episode 48 of the dsmsports podcast w/ tom halls of british tennis

Snippets from Episode 48 of the Digital Snippets from Episode 48 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcastand Social Media Sports Podcast

@njh287 DSMSports.net


Episode 48 featured Head of Digital at British Tennis, Tom Halls.

What follows is a collection of snippets from the podcast. For the full episode, visit DSMSports.net


http://www.dsmsports.net/


Tom's career path

Graduated university with a degree in retail marketing and worked for Upper Deck (trading cards) as a Marketing Assistant, managing print advertising and running PR events on a small team

→ Then went to work for Electronic Arts (EA) to head up their digital asset team in the UK to manage all digital assets for the marketing and creative team, including animated flash banners, website assets, layered artwork files, and more to support EA games all around the world in different geo-markets



Tom's career path

→ Next, Tom became Creative Project Manager for EA managing franchises such as FIFA, Madden, and SIMS franchises: “It gave me a real thirst for sports. I've always been really fortunate that I've worked brands and companies that I've been passionate about...It (also) gave me a lot of insight around image rights in sports.”



Tom's career path

→ After EA, Tom went to work for Coca-Cola in advance of the London Olympics supervising project management of new packaging approval process for Coca-Cola products, digitizing all of their packaging assets and greatly increasing their efficiency, quality, and error control:

“My role was coordinating the implementation of a new approval tool...The tool fundamentally changed how Coca-Cola produced packaging, from a paper system to something almost completely automated now...we greatly reduced the time spent and financial resources spent on packaging.”

“It was my first experience with business-wide change...fundamentally changing an organization's way of working to a digital, modern way of working.”



Tom's career path

Tom also managed Coca-Cola's digital asset tools for specific campaigns all around the world; helped increase quality and efficiencies across global markets and worked with big brand agencies in London to work on assets that could be utilized worldwide (Share A Coke, Polar Bears, James Bond Skyfall)

“The Share-a-Coke campaign is directly possible because of the digital asset tool (Tom helped create)...”

→ After Coca-Cola, Tom joined Head (produce tennis rackets and ski equipment) as Global Digital Content Manager, managing all digital assets and e-commerce, while also honing skills with creative software



Tom's career path

→ From Head, Tom took on his role as Head of Digital at British Tennis“There was a great opportunity for me to make a difference in sport, to actually

impact (tennis) participation and get more people involved in the sport.”



Tom's tip:

“The key thing for me was...to stay on top of the latest tech trends...If you're on top of the latest technological trends and you understand how to use them...then you can bring a lot of expertise to the table and you can then become an educator to the rest of your business you're in.”



On his role with British Tennis

“(My remit here) was to modernize our digital offerings...It started initially with our website...we've been focused on...looking at someone that plays tennis once or twice a year; how do you get them to play more often?..and if you want to be the next Nadal or Murray, how do you go about that?”

On the goal of British Tennis

“Our primary business goal is to get more people playing more tennis more often. Our KPI is people on court.”



Initial website changes

Tom describes hiring an agency, doing deep-dive workshops from across the organization to assess “key customer journeys.” Their website originally had 65,000 pages! → “It was incredibly off-putting to that someone that was new to tennis...(we had to make it) more digitally friendly...my biggest win so far was to get the organization seeing things from a customer's perspective...

Digital has played a huge part in that. Our fan base and our potential fans are heavily digital...so we have a road map in place to address those needs with solutions tailored to them as customers...The website was what kicked it all (digital reformation) off.”



On assessing customer segments and data-based learning

“Being able to come in objectively (was important) and to question 'Why are we doing this?'...The most dangerous thing within an organization is when something is questioned and someone goes 'Oh, we've always done it that way...'

One of the ways we looked about getting all that customer insight in order to change the website was to (get information) from our small internal research team [they provided information on tennis fans overall, their needs, and what they want from the British Tennis website]...

“We eventually amalgamated all that great insight and research, which then formed the basis for our web road map for the next couple of years...we set out a clear purpose for the website and it was to be driven by the customer's needs.”

“We've got a ton of heavily invested visitors to the website, but we weren't really surprising and delighting them.”



On the role social media plays in British Tennis's shift in strategy

“Social media, for us, has always been a driver of traffic to the website and it's an engagement tool...Our social demographic aren't necessarily on our website or logged in as members on our website and that's something we need to changed, but the guys here that do social for us have a tremendous job in driving traffic from social referrals...

Our traffic still about 75% from Google..but social has reinforced and allows us to keep talking to our customers on a day-to-day basis...We'll get the more infrequent player (from social)...to get those (more casual players) and really engage them in the sport.” [Tom tells about how a social media post from One Direction led to huge traffic about a British Tennis project in Summer 2014!]



