How the Bulldogs Build Fan Connections That Go Deeper Than Performance on the Field

Meet the Fan Marketers:

The Western Bulldogs are no strangers to passion, both on and off the field. In 2024, however, the Bulldogs team set their sights on something bigger: growing an engaged membership base regardless of team performance. But with fragmented data, disconnected digital touchpoints, and a changing market at large, the challenge wasn’t just about growing their fanbase; it was about making each interaction count.

The Challenges: From Followers to Members to Fanatics

Intending to acquire several thousand marketable leads (fans who stay subscribed to the team and engaged) in 2024, the Bulldogs needed a smarter way to acquire and nurture fans, turning fleeting engagement into lasting relationships with their audiences.

• Growing their marketable fanbase while keeping engagement high
• Creating a more integrated digital ecosystem to track and personalize fan experiences
• Aligning internal teams to maximize the impact of all of their campaigns.

The Play: Data-Driven Engagement with Tradable Bits

The Bulldogs moved beyond one-off interactions to craft a fully-integrated fan marketing ecosystem, including integrations with their existing email marketing system and communication workflows. With Tradable Bits, they experimented with digital engagement to capture marketable leads at scale, track fan engagement, and nurture their audience with further comms.

The Playbook: A System for Sustainable Growth

The Customer Experience and Marketing Team at the Bulldogs took the opportunity to dig into their existing data before embarking on a new strategy for 2024. They looked at information like “time to close” from marketable contacts to Bulldogs members, and the key “activation” differentiators that would transform a casual follower into a quantifiable marketable lead. 

Once they had a solid understanding of their audience foundations, they employed 3 strategies to grow their pipeline with the right fans:

1  Acquiring Marketable Leads at Scale - The Bulldogs doubled down on their 2024 engagement, running high-impact, high-energy campaigns that attracted 30,000 new leads, fueling their fan database and memberships pipeline with high-intent supporters.

2  Automated Welcome Emails and Membership Offers - Fans who interacted with digital engagement campaigns and subscribed to comms for the teams received tailored welcome email workflows and membership opportunities almost immediately, creating a seamless journey from interest to conversion. By linking this engagement data with personalized offers, they drove nearly 100+ new membership offers this season with their welcome email workflow alone. 

3  Doubling Down on the Right Audience - In addition to their work with the Bulldogs’ Men’s team, the Bulldogs aimed to double down on growing their Women’s team as well. Through experimentation with digital and in-venue engagement campaigns, early engagement data flagged low engagement with their AFLW campaigns. Instead of sticking to the same playbook, the Bulldogs team pivoted, refining segmentation and their content strategy to nearly double their AFLW audience during a relatively shorter season runway. With a new audience and new incentives in mind, their average dwell time on campaigns rocketed, proving that fans were more engaged when met with the right message at the right time.

"We saw clear signals in the data and how fans were engaging, and made quick adjustments. It’s important to be tuned to what fans want, and where you can offer the most value." Said Cameron Grimes, Digital Producer for the Western Bulldogs

The Win: Transforming Engagement into Long-Term Growth

With a season spent dedicated to understanding their fans and the best workflows to nurture, engage and convert new members, the Bulldog’s results speak for themselves:

• 30K+ new marketable leads
• More teams aligned internally, leveraging Tradable Bits across the organization.
• 100+ direct membership conversions with one high-performing email workflow
• Significant AFLW audience growth
  

What’s Next? 

The Bulldogs don’t plan to slow down in 2025. With a goal of acquiring an additional 20,000 new leads this year, the team is sharpening their data strategy, deepening their work on fan profiling and continuing to redefine what fan engagement means in the AFL.

For teams looking to transform engagement into measurable fan growth, the Bulldog’s playbook is proof: data, audience strategy, and the right tech to reach and engage fans can turn casual engagers into lifelong members. 

Want to see how Tradable Bits can help you grow and activate your fanbase?  Lets talk! 👇