Task
Basketball in our city is more than a sport. Not in vain Perm fans are considered to be the most friendly, the most loyal, the most emotional in the country. Every match of your favourite club gathers a full Sports Palace, and the game turns into a stunning spectacle imbued with vivid emotions and creates an indescribable atmosphere.
The club's management has decided to keep up with the times and communicate with their favorite fans using the app. The objectives of its development were:
- increasing sales of tickets, season tickets and paraphernalia of the club,
- developing and increasing fans’ allegiance, preparing them with FRM (Fan Relationship Management) system,
- complete and timely informing about events of the club and its activities,
- supporting the club's image as a modern, dynamic, developing with already existing background of victories and their own traditions and principles.
Solution
It was our pleasure to get down to business and we started with the research of course. First of all, we just went to the basketball game and saw with our own eyes how the game was going, how the fans behaved, how the space and time were organized before, during and after the match, listened to how the audience responded to the team and basketball in general. The experience turned out to be interesting and even unexpected — there were no basketball fans in our company before, but now there will definitely be a couple.
The rules of the game, the charter of the VTB League, the results of the teams and the standings have been studied, all the statistics about the game and the players, that fans are interested in, have been identified, finally, we found out where and how they can be obtained.
We have heard out the club's management and have figured out how its marketing policy is generally arranged, what the club tells its fans, which promotions it holds, how and through which channels it sells tickets. We have learned which ideas for further work we would like to implement.
We have studied the Parma website, alongside the websites and mobile applications of all the teams from the VTB League, some other leagues, and other countries, and we have collected some examples in Miro.
We have looked at the website's statistics, have studied user behavior, have found some patterns and have formed scenarios that we approve of with the client.
We have studied a large number of books and articles on sports marketing, have watched reports at conferences, studies of other companies, and have talked to basketball fans.
A study of the members’ behavior of the club’s official group in the social network "VKontakte" has been conducted and its results have been presented to the management of the club. We have considered carefully the technical part and had a talk with the developers of the online ticket sales system to understand how to apply it in the future application. We have contacted representatives of the VTB League and have received documentation and permission from them to use their statistics system.
As a result of all this work, the goals of the club have been clarified, user groups have been identified and their tasks have been formulated, application usage scenarios and its information structure have been created.
It has also been agreed on the technology: the app will be native in both versions of the operating systems: for iOS and Android. In the technical specification, we have described the requirements for the server part (using the current crm system, already created for the club's website) and the API, the requirements for integration with three external systems: ticket sales, ticket payment and “VTB League”.
All the planned functionality has been divided into stages and we have started working (it is still ongoing, since the product is constantly evolving).
On the main screen there are results of the last match, an invitation to the upcoming one with the possibility of switching to a purchase of a ticket, the most important and current news of the season, the ability to display an advertising banner and videos that the club actively shoots, information about the team's players, logos of sponsors.
The main function of the app is ticket purchase. The user can select the match of interest in the calendar, click "Buy a ticket" and proceed to the selection of available seats in the stands of the Sports Palace.
In the "Matches" section, you can view not only the calendar, but also the results of previous games and the overall standings.
We get all the data about the availability of seats in the stands and their cost from an external system, and then transfer the user's booking to it. It is possible to select several places at once, mark them with a click, and then proceed to online payment. Payment is made through another external system, and we have also successfully integrated it.
After buying, all the purchased tickets for upcoming matches are available in a special section of the app's personal account. It is always possible to see them and, most importantly, enter the stadium using the barcode on each of them.
Many fans of the club purchase season tickets for the entire season. The application enables you not only to become the owner of such an "all-terrain vehicle", but also to scan the barcode of an already purchased one for use with your phone.
The club does not exist without its dashing team, and there are several of them in Parma: the main team, the youth team and the СYBL (Children and Youth Basketball League). There is a special section about each team where each player is shown and the most important information (height, weight, date of birth and links to instagram) is provided.
Professional photographers tend to work at each match, so there are a lot of high-quality and vibrant photos. All of them are in the "Media" section.
The registered users of the app can set up push notifications that they receive from the club. We send them the latest news, information about special offers and, of course, the results of all the games of your favorite team.
The work goes on, stay tuned.
Client
Basketball club "Parma" was founded on the 2th of August, in 2012 and is the only professional basketball club in Perm Region. Since 2017, the club has been part of one of the strongest leagues in Europe - the VTB United League. The team's games in Perm are held at the home arena of the universal Sports Palace "Molot".
