Team Vitality: "Our app gets to know fans, engages & rewards them better & monetises them" (A.Canet)
"The V.Hive app has always been at the heart of our diversification strategy, as it ticks all the boxes: getting to know fans better, engaging them better, rewarding them and monetising them," said Amélie Canet
Fan Activities Director @ Team Vitality
, fan activities director at Team Vitality
Activity: professional esports entity
Founded: August 2013
Shareholders: Korelya Capital (headed by former Minister Fleur Pellerin) Kima Ventures, H26 (Olivier Delcourt), Rewired.gg (Tej…
, to News Tank on 15/11/2024.
The French esports outfit rolled out a new, "clearer and more fluid to use" version of its V.Hive app dedicated to fan engagement on 22/11/2024. "We launched the app in November 2022, and at that time no sports club had a dedicated mobile app, let alone on Web3
Web3 or Web3.0, is a decentralised version of internet based on blockchain. It follows on from Web2.0, often referred to as "the Participatory Web", which designates all the techniques and…
. Today, many teams have launched a native mobile fan engagement application. This just goes to show that our idea was the right one," said the executive who worked for The Walt Disney Company
Founded: 16/10/1923
Founders: Walter Elias Disney and Roy O. Disney
CEO: Robert Iger (2005-2021)
Workforce (2022): 220,000 employees
Turnover:• on 01/10/2023: $88.89bn• on 01/10/2022…
France between 2010 and 2020.
Team Vitality's application has "over 100,000 downloads, more than 75,000 accounts, 35,000 avatars and 100,000 rewards and collectibles launched" in its two years of existence.
"V.Hive is a hyper-powerful first-party data tool. We already had data, but only through social networks. We now encapsulate this data in our application to create our own fanbase. The application gives us a huge database with which to adapt our marketing strategies. It also allows us to cross-reference the activity of fans on social media with their activity on the online shop, which is tantamount to cross-referencing the information of those who engage and those who buy," explained Amélie Canet, who answered questions from News Tank.
"25% of the club's merchandise is bought via our app" (Amélie Canet, Team Vitality)
What are your responsibilities at Team Vitality?
"When I arrived at Team Vitality in 2020, we wanted to further diversify the revenues of a club that at the time was heavily focused on performance, i.e. an activity concentrated on competitions, player announcements and so on. My job was to bring in my experience, gained at Disney in particular, with a more brand-oriented approach and audience analysis to identify the audiences we could reach.
We explored a number of avenues. Of course, the club's mainstay remains performance, but the fans are also at the heart of our business and form another pillar, just like the business side (merchandising, digital products, etc.). So I work on all these pillars.
Is performance the pillar that generates the most revenue?
In terms of sales, in-game items are more important than merchandising »Everything is linked to performance: the better the team performs, the more fans it attracts, and therefore the more brands. This enables us to sell more shirts and in-game items (items offered within the video games, such as skins), which account for a very large proportion of our revenue. Publishers' business models, particularly when it comes to sharing revenues from closed leagues (such as the LEC
League of Legends European Championship, the first European division played on the eponymous game and organised by the American video game publisher Riot Games since 2013.
), are based on performance.
So performance remains at the heart of Team Vitality's business, but we can take a step aside and work on other aspects, such as CSR Corporate social responsibility with the support of a partner. For example, when we launched the Rising Bee women's team with Aldi (supermarkets), we weren't looking directly at performance; our objectives here are different.
Who is the audience for Team Vitality content?
We've created a data department within the club, which didn't exist before I arrived and which is essential for diversification and marketing. In esport, unlike consumers of branded products, we work on the analysis of data collected on social networks. What's difficult to measure is that people follow the club, but also the players, our ambassadors, influencers and so on. Some audiences are also passionate about a particular game. Audiences are fragmented.
A typical profile of an esports consumer has already been established: predominantly male, aged between 15 and 35, with a core target audience aged between 18 and 29 and all occupational categories represented.
What we're interested in doing is mapping our fan profile more precisely, from simple followers to the hundred or so ultra 'Golden Hornets', not forgetting the people encapsulated in our fan engagement application, those who are engaged on our social networks, those who buy our merchandise, and so on. We have mapped our fans very well and have identified several levels of engagement.
