As the Chicago Fire began preparations to commemorate their 20th season as a Major League Soccer franchise, club officials knew amping up their digital fan engagement efforts needed to be part of the plan.
In his head, Scott Hammer, the Fire’s director of marketing and digital media, began conceptualizing projects, including one that allowed the club’s diverse fan base to select what amounted to an All-Franchise team that linked the Fire’s past with the present.
The approach – at least on paper – seemed simple: To create a customized deck of digital playing cards in which the club’s greatest all-time performers – as voted by the fans – would be represented as the face cards. The other players who had worn the Fire’s shield since the club’s inception in 1997 would fill out the remainder of the deck.
Making his plan a reality, Hammer realized, was seemingly easier said than done.
“At first, everything is kind of nebulous and you think it could work and you’re wondering how it will (work),” said Hammer, whose prior experience with fan engagement centered mostly around the Fire’s social media channels. “But when it comes time for the rubber to meet the road and to press send and make everything live, it’s definitely an exhilarating experience.”
Hammer was aware of MLS’s partnership with OMNIGON, the New York-based team of global digital strategists, technologists and artists that work with some of the world’s most visible brands. In 2015, OMNIGON rolled out its suite of fan engagement products, called ProSuite, of which MLS has partnered with. In his time working for the Fire, Hammer had seen the way ProSuite generated fan interest through MLS’ usage of these products – via their Goal of the Week or Save of the Week campaigns– and figured a similar strategy could help drive help traffic to the Fire’s homepage, Chicago-Fire.com.
But when it came to coming up with a unique way to help bring attention to the Fire’s 20th anniversary, Hammer needed something different that would seamlessly merge into the Fire’s existing digital presence.
Hammer, already familiar with OMNIGON and ProSuite, given the popularity of OMNIGON’s first product BracketPro, reached out to the team. Given Hammer’s objectives and idea, the Product team suggested he leverage their PollPro product.
PollPro, like BracketPro, allows users to link content with corporate sponsors looking to expand their market reach by partnering with franchises that come with their own fan audience. All ProSuite products, including their third – MVPVote – are fully responsive, support versatile digital content like in-line video, GIF or static image highlights and include user data capture functionalities for brands to run sweepstakes.
For Hammer, the PollPro suggestion proved to be a win-win proposition. The positive response, meanwhile, was nothing new to Nick Arcuri, OMNIGON vice president of product.
“It’s in a win-win in three different scenarios. For us, our partners see the value in the products and use them to find unique ways to engage their audiences,” Arcuri said. “The client gets the win because they either meet the sponsor need or they get the fan engagement they want, and then the fan gets the win because they get to view great content and have their opinions heard.”
Leveraging PollPro gave Hammer the freedom to create the deck of playing cards he envisioned. The platform’s user-friendly nature allowed Hammer to set his plan into motion by integrating 25-to 30-second video highlight packages for each of the 52 Fire players that were represented and build each poll so that in real time Hammer had fan voting data at his fingertips, while still using the Fire’s own brand of social media strategy.
PollPro also provided a platform for the Fire’s jersey sponsor, Valspar, to expand their reach on the Fire’s web home, part of which has been dedicated to the club’s 20th anniversary season – of which Valspar is a presenting partner.
During the campaign, fans had a week to vote in each of the four suites of cards with the top three vote-getters for each suite landing as either the King, the Queen or the Jack.
“It definitely generated some chatter,” Hammer said. “There were guys that maybe you knew were going to be there in some way, shape or form – Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Piotr Nowak. And then there were some guys who maybe you didn’t expect to jump in, but were able to do so. That was kind of fun. We ended up with a nice, eclectic mix of 12 across the four suites.”
For Arcuri, the Fire’s application of PollPro provided another example of the ways in which global franchises and leagues are utilizing the platform. While some clients contact OMNIGON without a specific strategy in mind, others – like the Fire – have a concept in mind and simply don’t understand the best way to put their plan into action.
The Product team at OMNIGON works with between 15-25 clients at a time and has a 60 percent retention rate of partners who use ProSuite’s platforms – BracketPro, PollPro and MVPVote – on an on-going basis.
Arcuri says he and others within the organization are often surprised and encouraged by the creativity OMNIGON’s products have generated.
“We have certain opinions as to how (the products are) best used and we’ve seen great applications of that,” Arcuri said. “Then we have clients that come in and say, we want to do this totally kind of crazy thing. Sometimes it works out really well.”
That proved to be the case with the Fire, who declined to provide specific web traffic numbers, but who used the platform to connect with a myriad fans through the technology in a season in which the Fire’s on-field success continues to generate great interest.
“That’s part of what this all about is making sure that people are aware that this is a milestone for the club, we’ve been around for 20 years,” Hammer said. “People who are younger or are new to Chicago may not be aware of that so those goals were accomplished.”