Features

MLB eyes fan experience benefits with Adobe extension

US software company Adobe has agreed its second major partnership with a focus on fan experience in the space of a month after expanding its deal with Major League Baseball (MLB).

Adobe has held ties with MLB for over a decade and its new multi-year deal will seek to reimagine fan engagement and continue to bring the sport to the next generation of fans – powered across its Adobe Experience Cloud, Adobe Creative Cloud, and Adobe Sign products.

Adobe and MLB said new, fan-friendly features could include personalised promotions and notifications tailored to individual fans – at the ballpark potentially highlighting which entrances will offer the fastest journey to their seats, VIP parking promotions or discounts on grab-and-go concessions.

Fans who live outside their favourite team’s locale will also be able to receive alerts when their favourite club or player is in town or get free trials for MLB.TV so they can watch games at home or on the go.

MLB will be able to drive greater efficiency and fully digitise workflows that require an individual’s consent, approval or signature, such as player agreements and vendor contracts. As an added benefit, this is projected to save thousands of reams of paper every year.

“MLB has long been a global leader in digital experiences among sports leagues, with a fan-first orientation across the web, mobile apps, and social media,” said Anil Chakravarthy, Adobe executive vice-president and general manager for Digital Experience Business and Worldwide Field Operations.

“The expansion of the partnership will allow MLB to bring some truly personalised experiences to fans, made possible by millions of fan profiles built in real time.”

Chris Marinak, chief operations and strategy officer at Major League Baseball, added: “We’ve gone out of our way to create digital tools to improve the fan experience.

“We’re bringing personalised experiences and information to fans so that they feel like we know who they are, who their favourite team is and who their favourite players are. Adobe’s breadth of enterprise applications allows us to deliver what fans want, where they want it – across dozens of channels.”

The MLB deal comes after Spanish LaLiga football club Real Madrid this month entered into a partnership with Adobe to create “premium entertainment experiences” for supporters.

Real Madrid and Adobe will look to bring the Santiago Bernabéu to a global audience through an “expanded ecosystem” of online experiences, products and services. The initiative will transform the stadium into a virtual destination that can be accessed by fans worldwide.

Image: Erin Doering on Unsplash