Tag Archives: sports innovation lab

Follr Achieves Record Second Quarter New User Growth

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Company achieves record new user growth for the sixth straight quarter as leading sports content sources are added and sports industry use of technology matures

Wappingers Falls, NY (Monday, July 8th, 2019) Follr, Inc., a sports and fan-based SaaS (Software as a Service) company, today announced record new user growth for the sixth consecutive quarter; total new users increased by more than 85% versus the same period last year, 40% over the first quarter and all three months saw the highest number of monthly registrations in the companies history.

The Follr platform provides highly customizable Websites enabling sports fans and official supporters clubs to create a community centered on a team, sport, person or shared interest and passion. Follr additionally provides franchises, brands, media companies and organizations in the sports and entertainment industries with a broad suite of services that improve fan engagement, protect brand and increase revenues.

New Sports Content

Follr community Websites now have access to over 100,000 sport related videos with content from the most heavily trafficked channels on YouTube and fan Podcasts. In the second quarter, Follr added new content sources including videos from:

And podcasts from:

The company attributes some of the growth to the “rapid evolution of technology” and “[sports] fans that are continually evolving and open to change” as highlighted in the recently released report from Sports Innovation Lab; ‘A New Age of Sports’. The report highlights how “fan[s] will follow digital communities” adding that “teams will no longer own the dialogue with fans”, a gap that Follr fills.

The report details how fans “will be a creator, not just a consumer” and “as new platforms emerge to support user-generated content, professional sports will become a platform for the generation of a broader, more dispersed ecosystem, as has already been witnessed in video games and with the popularity of esports.” The full report can be found here.

Follr continues to add teams and leagues with sport specific content added daily.

Focusing on sports, primarily soccer, and providing highly customized Websites for official supporters clubs detailing meeting points and serving as the richest single source of information about one team online, each community Website aggregates real-time social media content and includes:

  • Marketing and communication tools
  • Ecommerce services
  • The ability to automate content sharing
  • An extensive event management feature set
  • Aggregated real-time content from multiple online sources
  • Discussion groups

Follr Global, a white label version of the platform, is also available to brands and sports franchises providing a multi-layered account management tool that:

  • Protects their brand
  • Ensures ownership of fan data
  • Enables supporters clubs to reach a broader market and fan-base
  • Increases exposure and reach of marketing content and media
  • Makes administration and communication easier
  • Collects detailed fan demographics
  • Accesses currently latent revenue through paid subscriptions/membership options

About Follr, Inc.:

Follr, Inc. (www.follr.com) is a software company founded in 2011 located in California and New York. Follr is a SaaS platform centered on products that “Reinvent the Fan Experience”.

Follr Communities provide vibrant, social groups to engage fans around a franchise, brand, individual, team or organization.

Follr Profile Websites allow individuals, companies and brands to tell a story using a combination of personal or corporate information and real-time social media content. They are personally branded Websites used as an initial point of contact and represent an aggregation of all online and offline information. Accessed by an enduring, easy to remember URL they represent a more complete picture and story in an increasingly digital world.

The Follr network provides users with the ability to create, find and join Follr Communities, connect with like-minded fans and see content from other members.

Follr is funded through Blossom Ventures. For more information see the company Website, Facebook or Twitter.

Contact:

Follr, Inc.
(888) 201-5160
info@follr.com

Sports Innovation Lab: The Fluid Fan Will Be a Changing Tide for the Unprepared Sports Industry

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A new report explains how the rapid evolution of technology will create fans that are continually evolving and open to change

Boston, MA – May 1, 2019 (PRNewswire) The future of the sports industry is uncertain as it faces a fan defined by technology, open to options and no longer bound by the loyalties of the past, according to the Sports Innovation Lab, the leading market intelligence platform and research provider for the sports industry. In the research A New Age in Sports, Sports Innovation Lab analyzes the changing dynamics in sports and the impact on the “fluid fan,” which it defines as open to change, empowered to choose and continuously evolving.

“This research is a wake-up call for the leaders in the sports industry,” Angela Ruggiero, chief executive officer and co-founder, Sports Innovation Lab, said. “When sports thrive, they unify, break down barriers and heal us. I was in the Korean locker room in Pyeongchang, South Korea, when the North and South Korean women’s hockey teams united for the 2018 Winter Olympics. These women knew what they were doing was bigger than sport. And that’s the power of sport — when it’s done right.

“The challenge facing us, however, is that our fans are undergoing a metamorphosis, driven by technology,” added the four-time Olympian and member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. “This research is critical for the understanding of tomorrow’s fan and how the industry can adapt now to serve them.”

There are several characteristics of the fluid fan already emerging:

  • The Fluid Fan will follow digital communities. Teams will no longer own the dialogue with fans, as communities like the NBA-themed subreddit, which has 1.8 million subscribers, has already demonstrated. It’s just one more channel teams will need to follow and influence to reach their fans.
  • The Fluid Fan will be loyal to players, not teams. When Lebron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Los Angeles Lakers, his Lakers jersey quickly become the NBA’s biggest seller. Wayne Rooney, the talented D.C. United forward, has 17 million Twitter followers – the team itself has 150,000 followers. Increasingly, the athlete has the loyal fans, not the franchise.
  • The Fluid Fan will cheer for her values. Nearly three-quarters of consumers under the age of 20 say they are willing to pay more to brands that are committed to positive social and environmental impact.
  • The Fluid Fan will have multiple selves. The next generation of fans will have grown up in digital communities, whether it be Twitter, Twitch or Fortnite. Their identities will be less fixed and more dynamic and contextual.
  • The Fluid Fan will be a creator, not just a consumer. As new platforms emerge to support user-generated content, professional sports will become a platform for the generation of a broader, more dispersed ecosystem, as has already been witnessed in video games and with the popularity of esports.

The report, which also provides recommendations for the industry on how it can adapt to the fluid fan, can be downloaded here.

ABOUT THE SPORTS INNOVATION LAB

Sitting at the intersection of technology and sports, Sports Innovation Lab is a cloud-based market intelligence platform that specializes in market research and analysis for the sports industry. Through its platform and proprietary market data, advisory services and leadership boards, the Sports Innovation Lab aims to empower the sports industry to win the fluid fan today and to adapt to serve the fan of the future.

For More Information, Contact:

Phil LeClare
phil@sportsiblab.com
(617) 209-9406