solution.
About Orpington Omni Media:
Orpington Omni Media is a simple-to-use augmented reality (AR) marketing platform. Printers and marketers use it to offer customers Augmented Reality Member Engagement and Interactive Print solutions that drive consumer activity and engagement and improve campaign performance.
Take your Augmented Reality Member Engagement further. Our AR technology gives members an immersive experience and lets you connect with them in a more meaningful way. Try AR and see where membership engagement is heading. Stand out from your competition with Orpington Omni Media.Contact us today!
