Why automation matters – removing friction from customer experience – and enhancing outcomes for international sporting events. The mobile Euro 2024 experience!
Why Euro 2024 was the ideal mobile automation use case
With the long-awaited Euro 2024 now complete (well done Spain), we look back to how easy it would have been to enhance the subscriber experience with an integrated suite of services that helps the fan have a safe, enjoyable, and even sustainable time. Such a suite should be tuned to what the fan is doing, things they might be interested in doing – and the overall context of the event and the fan’s location.
That’s important, because MNOs need to deliver richer, better experiences that excite and engage their subscribers – and which go beyond the boundaries of the traditional bundles and packages you offer.
So, let’s explore the fan journey to see what this might mean in practice.
The mobile football fan journey
The fan journey for each match begins at the house or hotel, perhaps takes in a few sights in the city hosting the game – and then reaches its climax at the stadium, before they exit after the final whistle and return.
Of course, many fans will be visitors to the host nation – so will be roaming. Their provider already knows where they are and perhaps has a shrewd idea of why. So, mobile service providers should be able to target offers and tune the experience, based on the customer journey and context, and the drama of the Euros.
There are multiple opportunities for engagement during such events. Of course, what is offered will depend on the nature of the event and expected fan numbers, but such programmes ought to be simple to manage.
Let’s imagine what could be delivered by considering two different Euro 2024 Germany fan journeys – covering both visiting fans and those from the host nation.
The traveling fan (we might even call them a ‘roaming’ one…)
Say I’m someone lucky enough to have secured a ticket for a game or two (or prepared to take a chance, or even just go for the atmosphere) through the UEFA portal. The first thing you want me to see when I turn on my phone on arrival in Germany is a modified version of your standard ‘Welcome Roamer’ message. In this case, you’ll want to check if I’m there for this festival of football.
So, you’ll ask me to reply to the message – and then immediately start offering me tournament-related additional services. If I click on ‘yes,’ ideally, you’ll send me a stream of helpful offer messages, highlighting experiences or discounts I can take advantage of in one of the Euro 2024 hub cities (Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt and so on) I’m staying in.
You’ll have also checked with me if I’m a follower of the Scottish, Danish or Spanish colours, so you can personalise relevant content and profile based on that (and equally useful stuff to me if I say I’m a neutral).
And as I’ve opted in, there’s no problem in more well-timed offers and links—even if my national team does well and I advance with them to another city once I’m out the group stage (let’s hope it’s not this competition’s Group of Death—eyes on you, Group B!).
It does need to be stressed that these initial clicks or two should be the only manual steps in the process you expect of me—I’d rather concentrate on puzzling out Gareth Southgate’s strange midfield choices, or if it’ll be Germany or France being the inevitable but unwelcome winners. Securing opt-in and selecting a team to follow must unlock a nice set of fan-helpful services that get delivered automatically.
However, fanatical as a follower of Albania (Up The Eagles!) (or whoever) as I may be, even I won’t be thinking footie 24×7; a bit of mobile-based downtime during the hopefully ludicrous Opening Ceremony might ease the tension.
So, it’d be nice for support for Honor of Kings, and if I’ve got younger kids with me maybe some distraction for them while Dad argues yet again if that Geoff Hurst 101st minute goal was valid (think, new Pokémon things and targeted flash raids – let’s go and grab that limited set of characters released for the event!).
Other distractions and gamification elements are also viable, like my team’s theme song being used as the ring back when people call me (let those Three Lions roar!), or perhaps my countries national anthem – colour ring back tone (CRBT) may be an old service, but it can have legs for events like these.
Maybe if I check in at hotspots on tourist trails, you’ll send me advice or further discounts – helping to promote the local culture in partnership with the city’s tourism department, or just send me to places of interest to whet my appetite for something other than the football?
On the day of the match, the provider will send updates regarding travel conditions and options. Of course, the hosts want more people to use public transport, so has arranged for discounted fares for the trams, underground, suburban railway, and buses – so, travel cards can be zipped right to my cell, so I don’t have to draw on my basic German to work out the quickest route across town or download an application that I’ll never use again (and struggle to register with).
And, of course, make it even easier for me by taking payment for my temp pass from my plan and get it to me safely by RCS. Once I’m in the venue, a discount voucher or two for refreshments and a nice Wurst or two would also be most welcome.
