Bowl Games Case Study

Introduction:

Bulk Gift Cards makes life easier for College Football Bowl Games. Every December, the College Football work comes together to hold more than 40 Bowl Games. More than 80 teams are selected to represent their conference in these contests. This means that, collectively, the games are expected to provide gifts for more than 9,000 participants, combined.

Fancards was founded in 2015 as a Gift Card company specializing in collegiately licensed gift cards for fans. However, in 2018 the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl had a problem with their usual gifts. The Peach Bowl called on Fancards to help since we were partnered with each participating team, Michigan and Florida, and had gift cards we could provide. Starting in 2019, Fancards added the ability to create fully custom gift cards in bulk.

Today, Fancards has grown its Bowl Game portfolio to cover eight postseason contests and the College Football Playoff, with seven of those events using Fancards specifically for player gifts.

Introduction:

Bulk Gift Cards makes life easier for College Football Bowl Games. Every December, the College Football work comes together to hold more than 40 Bowl Games. More than 80 teams are selected to represent their conference in these contests. This means that, collectively, the games are expected to provide gifts for more than 9,000 participants, combined.

Fancards was founded in 2015 as a Gift Card company specializing in collegiately licensed gift cards for fans. However, in 2018 the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl had a problem with their usual gifts. The Peach Bowl called on Fancards to help since we were partnered with each participating team, Michigan and Florida, and had gift cards we could provide. Starting in 2019, Fancards added the ability to create fully custom gift cards in bulk.

Today, Fancards has grown its Bowl Game portfolio to cover eight postseason contests and the College Football Playoff, with seven of those events using Fancards specifically for player gifts.

Challenge:

  • Each Bowl Game is expected to provide between 250-300 NCAA-compliant gifts for participating players and coaches, but increasingly, players have indicated that they don’t want “more stuff” and would prefer funds to spend.
  • The staff at each game already has a mountain of decisions and work to overcome to prepare for their events, and simplifying gifts is an easy way to gain back time and productivity.
  • Events are looking for more ways to track their economic impact and demonstrate value to their host city and local market.

Solution:

  • Fancards quickly produced a fully custom, NCAA compliant gift Mastercard designed around the Bowls’ brand guidelines for the games to provide some, or all, of their gift allotment to participants.
  • Soon after the events, Fancards also provided spending reports to each game to include in their economic impact reports for their city, county or state.

Results and Impact:

  • Bowls who conducted post-event player surveys noted much higher satisfaction scores around Gift Cards compared to other items.
  • Spending reports consistently show that an average of 65% of all funds loaded to the cards was spent within the host-city’s DMA the week of the event.
  • Players gained the option to register their gift cards and monitor the balance on the Fancards mobile app. They also gained additional security and could add an address for some online purchases.
  • The process is so easy that more than half of Fancards’ Bowl partners opted for additional card orders in varying amounts to provide gifts for VIPs, employees or as promotional prizes.

Learn More About A Custom Gift Solution

Learn More About A Custom Gift Solution