How Sports Illustrated Tickets Turns Fans into Heroes

In the dynamic world of marketing, the difference between a successful campaign and an expensive misstep often hinges on the power of genuine customer engagement. It’s crucial to understand not just where to invest, but how to create a powerful connection between the brand and consumer.

At Simple Booth, we take pride in spotlighting top-notch uses of our technology that captivate audiences and also drive tangible business results. In this case study, we’re thrilled to highlight how Sports Illustrated Tickets (SI Tickets) has leveraged our solutions since 2022 to revolutionize fan experiences.

“Simple Booth delivered an easy, seamless and effective way to activate at any event, requiring minimal hardware, and boasts best-in-class account management.”

– SI Tickets Marketing Team

Here is a glimpse into the premium user-generated content from their SI Fan Covers campaign:

Recently, we sat down with their marketing team to find out how they implemented Simple Booth so successfully.

Join us as we delve into the innovative strategies employed by SI Tickets to engage their audience, featuring insights from their marketing team and a closer look at their successful SI Fan Covers campaign.

Tell me about Sports Illustrated Tickets.

First launched in June 2021, Sports Illustrated Tickets is a fan-first, secondary ticketing marketplace, with over $2.5 billion in inventory and 50 million sports, concerts and theater tickets. Sports Illustrated Tickets features transparent pricing, charging zero ($0) fees on more than 250,000 events and guarantees a 100% refund if the event is canceled for any reason. Simply put, the ticket price you see is the price you pay at checkout.  With the largest audience in the industry, the Sports Illustrated Tickets marketplace connects more buyers and sellers than any other ticketing platform around the world. 

Sports Illustrated Tickets also operates Box Office, an innovative event management and blockchain-backed primary ticketing solution, the first global platform to combine a complete NFT ticket solution for events of any size with visibility and adjacency to traditional, non-NFT tickets alongside the biggest events around the world. 

How do you promote Sports Illustrated Tickets? What brings people to your events?

We promote Sports Illustrated Tickets through owned, earned and paid channels.

Additionally, our partners – event hosts, organizers, promoters, directors, coordinators – who utilize our primary ticketing platform, Box Office, help generate incremental awareness and visibility through their own marketing channels and audiences. 

Through our affiliate program, we have partners who have integrated our real-time live event ticketing widget on their websites, further driving awareness and visitors to Sports Illustrated Tickets. The widget provides sports, concert and theater events and pricing  geo targeted to audiences in real-time. 

There is no loyalty in the ticketing market. Most consumers just shop for the lowest price. That said, Sports Illustrated Tickets is a fully-transparent, fan-first platform. We charge zero fees to more than 250,000 sports, concerts and theater events, and guarantee a 100% refund if the event is canceled for any reason.  The price you see listed at the top of the funnel is the price you pay at checkout, plus applicable state sales tax. No hidden fees. No surprises at checkout.

What was your first encounter with Simple Booth? How did you find or hear about it?

We were in search of opportunities to engage fans on-site at events in a way that was uniquely Sports Illustrated. We looked for ways to activate our wide variety of  partnerships with an activation that is turnkey, broad reaching, impactful and most importantly authentic to the Sports Illustrated Tickets brand.

Did you look at other options? What caught your interest with Simple Booth? Why did you choose it?

Simple Booth delivered an easy, seamless and effective way to activate at any event, requiring minimal hardware, and boasts best-in-class account management.

What problem did Simple Booth solve for you?

Leveraging the iconic Sports Illustrated cover and offering a commemorative and shareable digital keepsake to countless fans through Simple Booth is seamless, turnkey, impactful and a memorable experience for our consumers.  

How did you implement Simple Booth to be so successful at your events?

As an added value to our primary client partners, we provide the SI Digital Fan Cover Experience through Simple Booth software at NO cost. This activation provides a great way to deliver a commemorative and shareable digital keepsake to thousands of fans attending our events. We’ve rolled it out with our brand ambassadors on-site at various sporting events like NFL games, soccer matches and more. 

How do you get people to take photos or do they naturally gravitate towards the photo booth?

Since the Simple Booth experience doesn’t require a static footprint, we mobilize our brand ambassadors to engage fans at various high-traffic locations in or around the event. Our Sports Illustrated Digital Fan Cover creates a commemorative and shareable digital keepsake, making fans’ event experience extra special in a way only Sports Illustrated can deliver.  

Everybody has a phone in their pocket and can take selfies anywhere. What makes the Sports Illustrated Tickets photo op experience different? Why do you think people participate instead of just taking selfies?

No matter what generation you are, nearly every guest has seen, read or owned a copy of the iconic Sports Illustrated magazine. For many athletes, even from a very young age, being on the cover signifies the pinnacle of success in sports. Many dream of achieving it and in many ways being immortalized by the most trusted name in sports. To have the opportunity to see yourself on a Cover, makes that dream a unique reality for many.  And because it’s digital, it’s instantly shareable in the moment, but it’ll always be a keepsake they can enjoy for a lifetime. They will always remember the event in which they received their SI Digital Fan Cover. To us, that’s what it’s all about.    

What happens with all the photos? What do the participants do with them? What do Sports Illustrated Tickets do with them?

We feature key SI Fan Covers on https://www.sitickets.com/covers, and we encourage fans to download their photos and share on social media.

Do you use the analytics or data capture features? What data do you capture and what do you use it for?

Yes, anyone who participates in our Sports Illustrated Fan Cover experience becomes part of our audience and can instantly receive our offer of a free $10 wallet credit to purchase sports, concerts and theater tickets to more than 250,000 events on our global Sports Illustrated Tickets marketplace. 

What’s your secret to engaging fans and capturing photos?

Making it fun, exciting, and most importantly mobile. Seeking out fans instead of forcing fans to come to you instantly makes the experience more engaging. 

What are your go-to customizations for your events?

The SI Digital Fan Cover Experience remains our hero activation for obvious reasons, but we do customize the bottom left quadrant of the image with creative from a particular event, team, date or  partner logo.  

Has Sports Illustrated Tickets grown since implementing Simple Booth?

We’ve grown substantially in the past 18 months. Not only have we seen a strong increase in awareness, but we’ve also experienced strong growth in new accounts. Part of that growth comes from the fans we engage with at events through our Simple Booth Sports Illustrated Digital Fan Cover Experience. It remains one of our most popular experiential activations.  

What features drive the most value for your business? What features do customers enjoy the most?

The emotional connection fans have to the iconic SI Cover not only makes it special but also shareable for many. This affords an opportunity for our brand to get exposure to not only those in the Digital Fan Covers, but everyone they share with in their circle as well.  We believe that shareability is something our customers enjoy as well. We don’t just sell you tickets, we help you make the most of your live event experience.

What kind of business would you recommend Simple Booth to?

Any business that is looking to grow visibility, grow customer attrition, engage guests and elevate their event or activity.