Tag: SAS

Singapore – As the pandemic has halted major events such as live entertainment and spectator sports, global live entertainment company AEG Sports has marked the use of advanced analytics to measure fan sentiments online and to encourage frequent engagement, through global analytics company SAS.

The analytics utilization uses SAS’ Viya via Microsoft Azure, which uses online models to gauge fan perspectives toward such things as returning to in-person games. By continuously analyzing fan sentiment during the pandemic, AEG Sports has been able to personalize messages based on interest and feelings on personal safety, and identify which fans needed targeted retention efforts. Using these tactics AEG Sports has kept fans happy and boosted the ROI of marketing campaigns.

“Times are unpredictable – but with SAS and Microsoft, we have two key partners that we feel confident can help us adapt and thrive under any circumstances. We might not know what’s going to happen, but we know SAS and Microsoft have our goals in mind and will enable us to respond to any challenge we may face,” said Aaron LeValley, senior vice president of business operations and strategy at AEG Sports.

Meanwhile, Rodrigo Rocha, general manager cloud solutions and ISV alliances at Microsoft, commented that more than ever, digital transformation is critical as organizations learn to adapt to new customer behaviors. He also added that SAS Viya on Azure helps make that transformation easier and faster, providing much-needed, immediate actionable insights.

The company also uses the embedded capabilities in SAS Viya for contingency planning. The ability to quickly ingest and model data from multiple sources – including ticketing, partnerships, marketing, weather reports and health experts – helps AEG Sports reduce pandemic-driven uncertainty.

Jennifer Chase, senior vice president and head of marketing at SAS states that she is a strong proponent for customer-centricity – or in this case fan-centricity, adding that sports teams have a unique relationship with their ‘customers’, and AEG Sports’ passion for their fans has been evident during the pandemic.

“They [sports teams] use analytics to really understand fan reaction to the disruptions and determine how best to support them through it all. A fan experience with heart and humanity will inevitably lead to stronger fan connections, especially when fans recognize that their team understands their needs – in good or bad times,” Chase stated.

AI technology is at the heart of AEG Sports’ drive to continually increase the efficiency of its modeling efforts. The output of these models often become data visualizations, which AEG Sports uses to chart its day-to-day operations.

“Data visualization is critical to our business. Most people are visual learners, so being able to show a visual representation of data has been extremely beneficial in gaining buy-in. Right now, almost every department in our company uses data visualizations to make decisions and operate more efficiently,” John D’Onofrio, business analyst at AEG Sports, said.

He also added that they needed to turn data around quickly for games, so having daily reports with visualizations that sales leadership can look at and immediately understand is essential, especially when there’s a new game every two days.

Singapore – Consumer behavior in retrospect to brand loyalty has seen a greater shift, most notably caused by desire for customers to have their received services personalized and to be recognizing privacy, a report from analytics firm Futurum Research and software company SAS shows.

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Significant pandemic-induced shifts in consumer behavior and opinions include changes in loyalty drivers and acceptance of immersive tech. In response, the majority of brands are rethinking superior customer experience and accelerating their technology development and deployment plans to meet the needs of the evolving consumer.

In the report, it is stated that the global state during the pandemic has heightened the interest of the general public to lean towards acceptance of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) and an integral part of the consumer process. Due to such response, a third of brands surveyed are speeding up investments in technology over the next two years. Some technologies include voice-based AI assistants, customer support holographics, and augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) technology.

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In terms of customer view on technology, statistics showed their interest on the following:

  • Drones – last year, 23% of consumers expected delivery by drone or autonomous vehicle in the coming year; now 60% expect it by 2022. 
  • Smart assistants – last year 65% of consumers expected to use them by 2025, but now 70% plan to use them by 2022 
  • Chatbots – last year 36% of consumers expected to use chatbots to have questions answered or receive customer support about a brand, products or services. Now, 54% want a live person, and not a bot, available to talk to them. 
  • AR and VR – about 69% of consumers surveyed expect to use AR and VR to sample products in 2021. In addition, 63% of consumers are willing to use AR and VR to visit remote locations, up from 56% in the previous survey. 
  • Telemedicine – 67% of consumers are open to telemedicine. 

In a ‘socially distant’ market, hybrid digital and physical experiences have become increasingly common as both brands and consumers look to technologies that provide convenience and safety – from the increased use of telemedicine to contactless payments and online ordering combined with curbside pickup. Brands that want to deliver truly personalized experiences must pivot to include these forms of engagement in the customer experiences they provide,” SAS noted in the report.

Due to such high demand, business disruption has been evident as six out of 10 brands reported that they’re unable to deliver their regular products to their customers. About 28% of brands have been unable to adjust and adapt and are riding things out until ‘normal’ returns. 

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In response to such disruption, some brands have accelerated development in online consumers tracking systems for behavior and habits (66%), mobile apps for customer engagement (64%), shared customer records for cross-departmental use (68%) and real-time product or inventory awareness systems (64%).

“The Experience 2030 global study, released in late 2019, clearly indicated that brands are planning to invest heavily in immersive CX technologies and AI-fueled automation over the next decade,” said Wilson Raj, global director of Customer Intelligence at SAS. 

He added, “This Pulse report stresses that organizations have not changed these priorities, but urgently stepped up these investments to respond to the pandemic and ensuing disruptions. Brands have chopped timeframes in many of the areas identified in Experience 2030.” 

The survey was conducted during June and July 2020, as Futurum Research surveyed more than 600 global consumers, executives, marketers and technology professionals.