This data and media strategy is of course very useful internally, but we also work with partnerships to deploy it externally. At the end of the day, we act like a media agency, and to do that we need to know our audiences very well so that we can make recommendations to our partners, who aren't all looking for the same thing: some come for conversion, others are more interested in brand awareness, and so on. So we have to adapt to present them with our audience pool, which is well identified and highly engaged.
What generates more revenue for the club: shirts or skins?
We use merchandising as a spearhead for the brand »There's a big difference. The in-game items correspond to a licensing business, since we have no direct link with the consumer. We sell our IP to video game publishers who monetise them directly within their games and receive the revenues, then pay us royalties. Whereas we are in a direct merchandising business. In terms of sales, however, in-game items are more important than merchandising.
We use merchandising as a spearhead for the brand: it is one of the most important points of engagement and contact. We have a real jersey strategy. In fact, we bring out three new shirts a year, designed by our artistic director. Yes, it's a business, but above all it's a tool for developing a sense of belonging among our fans, positioning our brand and telling Team Vitality's stories on social media.
Why did you need to create an application dedicated to your club and its fans?
Fan experience and gamification are at the heart of this approach »The V.Hive app has always been at the heart of our diversification strategy, as it ticks all the boxes: getting to know fans better, engaging them better, rewarding them and monetising them.
We started working on this project three years ago alongside our main partner Tezos (blockchain, Web3 Web3 or Web3.0, is a decentralised version of internet based on blockchain. It follows on from Web2.0, often referred to as "the Participatory Web", which designates all the techniques and… ). We had long wanted to create an innovative and pioneering fan engagement platform. Tezos came on board to develop its brand awareness, but the brand wanted to choose an esports team with a blockchain project at the heart of its strategic development, with the aim of democratising this technology to an esports audience. We had a good strategic meeting.
We released this application after nine months of in-house development. The aim was to create a native mobile application: the ultimate fan item that can be taken everywhere and all the time. This application had to offer an innovative approach to fan relations. So we took our inspiration from video games, basing ourselves on a 'support to earn system' whereby each time a fan engages with the club, they earn experience points which, through a system of seasons (as in a video game), enable them to climb a ranking that gives them rewards such as money can't buy experiences. The fan experience and gamification are at the heart of this approach.
This loyalty programme is offered in Web2 as well as Web3, and enhances the fan experience without offering paid content. In Web3, users can have an avatar, a unique, randomly generated NFT Non-Fungible Token: a unique blockchain-certified digital asset or cryptographic token that represents something unique (image, video, etc.). object that represents the fan's identity. Users can also create a Web3 portfolio and link their profile to their social networks. Each time the user engages with the brand (via follows, retweets, comments or even purchases from the eshop integrated into the application), they complete seasonal quests and earn experience points. Some of the rewards are avatar customisation NFTs with different levels of rarity. This gives fans a unique identity that reflects their commitment to the club.
The application also includes a prediction game, in partnership with our sponsor GG.BET, in which fans bet their experience points on Team Vitality matches. This feature has been a great success, offering a calendar of all our teams' matches. We've developed this section enormously in the new version of the application, making it easier for fans to follow the competitions.
In this new version of the application that we are rolling out, we have completely improved navigation, making it clearer and more fluid to use, with a new home page and many new features.
V.Hive application: key figures after two years of use
+ More than 100,000 downloads (including 50,000 on the first day of the launch)
+ More than 75,000 accounts created
+ over 35,000 avatars created
+ Over 100,000 rewards and collectibles launched, including 70 money can't buy experiences won
Team Vitality community engagement
+ More than eight million seasonal quests completed on social networks over seven seasons
+ More than 45,000 bets on the prediction game
+ over 9,000 quizzes and 25,000 questions created
Figures released by Team Vitality on 22/11/2024
Beyond the fan experience, what else does this application allow you to do?
The application allows us to cross-reference the activity of fans on social networks with their activity on the online shop »V.Hive is a powerful first-party data tool. We already had data, but only through social networks. We now encapsulate this data in our application to create our own fanbase. The application gives us a huge database with which to adapt our marketing strategies.