→ “That's phenomenal...and will do a great job in growing awareness for what your product is...but, for us it's now all about engagement. It's great that One Direction tweets about us, but if we can't directly attribute to a growth in people playing on court, then we'd question the value in that now, which is kind of tricky to do when the rest of the organization sees these huge numbers.”



On tracking low-level funnel actions to conversions

“The reality of it is that we know what that customer journey (from seeing the One Direction tweet) looks like...They see a tweet...and go to Google and they find our website. They find a court and book (a session). We then start collecting anonymous data about them. How do we use all we know about them, how they've navigated through our channels to then tailor content based on their needs. I don't think we're that far away from it...



“It's plotting all of those customer touch points (to identify) where are your opportunities to increase engagement? Where are your opportunities to increase frequency. We have customer funnels we would like to move people through...We recognize that we have so many different audiences (and) some people may always just remain a casual player...We're okay with that. For us, it's about growing the game, whether that is a fan base or participants.”



Helpful Tool: Magisto, free Android or iOS app to create video or photo montages



On the differences between influenced audiences, depending on the influence source (One Direction vs. lifestyle blogger, for example)

“There are ways to utilize technology within digital to ensure that those groups are given (equal) prevalence...you can send them on a journey that converts more effectively (for that audience). You understand the medium they're on and engage with them in that fashion...

Defining those jerseys is the easy part. Actually tracking and influencing consumer change and behaviour within those journeys is the really tricky part...”



On unifying customer data and journeys across platforms

“When we talk nirvana, we talk single customer view. We talk 360-degree...That's certainly where we're heading. We have the technology...We can build that customer journey. There's a wider piece for us an organization about embedding that. At this point, you're talking digital transformation because you have to get all the business teams on board (to value digital)...All of our data sources coming in to one place (about customers and their journeys)...

I'm confident that we'll get there quickly...Putting the right tech in place now and starting to understand our customers more effectively now is what gives you that solid base to go from.”



On how British Tennis executes content marketing

“We are becoming much more focused (with content). There's a realization that while we are a publisher, we don't necessarily want to be competing with more powerful sources...We have to play in the spaces where we can make a difference. What can we provide that someone like a BBC News or an ESPN that these guys can't. It's coming at content from a more exclusivity perspective...

We look at it and say 'where can we add value?'...What content is valuable to someone that has just come in to the sport? It goes back to those audience groups...Will content marketing replace PR?...”



[Tom talks about an increasingly popular content hub specifically created to attract the casual playing audience picking up the sport]

“It's recognizing that all of those audiences groups have different needs and then you say 'How can technology help that?'...Based on the behavior (of the website visitor)...we can then serve you content specific to that...We're about six months from nirvana in that sense...(Tom also goes on to discuss how they can use content to drive more progressive consumer behaviors)

“It (comes) down to smarter segmentation of your audience groups and understanding the needs of those audience groups.”



On “conversions” for each audience group

“(For the infrequent player), it might be them signing up for some free level of registration...Convert them to that because then you've got them in the ecosystem and you can really start personalizing content to them...

For regularly competing players, it might be...still spend the same amount of time on our site, but maybe enter more competitions and enter into them more effectively. So less steps to enter the competition. We're still defining those goals based on the audience group.”

[Tom says research has identified 6 key segment groups]



On reaching the youngest segments, to make them tennis fans and interested in playing early

[Tom talks about the path of introductory junior tennis]

“We know there is a youth journey and we can track that to some extent. Actually getting to that consumer...is slightly trickier. We know a lot of parents log on to the website and check results for their kids because it's not a massively child-friendly website. We do have a dedicated juniors website, but it's not as intrinsically linked to the rest of our web channels...



[Tom mentions the charitable arm of British Tennis as promoting the sport to youth]

“We know how many schools, for instance, in this country that are delivering tennis as an educational piece and they provide some brilliant insight into (children discovering and playing tennis)...but then it's how do you convert them from ages 8-12...how do you engage with them?...It's a great question and one we're looking to address over the next 18 months.”



On allocating attention and resources across all consumer touch points

“We do a huge piece of analytics work...around how each of those groups engage with us...[Tom notes big growth in mobile engagement, up to 75-25 in favor of mobile] We know the newer customer...is more digitally savvy...Part of the (growth in mobile) is that we now have a mobile-responsive website...

[Tom notes competition websites still need to adapt to mobile responsiveness]...

If you move that hardcore customer to a mobile-responsive platform...then we'll (continue increasing mobile even more).”



Share-able stat: The French Open generated 4.1 billion Twitter impressions over the course of the tournament

Tom on reach: “Reach is a big part of what we do. Engagement is (more important)...”



