Why use CRM in the entertainment industry?

At Arenametrix, we believe the entertainment industry thrives on emotions, experiences, and lasting connections. But building meaningful relationships with audiences requires more than just sending emails or selling tickets.

It demands a structured, data-driven approach where CRM is not just a tool, but a strategic enabler—one that personalises every step of the visitor journey to foster deeper engagement and long-term loyalty.

To achieve this, it is essential to understand the two interconnected journeys that define audience relationships:

• The Visitor Journey: The practical steps a visitor takes before, during, and after an event.

• The CRM Journey: The evolution of their relationship with your organisation over time, from stranger to loyal advocate.

Yet many sports, cultural and leisure organisations struggle to unlock the full potential of CRM. Too often, they create noise instead of connection, missing opportunities to understand their audience and deliver value.

In this article, we will explore how CRM helps sport and cultural organisations:

• Turn occasional visitors into loyal promoters through personalised interactions.

• Align audience experience with strategic relationship-building.

• Overcome common CRM challenges in the entertainment sector.

• Implement impactful, data-driven CRM actions that strengthen and develop communities.

• Generate more revenue and improve operational efficiency.

By the end, you'll see how a well-executed CRM strategy transforms audience engagement from a simple transaction into a long-term, evolving relationship.

Why do most sports and cultural organisations struggle with CRM?

Many brands try to create better customer relationships. But they hit roadblocks:

1. They create noise, not value

Event organisers often over-communicate without relevance. Mass emails. Generic offers. Too many messages. The result? Customers disengage. The connection is lost.

2. They don’t understand what drives their audiences

Without real insight, sports and cultural organisations’ marketing and commercial teams make assumptions.
They struggle to:

• Identify audience motivations

• Understand behaviours

• Build strategies that feel personal and relevant

3. Data is scattered and hard to use

Even when organisations have customer data, it’s often:

• Spread across different tools

• Incomplete

• Difficult to analyse

This makes it hard to create actionable insights, let alone personalise experiences.

4. They can’t turn strategy into action

Fans, visitors & spectators' needs are evolving faster than ever. Why invest in CRM if the approach is obsolete by the time you’ve set the strategy and the actions? Speed and efficiency are of the essence. Many event organisers struggle to:

• Measure results in real time

• Automate personalised journeys

• Continuously improve the customer experience

Defining concepts: The two interconnected journeys

1. The visitor journey (experience-based phases)

This represents the practical path a visitor takes when interacting with your events, services, or products. It is seeing the journey from their point of view. 

2. The CRM journey (relationship phases)

This reflects the evolution of their relationship with your organisation over time. It provides you with your objectives for the audience’s level of engagement. 

Turning concepts into actions

At every stage of the visitor journey, you have opportunities to implement personalised CRM actions that strengthen the relationship and move the customer up the CRM Pyramid. Here is a concrete example of a visitor journey that a music festival can implement: 

Julia’s festival experience has been smooth and enjoyable from the beginning, and has fostered re-engagement for the next edition. This festival journey isn’t random. It’s the result of a well-designed, data-driven CRM strategy powered by a CRM solution specialised for the entertainment sector like Arenametrix.

How does a strong CRM infrastructure help?

A strong CRM system doesn’t just manage contacts. It provides an end-to-end infrastructure that enables organisations to:

1. Centralise and enrich customer data

Collect data from all customer touchpoints and consolidate it in one place. Enrich this data with demographics, behaviour, and preferences to create detailed customer profiles.

Use Case – Performing Arts Organisation

To grow their audience and online visibility, a performing arts organisation launched a social media competition integrated with their CRM. The campaign generated over 1,000 new contacts in under a week, while significantly enriching the database with declared interests and preferences. (For more details, take a look at the full use case.)

2. Segment and understand your audience

Use data to create meaningful segments based on lifecycle stages, interests, engagement history, and more. Understanding these segments allows for tailored messaging and offers that resonate.

Use Case – Cultural Venue

By segmenting their audience based on attendance frequency and ticket types, this venue improved its email open rates by 28% and increased targeted campaign conversion by 40%, showing the power of personalised engagement (For the full use case).

3. Design and automate personalised customer journeys across channels

Map the entire customer journey from first contact to post-event follow-ups, and automate the relevant touchpoints. Each step should feel personal and relevant across the various communication channels (email, SMS, social media, etc), encouraging deeper engagement.

Use Case – Opera House

A cultural institution used marketing automation to send timely pre-event messages with logistical info and content recommendations. This reduced last-minute customer service inquiries by 35% and improved the average satisfaction score after events.

4. Measure, analyse, and optimise

A CRM strategy is never static. Regularly analyse campaign performance, customer engagement metrics, and revenue impact. Use these insights to refine strategies and improve ROI.

Use Case – Sports & Entertainment

Focused on expanding its fan base, an organisation used CRM dashboards to monitor campaign effectiveness. Through ongoing optimisation, they improved lead conversion by 22% and increased online ticketing revenue by 18% over one season. (Use Case)

Why is investing in CRM key to transforming audience relationships and experiences?

Sports clubs, music festivals, and museums are organisations creating connections based on experience and emotions. By investing in a specialised CRM, organisations can:

1. Improve the audience experience

Your visitors, fans, or spectators engage with high-quality, personalised experiences. CRM enables you to create personalised journeys, delivering relevant offers and content that make your audience feel valued, not just targeted.

2. Revenue generation

CRM strategies help you maximise the lifetime value of each visitor. By understanding their preferences and behaviours, you can deliver the right message at the right time, encouraging repeat visits, purchases and upsells.

3. Improve operational efficiency

An automated CRM strategy saves time and resources. Once in place, it works continuously in the background, segmenting audiences, triggering actions, and measuring results in real-time.

These benefits translate into tangible results:

• Strengthened fan loyalty in sports by automating ticket renewal campaigns, personalising merchandise offers, and engaging supporters through loyalty programs.
  
  

• Enhanced engagement for festivals & concerts by sending tailored presale alerts, curating music recommendations, and delivering real-time event updates.
  
  

• Deepened audience connection in museums & cultural institutions by offering exclusive member benefits, retargeting past visitors with personalised exhibition recommendations, and implementing exclusive content strategies.

By aligning personalised CRM actions with the visitor journey, you don’t just sell tickets; you build communities, advocates, and promoters who drive long-term success.

Who are we at Arenametrix?

We are a European company whose mission is to support the cultural, leisure and sports sectors by developing and making innovative data-driven marketing solutions accessible and tailored to their needs.

More than 300 event organisers & venues in 13 countries across Europe and North America have placed their trust in us, and we support them daily in their strategies for understanding, building loyalty and developing their audiences.