Overcome the Barriers to Enable Exclusive Premium Experiences
Info-Tech Research Group & Association of Luxury Suite Directors (ALSD) 2023 Survey
- Premium fans are not willing to have a negative experience but will pay more for high-value experiences, where the satisfaction of premium ticket holders can make or break the business.
- Creating a structured and hyper-personalized premium experience is difficult, as it is not always clear who is entering the venue.
- The sports and entertainment industry needs to quickly adapt to new methods of digital engagement to develop a unified premium experience.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
An exclusive premium experience requires the participation of the entire organization through effective governance and technological solutions.
Impact and Result
- Collect industry-specific quantitative and qualitative data to enable and set realistic goals for the premium experience.
- Review key considerations and decision-making processes for selecting the correct technology from industry peers in enabling premium experiences.
- Compare industry-peers against each other to discover common challenges, opportunities, and solutions to creating a unified premium experience.
Overcome the Barriers to Enable Exclusive Premium Experiences
Info-Tech Research Group & Association of Luxury Suite Directors (ALSD) 2023 Survey
Analyst Perspective
Differentiate between premium and mass market experiences.
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Improving the premium fan experience requires the power of technology. Through this survey, Info-Tech Research Group and the Association of Luxury Suite Directors (ALSD) were able to identify improvements that will successfully drive information technology projects for premium experiences to differentiate them from projects for mass market experiences. The current state of the industry indicates that IT leadership is not aligned with the rest of the business due to a lack of involvement, responsibility, and ownership of technology projects for the premium experience. This lack of IT involvement causes more than half of the premium experience projects to fail or provide unsatisfactory outcomes. While IT needs a bigger role within premium projects, it is also important for IT leaders to improve their data strategies so they can collect meaningful data that will drive personalization to the next level. Many opportunities for the premium experience are enabled through high quantities of personal data, which the sports and entertainment industry does not collect in vast amounts. Improvements in data collection will allow IT leaders within the industry to execute premium projects properly. Elizabeth Silva |
Executive Summary
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Your Challenge |
Common Obstacles |
Info-Tech’s Approach |
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Premium fans are expecting a premium and will pay more for high-value experiences, in which the satisfaction of premium ticket holders can make or break the business. Creating a structured and hyper-personalized premium experience is difficult because it is not always clear who is entering the venue. The sports and entertainment industry needs to adapt quickly to new methods of digital engagement in order to develop a unified premium experience. |
When relevant departments are not involved early, there are often challenges around scope, timelines, and benefits. Involving the right departments will avoid a siloed approach and ineffective data. Many sports organizations struggle with creating a systematic approach for building a unified premium experience to support essential departments, such as marketing, customer support, and service. Some departments lack the understanding of the premium fan engagement context that is necessary to identify premium opportunities for digital transformation and enablement. |
Collect industry-specific quantitative and qualitative data to enable and set realistic goals for the premium experience. Review key considerations and decision-making processes for selecting the correct technology from industry peers to enable premium experiences. Compare industry peers against each other to discover common challenges, opportunities, and solutions for creating a unified premium experience. |
Overarching Insight
An exclusive premium experience requires the participation of the entire organization through effective governance and technological solutions.
All leagues are well represented within the data
Participant Profile
Info-Tech Insight
Despite the background of participants, IT leaders will be able to identify valuable opportunities for improvement across several dimensions of the business.
Source: Info-Tech Research Group, Association of Luxury Suite Directors (ALSD) Member Survey, 2023; n=59
Participants surveyed come from a cross-functional group of professionals
Participant Background
Source: Info-Tech Research Group, Association of Luxury Suite Directors (ALSD) Member Survey, 2023; n=59
Premium experiences are expected outcomes
When fans purchase a premium product or service, they are buying an expected outcome.
To deliver this outcome, venue operators must provide exceptional value and service delivery, and must renew the premium services to generate revenue for the business.
To continue selling premium, venue operators must continue to meet the needs and expectations of fans through proper projects and portfolio management, market research,
and innovation.
Fans put an enormous amount of value on exceptional experiences.
61% ... of fans will pay at least 5% more if they know they will get a greater experience (Emplifi, 2022).
63% … of consumers would share more information with a company that offers a great experience (PwC, 2018).
Info-Tech Insight
By consistently delivering high-value and excellent service, teams can foster customer loyalty and encourage premium seat renewals. The key to this is understanding their customers through data.
Source: Info-Tech Research Group, Association of Luxury Suite Directors (ALSD) Member Survey, 2023; n=59
Sports teams are prioritizing the collection of transactional data
Transactional data refers to the information that is collected during an exchange of goods or services for money. Personal data is information that is related to an identified individual.
Sports and entertainment organizations are mainly focused on capturing transactional data. Personal data, such as age, gender, and income, is lacking.
With minimal data, it becomes difficult for an organization to differentiate between fans and determine how to market directly to different fans.
Source: Info-Tech Research Group, Association of Luxury Suite Directors (ALSD) Member Survey, 2023; n=59
A majority of premium sales are for corporate and personal use
Percent of Premium Sales
Corporate: 54%
Personal: 46%
Percent of Use
Reseller: 13%
Personal/corporate: 87%
Info-Tech Insight
Even though 87% of buyers are using the tickets as intended, sports organizations do not collect data on the physical ticket holders in the suite. Therefore, the organization does not know who, specifically, is in the suite.
Section 2 – Q4: On average, what percent of premium sales is personal vs. corporate purchased?
Q5: On average, what percent of premium sales is for personal/corporate use vs. a reseller?
Source: Info-Tech Research Group, Association of Luxury Suite Directors (ALSD) Member Survey, 2023; n=59
Information technology may be one of the most involved departments, but it still lacks ownership
Most of the ownership for technology projects lies with the executive team. When the business owns technology projects, the objectives tend to be focused on improvements and solutions that impact the customer-facing touchpoints and channels.
When IT owns technology projects, the objectives tend to be highly focused on technology, leveraging digital innovations to speed up change.
Giving IT more ownership of these projects will result in higher success rates. A lack of ownership can cause challenges late in the project, if the strategy and solution do not deliver the intended value.
Source: Info-Tech Research Group, Association of Luxury Suite Directors (ALSD) Member Survey, 2023; n=59
Less than half of projects are completed
When combined with the data and analysis on the previous slides, scoping for technology projects is considered not feasible or supported when only one to two premium experience projects are being completed per year.
Source: Info-Tech Research Group, Association of Luxury Suite Directors (ALSD) Member Survey, 2023; n=59
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