Digital Marketing Strategy: Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC
By: Brynn Herncane
Highmark Stadium, Pittsburgh PA. “Home of the Riverhounds”
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Who Are The Riverhounds?
The Riverhounds SC are a professional soccer team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A member of the USL Championship, which is the United Soccer League, a professional soccer league in North America. Founded in 1998 on March 11th by Paul Heasley, a native Pennsylvanian. Inspiration for the team came from the lack of professional soccer in the area of Pittsburgh area. In 2004, Halsey sold the Riverhounds. The club went under multiple ownerships and venue changes before landing Highmark Stadium in 2013. Current owner Tuffy Shallenberger took over the team and stadium in 2013. The Riverhounds also run a youth training academy in Pittsburgh and Connellsville, PA. The club embodies the ideals of hard work and resilience. Playing into the origin of the name. The Riverhounds came from a group of barge workers who would spend long hours along the rivers of Pittsburgh during the height of steel manufacturing and transport. To learn more about the club, click here.
Riverhounds Issue
The Riverhounds are a beloved Pittsburgh team with a loyal fan base, an iconic mascot, and a beautiful stadium with views that many stadiums can’t offer. So what is the problem? Riverhounds is looking to increase ticket sales to people within Pittsburgh and to those 50 miles outside of Pittsburgh. Riverhounds struggles to lead in sports popularity due to the surrounding professional sports in the area Steelers (NFL), the Penguins (NHL), and the Pirates (MLB). Here is an article written by a peer about the importance of digital marketing for fan engagement. Click here.
Social Media Marketing Strategies
Looking at their social platforms, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds’ social media pages are very active and are constantly promoting. Their content mainly centers around their players, fans, and ticket sales. They do have pictures posted of players interacting with fans, but that’s as much as it goes for fan content. While this is beneficial because it shows that the team makes time for the fans and interacts with them, it doesn’t touch on a personal and relatable level. It also doesn’t directly persuade someone to want to come to the games. I think these two strategies will help them persuade more people to come out ot the games and increase ticket sales.
Influencer Marketing
A social media strategy that could help the Riverhounds with their issue is implementing influencer marketing. Today, influencer marketing is taking over social media, and it is one of the most popular, if not the most popular, social media strategies brands are taking advantage of. According to an article by Goat Agencey, “Influencers and content creators are the bridge between athletes, teams, and fans. They offer a more personalized and relatable perspective on sports than those involved in them. By sharing their experiences, influencers are able to cultivate communities who actively engage with sports content.” Riverhounds already have an established fan base, so incorporating influencer marketing into platforms like Instagram and TikTok could bring in more social traffic. Sports leagues specifically have some of the biggest fan bases, making them so influential. One of the primary reasons Influencer marketing is so large is that it reaches the younger generation. The NBA, for example, I have noticed, has been implementing influencer marketing. Creators like Ishowspeed (39 million subscribers on YouTube) have been introduced into NBA commercials and ads. This reaches a large and younger audience, bringing in more views. Opening the league to completely new audiences while maintaining its older audience. Also, depending on the chosen influencers, you can reach different cultural audiences, too. Fans now wanna see more behind the scenes and personal content rather than promoting the brand itself. For the Riverhounds, this would be an easy strategize to utilize. They already do celebrity nights at the games with local celebrities (Melissa Zeigler, from Dance Moms). So they can do this strategy concurrently with these celebrity promo nights. Partnering with influencers for a whole season, having them promote on their socials, and also coming to games and being in Riverhounds content. To learn more about influencer marketing, read this article I wrote below.
“University Night”
Looking at a second strategy, the Riverhounds can implement is a “University Night” series. This would entail focusing on a different university from Pittsburgh during a game each week, and also on their social media channels. This would be a very smart strategy given that there are 7 colleges in the downtown Pittsburgh area: Pitt, Carnegie Mellon, Chatham, Duquesne, Point Park, Carlow, and RMU. Specifically offering discounted tickets for these schools, and offering a free piece of merchandise that is a university and Riverhounds crossover. The Pittsburgh Pirates have done this first. They started doing this with a lot of Universities around PA, not just Pittsburgh schools specifically, and it has been very successful with lots of media coverage. This strategy plays into the personal and fan-first experience. By relating to a group of people who are not only loyal to Pittsburgh, but also to their universities. Having a Duquesne night, for example, makes us Duquesne students feel special and more inclined to go to more games, seeing the Riverhounds club including us. It also makes the older audience inclined to go by opening the game to University alumni as well. With this strategy, you are bringing in a large crowd of all different ages, races, etc. Which looks good for your brand and outreach. Also, by using this strategy, you’re getting people who maybe typically wouldn’t go to a game to go to a game, and if their experience is good, they will be more likely to come back. The Riverhounds could easily implement this strategy, being so close to all the schools. Developing a strategy like this that focuses on players, fans, and the area we live in will be extremely helpful in increasing ticket sales.
Pitt students attending a Pirates University Night
Closing Thoughts
The Riverhounds have very active and growing social media platforms. I am a follower of all of their platforms because I enjoy their decisions in content and their consistency across all platforms. Their content is mostly club and athlete-based, with little fan content. Although I know they emphasize their loyal fan base, there is even have a section in the stadium specifically for their fans. I think if they dipped into more fan-based content, the ticket sales would increase because sports and soccer fans would not wanna miss out. They also do a very good job promoting their different promo nights, like firework night, they have had some nights with local celebrities, $1 beer night, etc. According to an article on ThePMGroup, “In order to market your brand effectively in this new age of rising technology and social media, brands have to adapt. By putting fans first and utilizing their provided data, brands can create personalized and meaningful interactions that break through the noise much more than just a logo, but as an authentic top-of-mind choice for consumers.” Again emphasizing that in today’s society, a brand is going to have more success pushing a fan experince on social media over the place/experience itself. If the Riverhounds implement these strategies and start leaning into their loyal fan base, it will more liekly increase their ticket sales and bring more attention to the club overall.