Digital Marketing Strategy For The Pittsburgh Riverhounds
by Giulia LaForgia
(Highmark Stadium located in Station Square in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
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About The Pittsburgh Riverhounds
The Pittsburgh Riverhounds are an American professional soccer team located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They play in the Eastern Conference of the USL Championship, with happens to be the second tier of the American soccer pyramid. Founded in 1998, the Riverhounds initially played at Bethel Park High School. However, in 2012, a stadium of their own opened, now called Highmark Stadium, which is in Station Square. This venue seats 5,000 people, and soccer fans in the Pittsburgh area love to come to these games. That being said, more tickets could always be sold, which is a massive marketing endeavor. Through social media and other digital marketing strategies, the Riverhounds can promote their brand and sell more tickets. In this blog post, I will be delving into a digital strategy for the Pittsburgh Riverhounds and breaking down some marketing ideas.
Target Audience
If the goal of this marketing endeavor is to attract more fans and sell more tickets, then the target market coincides with this. The most practical audience for this campaign is soccer fans located in (or about 50 miles around) the Pittsburgh area. I will be targeting individuals who do not currently attend games but still have a love and appreciation for the sport itself.
The Strategy
Social media in sports is becoming increasingly popular and more effective by the day. In fact, social media and digital marketing is revolutionizing the ways in which fans interact with their favorite teams and athletes. Athletes themselves have become “influencers” of sort, which often helps bolster the brand. This article goes into some very specific examples of how sports marketing changes every day. Some sports teams do a really good job engaging their audience through social media platforms. It is my goal that by the end of this post, the Riverhounds would be equipped with the tools and strategy they need to be on par with these other professional sports teams.
The strategy that I am proposing is three-pronged. Based upon best practices and content that typically works for other sports team, the idea here is to: share behind-the-scenes content, conduct brand partnerships, and implement themed nights at the stadium to showcase and advertise on social media.
The Pittsburgh Riverhounds: All-Access Pass
Behind-the-scenes content is one of the easiest, yet most fun and effective ways to boost your brand. According to emarketer, behind-the-scenes content can work wonders for a brand. Not only does it involve sharing fun snippets of exclusivity, but it also has a tendency to humanize a brand. Offering glimpses into the Pittsburgh Riverhounds showcases the the peope behind the brand while also making it more relatable to the audience. This can drive potential customers to the Roverhounds’ social media pages, mainly Instagram, which could then filter to a link to buy tickets.
Now, how should this be implemented? Personally, I think this content works best as an Instagram story or reel as well as a TikTok video, which could then be shared to other platforms. If shared as a story, a link sticker could be embedded onto the clip to take the user directly to the ticket sales platform. If shared as a reel, the caption should navigate users to a link, perhaps in a bio, that they could use to buy tickets, and the same thing goes for TikTok. Many marketers would say that TikTok is the best platform to share this sort of video content on, and I happen to agree. Forbes says, “Take It To TikTok,” where the most simple content often garners the highest engagement in this realm.
Score Big: Partner with the Pittsburgh Riverhounds
Sports brand partnerships are another powerful tool. Tons of athletes partner with different apparel, food, and other brands in order to not only get their personal name out there, but also the team’s. According to Forbes, the key for an effective partnership is aligning the brand values with the authenticity and personality of the player or team they are partnered with. If done correctly, these authentic partnerships can bolster brands, which could be very beneficial for the Pittsburgh Riverhounds and their ticket sales.
In order to effectively conduct these partnerships, the Riverhounds need to smart small. Partnering with beloved local Pittsburgh businesses is a great starting point. This will have a massive appeal to the Pittsburgh community, who are exactly who we are trying to attract. People from Pittsburgh or surrounding areas have a huge sense of pride being where they’re from. As marketers, we should play into this concept so that we may achieve our marketing goals. After starting with local brands, the team could move on to bigger brands and hopefully eventually achieve national or even global brands.
Fun Nights at Highmark: It's More Than Soccer
All of the other major sports teams in Pittsburgh (and even beyond that) will host fun themed nights for their fans. I’m thinking of pet night at the Pirates, or dollar hot dog night at the Penguins. If the Riverhounds were to implement a similar tactic, I think their ticket sales would soar. These nights not only engage fans, but also incentivize them to attend games with the promise of a discount or free item. These special nights could be promoted online, which ties into that digital marketing aspect. According to this site and many others, these theme nights often boost ticket sales and continue to engage fans both on social media and in person.
There are an endless amount of themes that the Pittsburgh Riverhounds could implement, but there are a few ideas that I’ve generated that would appeal to both Pittsburghers and soccer fans alike. Some ideas include Pittsburgh Pride Night where fans could wear their black and yellow with pride, Throwback Night where soccer fans can wear old jerseys, and Youth Soccer Night where children and their youth soccer teams can show up, wear their jerseys, and be recognized on the field. By hosting these theme nights, the goal is to engage with the fanbase and to increase the amount of people that want to be at the Riverhounds games.
Conclusion
The Pittsburgh Riverhounds are a well renowned organization, and their social media and digital marketing strategy should be reflective of this. All three strategies proposed—behind-the-scenes content, brand partnerships, and themed nights at Highmark Stadium—have all been researched and have been proven to be effective by other sports teams. By implementing at least some aspects of this strategy, the organization can boost its brand awareness, attract more soccer fans, and ultimately, sell more tickets.
Works Cited
Eventbrite. “11 Sports Event Marketing Ideas for Increased Attendance.” Eventbrite All Access, 31 May 2024, www.eventbrite.com/blog/increase-attendance-sport-events-sell-tickets-ds00/.
“Maximizing Ecommerce Success with Instagram Stories: Sponsored Content.” EMARKETER, EMARKETER, 22 May 2023, www.emarketer.com/content/maximizing-ecommerce-success-with-instagram-stories-sponsored-content.
Reynolds Bergh, Emily. “Behind-the-Scenes Content Puts the Spotlight on Small Businesses.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 13 Aug. 2024, www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2023/09/13/behind-the-scenes-content-puts-the-spotlight-on-small-businesses/.
Schaefer, Aubree. “How Social Media Changed the Sports Marketing Game.” Sprout Social, 11 Mar. 2025, sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-sports-marketing/.
Weigert, Wanda. “The Power of Sports Partnerships: What It Can Do for Your Brand.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 13 Aug. 2024, www.forbes.com/councils/forbescommunicationscouncil/2023/09/08/the-power-of-sports-partnerships-what-it-can-do-for-your-brand/.