ECAL’s Top Trends In Calendar continues! This special 4-week series showcases the latest techniques and strategies used by the most progressive brands in calendar marketing at ECAL. This week we focus on trends in Engagement Drivers.

Pre-event Engagement

Fan engagement for sports teams and leagues not only builds an emotional tie between the team, its players and its fans, but through this engagement, fans can fast develop a meaningful, valuable and long-lasting connection to brand, from which a community of passion and purpose builds. The calendar is an important communication and support channel to capture the attention of fans, not only to alert them of when and where their team plays next, but to engage and enrich the fan experience in and around these events. For sports leagues and teams, the pre-match period is a wonderful opportunity to connect with high value, passionate fans, to support gamification initiatives, drive fans on-site, increase web traffic, increase time on-site and facilitate multi-screen in-event activity.

Check out these pre-event promotions by two of the very best brands in world football, Aston Villa FC and FC Barcelona.

Post-event Engagement

Ultimately, fans love it when their team wins! They want to re-live the highs of victory, and the calendar is an important channel to continue communication with fans following the final whistle. ECAL’s dynamic calendar service along with it’s smart business logic, can automate additional content into calendar before, during or after the event. Delivering ‘Scores & Highlights’ directly into the users’ calendar post-match is a hugely popular feature, that works to drive engagement with increased site visits and video views, with greater opportunity for conversion to your paid video subscription service.

Check out how leading sports brand Liverpool FC engages fans after the final whistle with scores and highlights.

ECAL’s Top Trends In Calendar is here! This special 4-week series showcases the latest techniques and strategies used by the most progressive brands in calendar marketing at ECAL. This week we focus on trends in Audience Building.

Pre-Promotion Campaigns

The release of the season schedule has become a highly anticipated event for fans, and presents an important opportunity for brands. It not only keeps fans engaged during the off-season, but a well-orchestrated, well-hyped schedule release event builds excitement and anticipation for the season, and keeps the brand front of mind for longer. Fans with renewed hope and expectation for the season ahead are keen to know the schedule, and plan their lives accordingly! For brands, it is a critical opportunity to connect and engage with high value, passionate fans with the official digital calendar service, powered by ECAL.

The very best brands are taking this a step further, with a pre-promotion campaign launched up to seven (7) days prior to schedule release. Standout, takeover creative and editorial messaging encourages fans to sync their calendar now to receive the schedule first, as soon as it’s released, straight to your calendar. This strategy has proven hugely successful in growing your connected calendar audience, whilst working to create a buzz and positive virality around the upcoming schedule release. So, two days of typical promotion turns into two weeks. Check out these pre-promotion campaigns by two of the very best brands in Premier League and International Cricket Council.

Online Member Sign-up

Single Member ID architecture is a growing trend across many leading brands, aimed at providing instant access to a range of premium features, with greater personalisation, more relevant content and deeper engagement.  Keen to convert largely anonymous fans to known and more engaged online members, brands are increasingly looking to provide premium features behind a sign up / sign in form. Your ECAL digital calendar is one popular service that can help you achieve your goal of online member conversion. Ultimately, the size of your calendar audience is likely to be less than normal, but if brands believe in the benefits of building a high value committed online membership, it’s definitely a popular feature that works well to turn the tide of users in adopting your online membership concept.

Check out how leading brand Liverpool FC ‘gate’ their users to sign up / sign in to access their ‘Sync to Calendar’ feature.

Major sports in the UK, particularly football, are well served by ECAL, with the Premier League, The FA, and Barclays Women’s competitions all relying on the world’s leading calendar communications, marketing and data technology.

Last week it was the English Football League’s turn, with the highly anticipated release of their 2023/24 Sky Bet EFL fixtures. For Football fans right across the United Kingdom and abroad, it was a chance to plot their side’s road to promotion (or relegation 👀), lock in key derby dates and upcoming Cup ties.

The ‘Get Ready for Fixture Release Day’ pre-release campaign was pivotal in growing the EFL’s connected audience across the three Sky Bet Competitions. ECAL Founder & CEO, Patrick Barrett explains:

“The EFL’s systematic approach in pre-promoting their digital calendar service across the EFL site network proved to be a highly successful pre-emptive strategy. The ‘Get Ready for Fixture Day’ promotional campaign featured on the EFL website, and on each Club site with distinctive team creative, including mastheads, splash pages and run of site banners.  As a result, thousands of fans took the opportunity to connect their calendar ahead of launch day, so they receive the fixture first as soon as it’s released – straight into their personal calendar program.”

Once connected, ECAL’s advanced technology keeps fans up-to-date and connected always. Users receive the latest match information, with direct access to the match centre, shop, standings, social media and much more, increasing awareness, engagement and sales.

The official EFL ‘digital calendar’ service is the only way to keep up-to-date. Don’t miss a moment this season, sync your favourite EFL team fixtures here.

