How U.S. Soccer Builds Fandom for the World Cup

Project summary

U.S. Soccer is the governing body of soccer in all its forms in the United States, U.S. Soccer has played an integral part in chartivng the course for the sport in the USA for more than 100 years.

“We have a unique challenge where we have to speak to a broader audience. We have to talk to fans from California all the way to Maine. And for us, loyalty is the one way that we were able to approach this gap.”
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‍Nicole Kusi
Director of Product at U.S. Soccer

Relevant trend: App-first strategy

The Official U.S. Soccer App is the easiest way to follow the U.S. Women's National Team and U.S. Men’s National Team.

In addition to schedule notifications, roster announcements, and player information, version 2.0 now brings U.S. Soccer content into one, easy-to-access hub so that fans never miss match highlights, interviews, or behind-the-scenes content.

All U.S. Soccer fans can vote for the Insiders' Player of the Match, exclusively in the app on matchdays.

Key results

“We focus heavily on churn. Once people join the program, do they stay? And if they don’t, why?

We also track the standard metrics, like upgrades. Our program has both free and paid tiers, with multiple levels within the paid plans. We look at whether people choose to upgrade and what those numbers look like. And if they don’t, we dig into the reasons.

On the program mechanics side, we pay close attention to redemptions. Customers can accumulate points, but if they never spend them, the program isn’t fulfilling its purpose.”
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‍Nicole Kusi
Director of Product at U.S. Soccer

Core Loyalty KPIs

• Churn: evaluating if members stay in the program and why they leave.
• Upgrade Rate: the percentage of fans upgrading from free to paid tiers, or between paid tiers.
• Redemption Rate: ensuring fans are using their earned points for items or experiences, preventing a "stagnant user base".

Revenue & Predictive Analytics

• Selling out the stadium: U.S. Soccer used engagement data from the loyalty engine (Open Loyalty) and combined it with other data sources to identify and target the most engaged fans in a specific city (Nashville) for ticket sales. This highly targeted approach led to selling out an underperforming stadium, which was not achieved using traditional wide-net marketing.

"And we used open loyalty to figure out who our most engaged fans are. And then we build audience segmentation around those fans that were in Nashville. and we only targeted those folks for ticket sales and we actually sold out the stadium. And that does not always happen."

Nicole Kusi
Director of Product at U.S. Soccer

About the U.S. Soccer Insider

U.S. Soccer Insider is the fan engagement program for the U.S. Soccer fans & members.

Fans, players, referees, coaches or the parents of rising soccer stars, everyone gets more from the U.S. Soccer as an Insider.

Insider benefits

• Presale tickets: the higher your Insiders tier, the earlier access you get to purchase tickets.
• Insiders rewards: members use points to unlock exclusive experiences, collectible memorabilia, and U.S. Soccer swag
• Exclusive Insiders merchandise: exclusive access to Insiders merchandise and product drops not available anywhere else.
• Access to more perks: perks like matchday experiences, Insiders-only events, exclusive content, free shipping and more, based on the membership tier selected.