Vålerenga partner up with Gobi to use stories for sports fan engagement
Every team is only as strong as its fans, and good fan engagement with loyal fans means everything for short and long-term team revenue. Vålerenga Fotball Elite started using Gobi Stories to boost fan engagement on their own platform, leveraging the authenticity and low production barrier of the story format.
Most sports teams and clubs know the value that fans bring to the overall success of the sport in which they play. If it weren’t for the fans who consistently attend games and events, purchase merchandise, or show their support through social media, many teams would simply not exist.
With the advancement of technology, fan engagement has become an even bigger topic since there are more and more ways to connect with fans. Whether through social media, websites or closed digital groups, discussions and forums, sports teams and clubs have the opportunity to connect with fans in more meaningful ways than ever before.
Fan engagement is more than just a way to get fans to attend various sporting events and games. Today, it’s an intentional process of getting fans to actively participate in all things that are related to the specific team or league, whether directly or indirectly, on a continuous daily cycle. The more the team or league is part of their every day, the higher the value of the team’s brand in the fan’s mind.
Many experts emphasize that fan engagement in sports is about the emotional connection that is created between the team and the fans. It’s through these connections the story format plays its perfect role.
Vålerenga has been exceptional when it comes to finding innovative ways of implementing Gobi Stories into their website and newsletters. Not only can stories drive more traffic to their platforms, but by creating more personal content they can form a closer connection between supporters and fans.
As Gobi Stories are easy to implement all over the website, Vålerenga took this further and created a whole new ad space on their main page. Selling sponsored videos is not only a great way to increase revenue, but also a place for advertisement their sponsors love.
“By using Gobi Stories we have increased our digital revenue dramatically, so having stories from Gobi has been exclusively positive."
The story format enables everyone to create and post video content in a matter of minutes rather than hours spent on professional video productions. This is not only a way cheaper solution for providing great content but also makes sure the videos are perceived as authentic and honest.
For sports especially, it’s important to publish as fresh content as possible. Before using Gobi Stories, adding a video to a club’s website was way too time-consuming to do right after a match. They had to bring out their professional camera equipment, edit it on their computer, upload it to a video hosting service and embed it on their website.
By using Gobi Stories, anyone, even without prior video editing experience, can record and upload Gobi Stories to their website and newsletters in a matter of minutes. This enables clubs to publish the match highlights when the game is still on, and they can showcase recent goals on their website as they happen.
In addition to this, thanks to Gobi’s interactive links and stickers, all clubs can link to a ticket purchase page for their next match directly in the video story. This is a totally new way of not only engaging their fans, but also converting and monetizing fans to increase the value of the club.
We thank VIF for choosing Gobi Stories and look forward to seeing how they can optimize their fan engagement strategy!