For football fans across the globe, the release of the new Premier League season fixture is a highly anticipated event. It’s a chance for fans to plan their year ahead, lock in the blockbusters, mark down the rivalries, book weekends away, and reimagine hopes and expectations. After all, the season starts here!

For ECAL, Premier League’s official ‘digital calendar’ provider, the global release to millions of passionate football fans requires a well-crafted and co-ordinated strategy with the League and teams.

The pre-release promotional window is one sure-fire way to build excitement and anticipation for the release, and to cleverly grow your calendar audience. ECAL Founder & CEO, Patrick Barrett explains:

“Premier League does a wonderful job in building the official fixture release to a much-anticipated event, and driving users to ‘sync to calendar’ to receive the fixtures first. It’s a great example for all major sports leagues and competitions.

This year, the Premier League’s ‘Unmissable drama, Made Unmissable’ standout creative was launched with a site takeover campaign beginning on Monday 12th June, ahead of the official fixture release on Thursday. Thousands of fans took the opportunity to connect their calendar ahead of launch day, and tell their friends.”

Creative executions included a dedicated website ‘splash page’ on entry, homepage masthead banner, run of site banners, editorial support, social post campaigns and direct email promotion, with the promise to “get every match delivered to your calendar”.

This resulted in hundreds of thousands of fans subscribing to the official Premier League ‘digital calendar’, with a good proportion connecting to the service in the days prior to the official fixture release, where demand then peaks.

As soon as fixtures are published, they are delivered directly into user calendar. ECAL’s highly advanced technology continues to deliver fans with a rich and dynamic fixture service ongoing. Users receive localised broadcast information across matches, and direct access to tickets, merchandise, video, social media, fantasy and more, to keep them up-to-date, connected and engaged.

The 2023/24 Premier League season kicks off on 11th August, with title holders Manchester City facing promoted Burnley.

Don’t miss a moment of the world’s most popular football league! Follow your favourite team like millions of others, and sync to calendar here.

ECAL has partnered with Ireland’s largest sporting organisation, The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), with the support of leading creative agency BBDO to deliver deliver Hurling and Gaelic Football matches directly into the calendar of fans all around the globe.

The partnership sees ECAL’s expansion across Europe’s major sporting leagues continue to grow, as it and the GAA looks forward to providing Irish sporting fans with the world’s best digital calendar service.

Fans of Ireland’s indigenous games of hurling and Gaelic football will receive their favourite Counties matches, delivered straight to their digital calendar of choice.  Match entries featuring game information, timely reminders and direct access to Buy Tickets and a Share fixtures with friends link.  Users can encourage friends and family fans to sync matches of their County to calendar directly via WhatsApp. An in-calendar first for an ECAL client.

Don’t miss a second of Ireland’s favourite sporting past times, sync matches to your personal calendar here!

Liverpool FC in partnership with ECAL has launched a smart and dynamic ‘sync to calendar’ service, as part of the growing benefits of the free MyLFC online account. This single Member ID architecture is a growing trend across many leading online brands, aimed at providing instant access to a range of premium features, with greater personalisation, more relevant content and a deeper engagement with the Club.

Encouraging online sign up and conversion to ‘MyLFC’, features like ECAL’s ‘sync to calendar’ service are wonderful tools to help find and discover new fans globally, enhance the value of a single online ID, and easily connect fans instantly to a wide range of relevant Club products, features and experiences.

With the ability to detect logged-in and logged out users and adjust the ‘state’ of the ‘Sync to Calendar’ CTA (call-to-action) button, site users are prompted to ‘sign in’ or ‘sign up’ to ‘MyLFC’ to sync their favourite Liverpool fixtures and events to their personal digital calendar. This provides a consistent member journey across the site with a single member ID, that sits at the heart of the digital future at Liverpool FC.

Subscribers to the Liverpool digital calendar service enjoy enriched, localised events content dynamically served to their personal calendar, including local TV broadcast details and direct access to LFCTV GO, Match Centre, MyLFC, LFC Store and more. Fans even receive next day scores and direct access to video highlights via LFCTV GO straight to their calendar.

The service has launched with the availability of Mens First Team, Liverpool Women’s, Under 21 and Under 18 fixtures. Future content is likely to expand to include LFCTV GO programming, Foundation Events, Anfield Experiences, Hospitality Events and more.

To sign up to the benefits of MyLFC and sync the latest Liverpool fixtures and events to calendar, visit the Club website.

The countdown to the new season has begun with the AFL releasing its 2023 fixture.

As the official calendar technology provider across the AFL, ECAL lets you sync the official team fixture and club events straight to your personal calendar.Football fans will never miss a moment of the action with match details updated dynamically throughout the season, with direct access to Latest Video, AFL On Demand, Latest News, AFL StatsPro and TV Broadcast info at your fingertips.