The application also has an impact on the performance of our social networks, something that our partners look at very closely. When we launched the very first V.Hive quest, which consisted of following us on the networks or liking the post, the counters exploded. The application even crashed on that occasion. We recorded engagement results in excess of 1,000% on certain networks. It's a very powerful marketing tool.
What's more, the application allows us to cross-reference the activity of fans on social networks with their activity on the online shop, which means that we can cross-reference the information of those who engage and those who buy.
Have you seen a direct effect on your product sales?
25% of the club's merchandise is purchased via our application. The average basket of people who buy on V.Hive is higher than on the eshop outside the app. App users also buy more frequently. Our best buyers are on V.Hive, which makes sense, as they are our most engaged fans. And that's not what the app was designed for. While the figures for the application are very good, the conversion rate in relation to our millions of followers on the networks is not an indicator that we look at. Our approach on the app is very different from our approach on social networks.
We have also launched a loyalty programme dedicated to the app. The eshop on V.Hive also benefits from exclusivity because we want to build loyalty among our members, with early access for the release of shirts in particular.
What is the role of Tezos, whose partnership ends at the end of the 2024 season?
Like all of the company's growth-generating projects, this application is here to stay. But it's obviously easier to have a partner who can help us develop this kind of new offering. This is also the case for Tezos, which had usage objectives by democratising blockchain among our fans. It's important for us to have a partner who will follow us in the years to come.
This application allows brands to come into contact with the most engaged fans »You've integrated other partners into the application...
In fact, the application allows us to highlight offers from partners. They can highlight a reward product, sponsor a feature, offer a branded quest, as we did during Paris Games Week with our partner JBL Quantum, or run quizzes on a particular product, etc. This application allows brands to come into contact with the most engaged fans."
Career
Fan Activities Director
Directrice Merchandising, Retail & e-commerce
Directrice Marketing, Stratégie Marques, Contenus et Retail France & Benelux
Directrice Marketing, Marque et Projets Stratégiques
Direction Marques & Licences et Marketing intégré
Responsable Senior, Marketing Licences
Responsable Senior, Marketing intégré et Media planning
Chef de groupe Marketing
Senior Marketing Manager Europe, Middle East & Africa
Chef de produit Marketing
# 52862, created on 22/11/24 at 11:02 - Updated on 25/11/24 at 20:44
Team Vitality
Activity: professional esports entity
Founded: August 2013
Shareholders: Korelya Capital (headed by former Minister Fleur Pellerin) Kima Ventures, H26 (Olivier Delcourt), Rewired.gg (Tej Kohli)
President: Fabien "Neo" Devide
Co-CEO: Nicolas Maurer (since 2013)
Director of Marketing & Fan Activities: Amélie Canet
14 teams playing on 12 different games: League of Legends, CS2, Valorant, FC24, Rocket League, Call of Duty Mobile (India), Tekken 8, Starcraft II (South Korea), RENNSPORT, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (Indonesia), TeamFight Tactics (TFT) & Street Fighter 6
Principal partner:
• Tezos (blockchain): main jersey sponsor 2022-24
Major partners:
• hummel (DEN): 2023-2025
• Magnum (glaces, Unilever): since 2023
• Ben & Jerry's (ice cream, Unilever): since 2023
• Skin.Club (merchandising)
Official partners with shirt visibility:
• Aldi (supermarkets): sleeve sponsor of the teams on Fortinite, FIFA and the LFL (Vitality.Bee), 2021-2023, major partner of the women's LoL team
• Evnia/Philips Monitor (screens): partner of LoL teams since 2022
• JBL Quantum (headsets)
• Cherry XTRFY (computer peripherals)
• CréditAgricole (bank): 2022-2024
• Tradeit.gg (skins exchange site): since 2024
• GG.BET (casino games)
Official suppliers:
• Kia France (Car manufacturer): 2023-24
• SecretLab (gaming chairs)
Category: Professional Clubs
Headquarters address
102 boulevard de Sébastopol75003 Paris France
Visit in the directory
# 6478, created on 06/02/18 at 02:25 - Updated on 12/12/24 at 17:12
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