Big Ten Conference Leverages Consumer Data to Engage an Entire Fanbase

Valuable consumer data was in short supply at the Big Ten Conference before Nate Schrader joined as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer. The Big Ten knew little about their massive fan base or what actions they had taken, whether that be attending games or buying merchandise.

Not only did Nate put the Conference on a path to understanding and engaging their fans in a more meaningful way, but he also helped launch a new company that enables other sports entities to do the same.

Highlights of Nate’s conversation with Zora Senat, Chief Commercial Officer at Verisk Marketing Solutions, are below.

Watch this exclusive use case on-demand now.

Consumer Data Became the Game Changer

Nate stepped into his role at the Big Ten Conference just before the pandemic halted most sporting events. He and his colleagues quickly realized how heavily the Conference relied on live games as a primary revenue source.

To diversify their income streams, the Conference would have to learn much more about their fans and become increasingly intentional about engagement. This was especially true for nurturing the next generation and the 95% of fans around the world who will never attend a live event.

Consumer Data & Analytics as an Athletics Booster

Previously, fans who interacted with the Conference digitally had no ability to say who they were, which teams they supported, or what they wanted to see. And the Conference couldn’t collect data or tell the many compelling stories around their different sports and the athletes who play them.

Pulling from his background in data and customer analytics, Nate deployed a modern data stack for the Conference built around Snowflake’s platform along with consumer insights from Verisk Marketing Solutions. His ultimate goal: create more content, paired with user data, to deliver relevant one-to-one storytelling at scale across 28 sports.

Nate teamed up with a group of tech entrepreneurs who used generative AI to tell stories around sports, including the use of statistics and real-time data points that add value for fans. Seeing the broader potential for monetizing sports data, Nate and this group formed a new company called Boost, which now offers modern data stack-as-a-service solutions to clients in the collegiate and professional sports realms.

Through Boost, these organizations can fully benefit from the power of consumer data without having the tools or expertise in-house.

Watch the full use case on-demand.