On days with more than one game at once, result updates also add to the excitement (or despair—the twin sides of the football fan experience). In fact, the in-game stadium experience is also one that can be enhanced with connectivity; the local stadium operator has invested in both local Wi-Fi and a private 5G network that cover the stadium with high-quality connectivity.
So, the stadium has excellent coverage no matter how many thousands are in the place and the operator can surge capacity to meet extra demand. By the way, it’s already partnered with both my home network operator and my roaming network provider to ensure seamless access, with a smooth handover to the private network – and equally seamless switching between the local private 5G and local Wi-Fi, depending on traffic demands.
And with the capacity available, there’s no problem sharing large files of us all celebrating Ronaldo’s highly unlikely 131st international goal or tagging other aspects of this Summer of The Beautiful Game across social media.
Sounds like a lot of traffic? But as the local partner has arranged open access–and so roamers like me and the workmates or family members who’ve gone to cheer their heroes are automatically admitted to this new network–I can simply roam onto this micro-network, with no intervention.
Even better, my home MNO also keeps reassuring me my roaming costs are covered and there’s no extra charge for using the stadium’s networks—so all the fun things I want to do as a digital fan, like share memes and clips and posts, are easily done over the course of the 90 minutes.
With the last goal scored and the victory lap over, it’s time to get to my accommodation. Travel and crowd safety is always a priority for major sporting events, and at a time of international tension that’s even more true at Euro 2024.
Thus, work with UEFA and the authorities at both national and regional/municipal level to show me as clearly as possible the optimum route to the stadium, giving the best advice and instantly updating me if any changes, problems, or diversions. This will be seamless, as my service provider already knows the starting point and destination for their journey, has linked to traffic and other alerts, as well as the metro transport system, and will help guide me safely to and from my seat in the stands.
You can see how much utility I get from these kinds of mobile-delivered Euro 2024 fan services for my first game; it’s just going to add to my experience if you keep doing this for me as I attend other games, or — even better — go beyond the minimum 4 group games my team can at least be sure of participating in.
But you need to be helping the local Euro 2024 attendee, too
We said we’d look at both ways mobile can enhance the Euro 2024 experience. As we’re not offering any ways to guarantee your side four winning initial results, that means we now need to briefly consider the other option: I’m already in the Federal Republic, so not a visitor in the same sense.
I may be a home-based game-goer, but I’m also going to need access to the kinds of services offered to my roaming friend. So, the same level of quality engagement will be coming my way but starting with insight based on my location.
For example, I may normally be a resident of Düsseldorf, but I have tickets for a Hamburg game; so, only send me alerts that reflect you know that. By this stage, you will already have checked my interest and likely tournament plan with opt-in messages, so I can get the package that works best for me.
The provider has been promoting opt-in services for some time before the championships kicked off, so they make sure that they target the right audience and build their segment well ahead of the tournament; it’s also chosen to offer data-boost options to enhance the streaming experience outside the stadium (it has, obviously, arranged the same open access to the stadium).
We might assume that the home fan will be less likely to need to rely on public transport, but for sustainability reasons hosts may want to promote alternatives to cars–so the same travel support messages and content is relevant.
If I do choose to drive, send me notices of parking spaces and get me directed to a free one, thanks to the smart parking facilities that are available and that share information regarding vacant spaces and how to use the local parking apps. Of course, cars with multiple passengers can use special lanes, so they are informed about this too
A friction-free, mobile messaging and content-enhanced customer event journey
The result in both cases is a set of highly relevant, personalised mobile-delivered Euro 2024 tournament services that will make you a trusted helpmate for its 2.7 million expected attendees.
That can only happen through mobile service providers being enabled via automation to target offers and tune the 2024 Euro experience, based on the customer journey and context, to help me get the most out of my expensive, precious time enjoying them.
We say automation. That’s because to meet the demands of all the stakeholders and marketing teams who want to work with you, agile automation that radically simplifies the process is the best basis.
The question to you as an operator is, are you ready to do this—and if not for the Euros, for Wimbledon 2024 or the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad straight after? Can you do all this quickly and efficiently for an event that has a limited duration – and by leveraging partners from outside your own operations for all that fun content and informative information you want to provide?
With CORTEX’s reusable automation and orchestration components that span core mobile entities, IT systems and extend to integration with transport feeds, content partners and more, you can.
So, if you share our vision for this kind of superb integrated sporting and entertainment experience, talk to us. Whether it’s for Euro 2024, Glastonbury, the Olympics or something else entirely, with the right approach, you can build a friction-free, mobile messaging and content-enhanced customer journey—and really, should have already.
