CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 43

In the sports world, baseball is not unique in its
limited knowledge of its customer base. According to
one recent estimate, U.S. sports teams, on average,

people purchased tickets and where they sat, but little
else about them.
The realization that past data practices are woefully

know less than 5% of their fans. For the Red Sox, this

inadequate in today's digital world is certainly not

would imply having limited knowledge of about 400k

limited to sports. Even many of the companies that

fans out of the 7 million-plus adults in New England

today are considered "big data" powerhouses were

who consider themselves citizens of "Red Sox Nation."

anything but that just a few short years ago. For

While traditional market segmentation efforts - the

example, as the 21st century rolled around, only limited

young fan who attends games frequently, the small

historical weather data was captured at The Weather

business owner who entertains clients at games,

Channel. Why capture information on the storm that

etc. - provide a helpful window onto the sporting-fan

just passed? Or so the reasoning went. As digital

population, such basic scrutiny won't get you to first

platforms and learning systems evolved, however, so

base in today's digital age. Today, we must understand

did the need for more granular and more diverse data.

and serve fans' individual needs. For that, we must
have a 360-degree knowledge of each customer.
Basically, sports franchises have had two key

For the Red Sox to match its player analytics
with data-driven, fan-level analytics required a
comprehensive approach. We needed to create new

obstacles to more fully understanding the fan. One

capabilities in the IT function; transform our data

was that teams are historically one step removed

collection and integration practices to emphasize the

from the buyer, who may have purchased a ticket or

importance of data analytics and reporting; and offer

merchandise from any one of a variety of channels and

new digitally enabled fan-facing programs.

middlemen. The other was that the data we collected
was coming from disparate data sources and housed

New Skills and a New Organization

in disparate databases. The result was that you know
that X has been a season ticket holder for Y years,

The first step in transforming our knowledge of our

but you probably don't know how old he (or she) is;

customers was to create a data-services team. The

his family status; how many games he, as holder of

sole focus of this small group is data, more specifically,

the season tickets, personally attends; his concession

data on our customers. To staff it, we hired people

habits; etc. In short, sports franchises knew how many

with skills and expertise that we hadn't had, including

"

When you start focusing on the data, a very
important aspect of digital transformation becomes
clear to everybody in the organization: quality beats
quantity every time. Until you can effectively harness
the data, analytics is just a dream.

"

43



CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8

Contents
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - Cover1
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - Cover2
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 1
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - Contents
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 3
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 4
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 5
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 6
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 7
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 8
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 9
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 10
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 11
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 12
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 13
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 14
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 15
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 16
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 17
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 18
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 19
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 20
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 21
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 22
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 23
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 24
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 25
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 26
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 27
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 28
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 29
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 30
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 31
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 32
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 33
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 34
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 35
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 36
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 37
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 38
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 39
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 40
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 41
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 42
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 43
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 44
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 45
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 46
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 47
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 48
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 49
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 50
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 51
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 52
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 53
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 54
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 55
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 56
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 57
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 58
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 59
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 60
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 61
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 62
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 63
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 64
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 65
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 66
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 67
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 68
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 69
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 70
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 71
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 72
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 73
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 74
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - 75
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - Cover3
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 8 - Cover4
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/hi_tech
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/issue12
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/assetheavy2020
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/lifesciencesandhealthcare2019
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/womenintech2
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/financialservices2019/
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/issue11
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/issue10
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/issue9
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/womeninit
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/financialservices
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/issue8
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/issue7
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/issue6
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/issue5
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/issue4
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/issue3
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/issue2
https://magazine.straighttalkonline.com/issue1
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com