The biggest challenge in promoting British Tennis to a global audience

“Our goal isn't really to promote British Tennis to a global audience, but more to promote it to a British audience...(Traffic from other countries is great), but we can't influence someone in (another country) taking part in tennis in this country...

For us, the biggest challenge is getting people thinking about the game outside of Wimbledon...We've got to compete with a number of year-round sports...that have got much greater media saturation.”



The most exciting factor for the future of British Tennis

“Tennis is gladiatorial. There's little to no support from a teammate...It's just you versus your opponent with a net in the way. It's as much a game mentally as it is physically...There aren't that many sports that pit you individually against someone else.”



The pro tennis player that does the best job on social media and why

Andy Murray, @andy_murray (Tom admits he's biased!)

→ “He engages his fans. He gives them great insight into life as a pro player on tour. He's got an incredibly dry sense of humour...He's great to allow and does pop up on your timeline at all hours of the day...He gets what social media is about.”


http://www.twitter.com/andy_murray


The social platform that gets the most consistent engagement among fans of British Tennis

Facebook → “Our demographic on Facebook is quite open to engagement. We see a ton of comments, shares, and good reach with the majority of our posts...(Our fans) are incredibly engaged. I'd much rather have an engaged fan base than a huge fan base...”



The tennis tournament that gets the most social media buzz for British Tennis

Wimbledon → “It's just massive...”

Australian Open → “Those guys really get social. And they're innovative, they're young, they're fresh-thinking.”

“With Grand Slams...There's a huge emphasis on driving the on-site experience to those off-site, so these guys have to innovate...”



The most popular piece of content or social media post in Tom's tenure with British Tennis

Andy Murray at the Australian Open and his then-fiancee (now wife) Kim Sears (who had recently made news for swearing during a match) showed up at Andy Murray's next match wearing a t-shirt that read 'Parental Advisory: Explicit Language.'

→ “The traction that got was just phenomenal. We got such good pickup from that because it transcended sport. It wasn't just about Andy Murray, it was about Kim Sears, who herself is an icon.”

2nd best was team selfie at the Davis Cup in 2014: “It's the opportunistic content that really seems to get the engagement.”



Tom's favorite tennis venue in the world and why

The Aegon International in Eastbourne at the Devonshire Park Club: “It has got some of the best grass courts in the world. The players all wait by the seaside, it's a great family-friendly atmosphere...It's such a different atmosphere to every other tennis tournament.”



Tom's most memorable moment during his tenure as Head of Digital for British Tennis

Tom tells about working with the Davis Cup team in Italy, spending a week there with the team for training and the match

→ “It gave me my first taste of the Davis Cup...(Most tennis tournaments) are quiet, but Davis Cup is a completely different beast. You really see people getting rowdy, noisy. We saw hundreds of British fans make the trip out to Naples to support the team...to experience that was amazing...It's very much American-ized. It is kind of Superbowl-style (feel) around it.”



“To be able to say that (my job is), at the end of the day, to get more people playing tennis more often, and it's like what a phenomenal objective...Sometimes you do pinch yourself. It's great because, if you're passionate about your job and role in the industry you're in, that feeds through quite naturally and you're more inclined to do a good job.”



The best food at a tennis venue

Tom admits he doesn't get to sample much, as he is often working the events

Wimbledon → “I had a chance to taste the food in the members' restaurant. It was up there with a four or five star restaurant.”

“From a player or staff perspective, the Aegon Championships at the Queen's Club do a great job...they got an award last year in player services for how good they look after the players on the tour.”

[Tom also mentions the food at Roland Garros is supposed to be incredible]



The male player in the world that will be #1 at the end of this year and the player that will be #1 in five years

This year → Novak Djokovic: “He's just too consistent across all surfaces...He's just good at getting the ball back over the net...He's a machine.”

In five years → “Trickier. I think Novak and Andy could still be up there...there are some incredibly exciting stars coming through (too). You look at Milos Raonic...Grigor Dimitrov...the wild card, for me, is Nick Kyrgios, the Aussie. Australian tennis is really thriving at the moment...there's huge potential there.”



Tom's Social Media All-Star to Follow:

@AlexTrickett: Head of Sport @TwitterUK

@DannyKeens: Head of Sports Partnerships @Twitter


http://www.twitter.com/AlexTrickett

http://www.twitter.com/DannyKeens


How to find Tom and British Tennis on social media:

Tom is on Twitter @tghalls

British Tennis on Twitter @BritishTennis. Also Facebook and other social platforms and their great website


http://www.twitter.com/tghalls


Thanks very much to Tom Halls for sharing his experience, knowledge, and personality with us on the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast!

For more, visit www.dsmsports.net and follow me, Neil Horowitz, on Twitter @njh287


http://www.dsmsports.net/

http://www.twitter.com/njh287