The Saracens Rugby Club engaged rugby fans via a mobile sweepstakes campaign at its Dec. 5 games to help drive future ticket sales.

Saracens ran a contest encouraging fans to text-in for the chance to win the match ball using MePlease.  The competition was promoted via a print advertisement in the match day program, which required customer purchase, announcements over the loud speaker and on the game board several times during the match.  Response rates were 9 percent of the day?s attendance.

?Saracens is just like our existing MePlease business customers in that they want to attract new fans but also want to recognize and reward their existing loyal fans,? said Steve Jarrett, founder/CEO of MePlease, London.

?Their business is largely driven by word of mouth and by influencers bringing their friends along, which is precisely what MePlease was built to help businesses do more effectively through a combination of mobile and social media,? he said.

Text-to-win
The same type of text-in competition ran during Saracens? Dec. 11 match, where fans were prompted to text-in for the chance to win a jersey signed by the team, including Strictly Come Dancing star, Gavin Henson. 

As a reward, fans who opted in to MePlease during each match received a unique discount code on tickets for the club?s Boxing Day Match.

To date, the Saracens have been able to build up a mobile community of fans that is equivalent to 17 percent of average match attendance using MePlease.

In addition, print ads recently ran in the Evening Standard, Metro and City AM to drive fans text-in for the chance to win tickets to their Boxing Day match using MePlease?s platform. 

MePlease will be working closely with the Saracens at their Boxing Day match at Wembley Stadium to further drive fan engagement during half time and continue to build up the Saracens mobile community.

?Beyond helping to attract new fans, we enable great mobile customer engagement,? Mr. Jarrett said. ?Saracens are running some really fun campaigns, including using the MePlease platform to identify and reward their most loyal fans and influencers, and an upcoming competition at Wembley Stadium with a 250,000 Euro prize. 

?We also drive more frequent repeat visits, increased average spend and group purchasing behavior,? he said.