Liz McRae, Events Manager Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans Football Club CHALLENGES: was founded in 1874 (as the South The Sydney Swans organization needed a new event planning solution, as the previous Melbourne Football Club). Sydney one fell short of functionality and flexibility. The company wanted a solution that provided Swans Ltd. manages all of the club’s branding, email promotion, multiple payment options, and other features that would activities, including game day and streamline event planning activities. non-game day events. CERTAIN SOLUTION: Using the Certain event management platform, the organization has been able to increase attendance and more proficiently manage simultaneous events. Certain has also helped increase revenue potential from corporate sponsorships. CERTAIN BENEFITS: • Branding extends event themes from registration through to menu cards • Easy-to-use online registration process increases attendance • Ease of use allows for the efficient addition of more events on short notice • Flexible, targeted email functions help create special, customized promotions • Comprehensive data capture provides better promotion of future events • Real-time reporting functionality helps financial team see spend updates during events It sounds really Increasing Attendance and Event Management Proficiency basic, but we use Sydney Swans Ltd. is the corporate organization for the Australian Football League (AFL) club of the same name. The club was founded in 1874 as the South Melbourne Football a lot of different Club, but changed the name to the Sydney Swans when it moved to Sydney in 1982. The software and the club has been a leading team in the AFL and won the 2012 AFL Grand Final, one of the fact that Certain is largest and most important annual events for Australian sports fans. easy for everyone The Sydney Swans’ organization holds numerous events throughout the year, including ones that occur on game days as well as other non-game day activities. The organization to use is a big deal. may have as many as six functions going on simultaneously at any given time. Everyone thinks it’s The larger, non-game day events include season launches, luncheons, and cocktail very efficient. parties. When the team is vying for a premiership, there are also specially scheduled events throughout the finals, such as Grand Final events, which in 2012 included a multi- - Liz McRae, Events course dinner for over 1100 people. Manager, Sydney Swans USA: 1.888.CERTAIN (1.888.237.8246) | AUS: +61.07.3457.0900 | UK: +44.1753.648505 EMAIL: [email protected] | CERTAIN.COM USA DIRECT: 1.415.353.5330 The Certain platform BUSINESS CHALLENGE THE CERTAIN SOLUTION is everything we More Comprehensive, Everything from Branding and never had in our Flexible Functionality Promotion to Analysis previous system, plus When the contract for the club’s event The Certain platform, which the club management system expired, the event purchased in 2011, is used by several so much more. team decided to look for a more robust event planners, as well as by the club’s solution. The previous system was very corporate partnerships team and the - Rachel Macumber, Events limited and offered few capabilities for finance department. The event managers Manager, Sydney Swans branding, promoting, managing, or use Certain for event promotions, selling of the club’s events. registration processes, and event sponsorships for the club’s non-game “The last system didn’t have much day functions. The partnerships team flexibility in the look and feel of how accesses Certain to track the status of we branded our events,” says Rachel sponsorship opportunities, while the Macumber, an events manager at finance people view spending and budget the Sydney Swans. “Nor did it have reports throughout the event process. functionality for e-mail communications, multiple payment options, or registration The event managers are taking processes.” She and other event advantage of almost every capability managers decided to conduct research to that Certain offers, from branding and find a more comprehensive solution that registration functions, right through to better met their needs and was financially post-event analysis. viable for the club. This is where Certain and its cloud-based enterprise event Themed branding from registration management platform came into play. to table top “When we evaluated Certain, we found One of the most beneficial aspects of the that the software offered us a complete Certain platform is the ability to integrate events solution,” says Macumber. “The the design of the Sydney Swans events Certain platform is everything we never with event promotions and registration had in our previous system, plus so pages. “When we set up an event in much more.” Certain, we can integrate the theme of the event within the design. It carries right through from registration to the menu cards for the night of the event,” says Liz McRae, an events manager at the club. “This feature is invaluable, especially for our co-sponsored events. Our sponsors, which include QBE, a large Australian insurance company, Citi, and Volkswagen, like having their logos as part of the design throughout the whole process.” USA: 1.888.CERTAIN (1.888.237.8246) | AUS: +61.07.3457.0900 | UK: +44.1753.648505 EMAIL: [email protected] | CERTAIN.COM USA DIRECT: 1.415.353.5330 Easy-to-use registration with Comprehensive data capture The finance reports have been very increased attendance and reporting beneficial as well. “Providing information to our finance people has always been The event planners also take advantage of The event planners are continually a bit of an issue before we started using the functionality in the event registration increasing the events database Certain,” says McRae. “It’s now very easy processes, including the financial options capabilities within Certain, and are for them to know exactly where we are for payment methods, internal bookings, integrating events data with other with incoming revenue and expenses. and passcode bookings function. In the databases within the business. “We are They can get updated reports during past, the registration process was paper- capturing more information on our guests events, rather than at the end.” based, with faxes and manual credit card so we can provide them with better entries. “Certain’s registration process services in the future,” says McRae. Ease of use continues to be a strong is more efficient for our internal team,” “For instance, we had a number of hotel benefit for the Certain software as well. says McRae. “Plus, we never have any partners that wanted to provide discounts “The main feedback we get from everyone problems with people not being able to and special offers to our members. They in the office is that it’s easy to use,” says register properly. In fact, being able to wanted information such as how many McRae. “It sounds really basic, but we use offer online registrations has increased members travel interstate to our events. a lot of different software and the fact that our attendance rate.” With Certain, we now have those details Certain is easy for everyone to use is a big so that we can be in a better position to deal. Everyone thinks it’s very efficient.” Simple, quick event set-up work with partners to offer discounts and hopefully generate more sponsorship Maximizing the potential of Certain Because of the increase in attendance, revenue as well.” plus the team’s advancement through the “The Certain support people have finals last year, the club added several The event planners also use Certain to been great and they train us on new events and Certain made it easy to quickly provide reports for their sponsors to keep functionality, so we can always take set them up. “With Certain, it’s very easy them engaged. “We can tell our sponsors advantage of what’s new and use the to set up new events within hours,” says where their logo is positioned, where the platform to its full potential,” notes McRae. McRae. “We were able to put a thousand event’s been promoted, and how long it’s One of the functions that the organization tickets on sale with only 24-hours notice.” been on the web,” says McRae. is now considering is Certain Mobile. Flexible, targeted email capabilities BENEFITS In addition, the event planners would like to use the same capabilities they use for For promoting the club’s events Future Planning More Efficient and non-game events for the ones that occur throughout the year, the event planners Effective on game days. “We want to take our create email campaigns using Certain game day events to a new level and we and link them to the club’s social media As the size and quantity of the club’s think Certain can help us do that,” says platforms and newsletters. “We also have functions grew in 2012, the organization McRae. “We want to introduce Certain to the flexibility to create special promotions got a better sense of who attended the our colleagues who manage match day where we give away free or discounted events with Certain. This enabled the functions so we can streamline all our tickets,” says McRae. “And we also need club to easily promote new events to events on the Certain platform.” to occasionally create personalized invites the people already in the system and for sponsors and executives, depending encourage them to attend again in The organization also plans on integrating on the level of importance, and that’s the future. its events database with its fan database equally as easy in Certain.” so the planners can set up conversion targets to convert more of the club’s fans to attendees. USA: 1.888.CERTAIN (1.888.237.8246) | AUS: +61.07.3457.0900 | UK: +44.1753.648505 EMAIL: [email protected] | CERTAIN.COM USA DIRECT: 1.415.353.5330.