DME Studios Sports

The Miami Dolphins NFL team had a comeback year in 2008, after a disappointing season in 2007, which resulted in significant losses in season ticket sales revenue. For 2009, the management decided that an aggressive marketing plan was necessary in order to regain ticket sales andincrease fan loyalty. DME Studios produced a personalized video and integrated series of outbound communications directing season ticket holders to a personalized website. After viewing their video, a digital presentation of ticket purchase options was featured as the call toaction. Prospects for new ticket sales were segmented based on data modeling and received relevant messages based on their audience segment. Additional leads were received from referrals and users signing up to experience the campaign, directed from social media, Pro football blogs, Miami Dolphin fan sites, and more. Those leads were captured and used for future marketing communications.

Artwork for direct mail, email and web banners followed the same theme, using a South Beach / Miami style look and feel that complimented the Miami Dolphins’ branding. In a six-week period, more than 100,000 high end self mailers were sent to targeted recipients with the propensity to purchase tickets, along with more than 680,000 emails. The resulting return on investment was quite extraordinary. More than $4.5 million in new ticket sales (with a calculated average life cycle value of $17.89 million) were received, 78% of which had received a marketing communicationfrom DME Studios. Although other outside factors contributed to the success in this campaign, (including the strong performance from the football team in 2008), if only 30% of the new ticket sales were attributed to DME Studios’ campaign, the program still would have produced $10 in new annual ticket sales for every $1 of direct marketing expenses.