On Friday 1 May, the Club welcomed students and staff who travelled from Samford University in Alabama as they presented their findings from our Half Season Survey which was put to supporters in February as part of their Sports Marketing research project...
The project aimed to provide recommendations and feedback to the Club on three key focuses: fan engagment and loyalty; fan sentiment analysis and the effectiveness of brand partnerships.
The analysis and feedback provided the students with an opportunity to do a thorough case study to complement their studies whilst offering the Club detailed and actionable recommendations.
Cambridge United Supporter Engagement Officer, Amelia Edwards, said, "It was a pleasure to welcome over the staff and students of Samford University, Alabama. It was evident that the students had put real time, thought and effort into producing an actionable and realistic analysis of the survey which will be extremely valuable to us. We hope they enjoyed their trip and look forward to working with them again in the future."
On fan engagement and loyalty, the study found that matchday experience shone through as an area in which fans are overwhelmingly satisfied and segregated fans by loyalty to provide recommendations on how to best optimise engagement.
Fan sentiment analysis showed that over 99.7% fans felt safe at games and 98% found the ground to be inclusive and welcoming, and provided feedback on how to improve matchday operations such as transportation.
Finally, the commercial analysis of partnerships demonstrated the effectiveness of our partnerships as fans largely opted for our partners over competitors when asked in the survey. The students then offered advice on how to further strengthen the link between our partners and fans.
The partnership between the University and the Club has proved the be valuable for both parties and the Club would like to thank them for making the long trip over from the States and for their great amounts of time and effort.