The 2023 AFL Premiership season kicks off with the traditional clash between Richmond and Carlton on Thursday 16th March. Geelong will defend their premiership crown against a rejuvenated Magpies outfit on the Friday Night.

Footy is not far away, so be prepared and sync your team fixture to calendar now. Thanks to ECAL

Football fans, it’s here! The Qatar World Cup ‘digital calendar’ service is the only way to keep up-to-date with all the action.

ECAL has partnered with leading agency Immediate Media, with the support of global sports betting brand bet365, to deliver World Cup fixtures directly into the calendar of football fans all around the globe.

The WC ‘digital calendar’ is dynamic, and syncs all the latest match information, straight to your personal digital calendar, so you never miss a moment. Match details are updated dynamically throughout the tournament, complete with localised broadcast information and direct access to bet365’s betting specials.

And check this out! Once the final whistle has been blown, match entries will update to include the scores. How good is that!

Don’t miss any of the live action, add your favourite teams fixtures to your personal calendar here.

ECAL has partnered with Venues NSW, to deliver smart and dynamic sports and entertainment events content directly into the calendar of members and fans.

For ECAL, the world’s leading ‘Sync to Calendar’ software, it’s another venue integration set to drive new customer acquisition, increase in sales and fan engagement, and enhance the overall member experience. The famous Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) and newly rebuilt Allianz Stadium are the first venues to add ECAL’s ‘Sync to Calendar’ functionality to their respective websites.

The SCG and Allianz Stadium hosts hundreds of sporting and entertainment events each year, from matches across Australia’s domestic football codes (AFL, NRL, A-League, Super Rugby) to the world’s biggest international entertainers like Bruno Mars, Elton John and Justin Bieber. Now, at the click of a button, sports lovers, music enthusiasts, venue members and local and international visitors can easily ‘sync’ events they are interested in, straight to their personal digital calendar of choice.

Events dynamically update in the calendar, so if there are any event updates or changes, they’ll be the first to know. Events include handy alerts, event details, gate opening times and member access information, with direct access to purchase tickets, premium experiences, or book dining, all from the convenience of your personal calendar.

Visitors to the SCG and Allianz Stadium sites can choose to sync single events coming up, or sync events of their favourite team or category, so they receive all future events suiting their profile of interest. This way, they’ll never miss a moment.

Founder & CEO of ECAL, Patrick Barrett, is excited by the partnership: “ECAL is the perfect solution for stadia and venues, enabling a smart and intuitive digital transformation of event schedules, for both general fans and members. Members need to know what’s on and when, and what facilities are available for access, and they desire relevant, personalised communications. They also increasingly care about positive ESG practices, and cutting wast including digital waste.”

Visit allianzstadium.com.au and sydneycricketground.com.au now to see what’s on, and sync events you’re interested in to your calendar.

Challenge

Increase EFL fan engagement via the calendar with valuable new content offerings.

Solution

Deliver final match scores and video highlights post-match directly in to the user calendar.

1. Introduction

The EFL (English Football League) was formed in 1888 and is widely known as the world’s original league football competition. As such, the EFL has often been considered the first template for football leagues all over the world.

The EFL is the largest single body of professional clubs in European football and is responsible for administering and regulating the EFL, the Carabao Cup, the Papa John’s Trophy, and the reserve and youth football.

2. Objectives

• Deliver valuable new content outside of match times
• Satisfy strong fan desire to engage with video content
• Make it timely, relevant and compelling for fans
• Make it easy to manage (automated)

3. Strategy

Deliver an automated service for final match scores and video highlights post-match, delivered at the right time, in the right place, direct to fans with one-click access to watch highlights.

4. Solution

Subscribers will receive an ICYMI (in case you missed it!) entry in their calendar the morning after a match, with the final scores and direct access to highlights, whenever their favourite team wins or draws. The match scores are contained in the event title, with a brief match description and a strong ‘Watch Now!’ ‘call to action’ link, with direct access to the relevant match highlights.

• Entries only placed in calendar when their favourite team wins or draws
• Entries appear in the calendar the 24 hours after kickoff, with an alert at 5 minutes prior to prompt response.

5. Outcomes

+ 400%	+ 651%	+ 2052%	Watch Now
increase in click-through rate	increase in clicks from the calendar	increase in total engagement when compared to the same period one year prior	‘Watch Now’ (highlights) is the most clicked link across the EFL Digital Platform (73% of total clicks)

* Two month sample size. 1/8/2021 – 1/10/2021 and 1/8/2022 – 1/10/2022

The official EFL ‘digital calendar’ service is the only way to keep up-to-date with a busy schedule, including all league fixtures and Cup ties. Don’t miss a moment this season. Sync your favourite teams schedule here.