The battle is on between mega-venues and in-home entertainment experiences. Here’s what you need to know to compete for the entertainment dollar.

After a year of lockdowns, many people are craving the roar and energy of live events and the sound of stomping feet. However… they’re also very used to sitting comfortably at home in their ‘digital nests’!

For the world’s venue owners, the challenge is twofold: not only are they under pressure to elevate experiences beyond the vast array of TV and web content, they must also create places that people love to maximize revenue.

Obviously, stadium attendance has stagnated as a result of screen-based entertainment (Deloitte). A pre-Covid study by branding agency Skidmore Studio found that less than 50% of millennials surveyed bought tickets to sporting venues over 12 months – and only 16% were repeat buyers.

It’s a challenge that’s impacting the entire commercial real estate (CRE) sector. More than 25% of CRE investors surveyed by Deloitte believe companies must prioritize the use of IoT technology in (re)designing buildings to elevate customer experiences.

According to McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), Smart Cities are already using data to achieve measurable outcomes: 30-40% fewer crime incidents; 15-30 minutes shaved off the daily commute; 20-35% faster emergency response times. It’s time for the CRE sector to leverage data insights for better commercial outcomes.

Places that work

The world has changed, and PAM’s clients are embracing the power of data analytics to improve customer experiences and ROI.

Getting to the stadium is perhaps the largest challenge for stadiums, which makes vehicular data analysis all the more powerful: making the journey less onerous is vital. PAM’s clients understand how vehicular traffic moves through their district to reduce congestion. PAM guides visitors to available parking, and seamlessly engages them with brands and experiences once they’ve arrived.

Understanding parking patterns and uptake allows our clients to design better vehicular flow strategies, and optimize parking revenues.

Our customers use pedestrian flow analytics to inform safety protocols and devise Playbooks to manage events throughout the day. PAM’s dynamic digital signage can re-route visitors to reduce bottlenecks and, where appropriate, guide foot traffic past revenue-generating brand opportunities.

By monitoring what people search for on PAM’s 360 Explorer maps, we can measure success. If a search doesn’t marry up to the attendance at a particular location, we can address the friction points identified on that journey, or at the destination itself, to make sure future customers arrive effortlessly.

What keeps fans coming back? Personalized experiences. By digitizing the customer journey, PAM connects venues to their fans, and by understanding what people are searching for and where the hold ups are, experiences can be continually improved over time to create frictionless journeys.

PAM also captures data to make buildings more efficient. By tracking the popularity of routes and space utilization, our clients can devise strategies to help tenants get more value from their properties, create safer environments, and engage more people with events and services.

We’re continually investing in PAM’s future by working with smart city districts to connect people to what they love. The more we evolve and learn, the more experienced we become in doing what’s never been done before.

The convenience economy is as real as bitcoin

According to Intel’s IoT Smart Stadiums report, fans now expect “extreme levels of digital connectedness, convenience and customer service. They want fast internet connections, shorter lines, better directions, and less hassle overall.” This is the new economy for large venue owners and operators.

To pull this off, venue owners need a strong data experience strategy – one that analyzes customer journeys using POS, ticketing, location services and navigation data. PAM is leading the way in capturing this data to improve the customer experience. If a customer pain point isn’t seen, understood, or addressed, everything breaks down. The data revolution is coming. So be prepared for it.

If you want to win the battle and enhance the customer experience at your venue, we’d love to help.