Ballew spoke with Ad Age recently about the NFL’s first-party data strategy and how that data powers personalized marketing to reach fans. The NFL built these capabilities through its partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), which has helped the league compile detailed understandings of tens of millions of fans, Ballew said.
The NFL has always had a large audience to mine for data and insights—the problem has been stitching that data together from disparate sources to form actionable marketing insights. That was the challenge at the heart of the NFL’s partnership with AWS, which enables the league to deliver highly personalized fan experiences, supports its direct-to-consumer business and promotes ticket sales.
Last month, the NFL popped the hood on its fan data initiative built through AWS, revealing more details about how it organizes vast troves of consumer information. The NFL and Amazon have become close partners in recent years, as the league streams more games on Amazon’s Prime Video. Meanwhile, AWS has become more tightly woven into Amazon’s marketing and advertising services, as well.
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The NFL’s need for data support stems from the difficulty in aggregating information from numerous sources across 32 teams. Previously the league could not unify roughly 90 billion daily fan attributes, but with advances in AI and machine learning, it can now sift through that ocean of information and categorize it accordingly, Ballew said.
Over the past 18 months, the result has been a fourfold increase in the number of people the NFL can see comprehensively through its fan data platform, reaching more than 70 million individuals.
The league has leveraged consumer insights to determine which audiences are most likely to purchase single-game tickets. It shares the information with teams, giving them more targeted options for their marketing. About two-thirds of NFL teams use insights from the fan data platform to drive single-game ticket sales, Ballew said.
The NFL also is more keenly aware of which audiences are most likely to be interested in its direct-to-consumer subscription service NFL+, Ballew said. He did not provide specific numbers about whether the service is growing. The league has recently focused on building NFL+ by bringing in new content such as NFL RedZone.
Amazon’s AI and machine learning tools are major draws for organizations, including the NFL, to adopt its cloud infrastructure. Over the last 18 months, Amazon launched more than twice as many AI and machine learning features compared to all the other major cloud providers combined, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said during last week’s earnings call. Amazon also reported 19% year-over-year growth in second-quarter cloud-related revenue.
The NFL has used Amazon’s AI tools to package and deliver new content to audiences, Ballew said. And new audience insights have yielded positive results for personalized marketing. The NFL has used data to conduct custom outreach to fans for the NFL Shop and to promote tune-in campaigns for games. “Open rates” have doubled and tripled for some campaigns, as fans engage with the marketing material, according to Ballew.
The NFL is taking precautions, Ballew said, to account for the need to manage data responsibly and to avoid issues with AI. There are strict permissions that the league monitors to know when consumers have consented to certain forms of data collection, according to last month’s online post about the fan data initiative from AWS and the NFL.
AI carries its own challenges, too, including concerns about intellectual property infringement. The league maintains a team that monitors AI opportunities and legal ramifications, Ballew said. It also mandates one AI policy for itself and all 32 teams.
“We want to democratize and leverage AI, but also govern it,” Ballew said.
