It has been a pleasure for SPSG Consulting to speak with Esther Soler, Business Development Manager at Pressenger, and be able to deep dive into the company's journey in revolutionizing fan engagement for sports entities through visually captivating mobile notifications. Esther shares how Pressenger enhances the overall fan experience and sponsorship spaces. Moreover, the interview offers a concise look into the innovative fusion of technology, fan engagement, and societal influence. Thank you Esther for sharing your time and knowledge with us!
Over the last 9 years, you have been the Business Development Manager at Pressenger, a company that, basically, provides leading services to sport (and other sector) entities in terms of notifications in a visual eye-catching format to suit their digital media strategy. Can you elaborate a little bit more what has been the origin of the company and their main strategic avenues of growth?
I joined Pressenger 2015, practically when the company was founded. I was very young(22) but passionate about technology and sports; and mostly willing to learn from Zsolt Szegner and Henriette Dancs, co-founders of the company in Hungary back in 2014.
The aim was to deliver the most important information to users in a way that was completely different from the ordinary solutions. Based on this idea, we developed a mobile notification system that uses the power of images to ensure that information can be absorbed as quickly as possible, since science has already proven that people can process images much faster than read written text.
We have simply taken what was already working on social media, spiced it up with a few clever features and put it in a whole new environment, the notification center of smartphones.
During the last years, the technology has been improved and adapted to the market requirements: data-driven templates that work automatically, scheduled options, semi-automated designs, adaptations to the operative systems… Which are further improving our already impressive range of services and impact.
Mobile notifications are very linked with fan engagement and, obviously, how to monetize this engagement from a sport (and entertainment) perspective. Can you granulate for the readers what the service (Pressenger) is about and what is the added value that Pressenger brings to sport entities?
“Attention is our product” Pressenger provides unique visual push notifications for mobile apps that create truly remarkable mobile experiences for users in all businesses. Our futureproof technology has been proven to increase opening rates and user engagement, and will establish a new monetizable communication channel for organizations and companies that use mobile apps.Pressenger visual push notifications offer:
appealing appearance on smart devices (Android and IOs and/or ne, IOs watch)
easy API integration
data-driven features
boutique quality customized content
provides increasing conversion rates through client friendly statistical modules
Inside of the sports market, our technology is THE ULTIMATE FAN ENGAGEMENT mobile experience. Pressenger´s SDK/API integrated in Clubs or Organizations mobile apps makes them capable to make visual what was just text, to get the attention of the majority of the app users without having to have them scrolling in the app or in social networks - and that's a big value. It's like seeing a colorful, illuminated billboard in a street of black and white posters, only, all these in your palm.
What's more, our brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text, and we remember the 80% of what we see, rather than the 20% of what we read. So Presenger´s unique visual appearance on the smartphones lock-screen makes the performance of the notifications x2-3 times more engaging, causing an enhanced experience for the sport, the brand and the message that is translated into more traffic into the app. The user enjoys being contacted by the club itself, with the latest and more important news or real-time match notifications.
Pressenger is a totally new space to monetize with own and third party content, a new place where brands can share their vision, and messaging attached to the notifications of the sports club.
Pressenger is providing services to prestigious sport entities such as Borussia Dortmund, RCDeportivo de La Coruña, Titan Series, Levante UD, Falco, Magiar Triatlon Szovetseg, Intersport, Bàsquet Girona, etc, just to mention a few. How can these entities be in a better position to monetize the services you provide to? Can you share a couple of examples?
At the end, numbers and impressions are what matters to monetize the sponsorship spaces. First of all, the sport entities should be creating in-app content that adds value to the fan to have the app downloaded and enjoy what the clubs have to tell them via the application. The more users the club has, the more impact Pressenger can have on the overall user experience of the fans.
Once you have the users, its time to amaze them with notifications! Designed visual and dynamic notifications are what have the most impact and get more traffic. Spending some time on these designs will make sure that the first impression is exciting and engaging - an added value for the user, and by providing information rich, visual notifications, the potential for a higher click through rate grows naturally.
In the case of Borussia Dortmund, neither the club, the fan, nor the sponsors can imagine what it would be like to go back to black text notifications in a gray box again. The black and yellow color combination is very significant for them and the importance of visualization is high, therefore the sponsors are also very satisfied and are increasingly willing to reach deeper into their pockets for the project.
If we are speaking about RC Deportivo de la Coruña, they are doing an excellent job in terms of using Pressenger. Including brands that align well with their global strategy, like Abanca or Digi mobi, and promoting their own activities like children competitions or Christmas activations
Download their apps to check how amazing Pressenger looks in these apps. BVB android and iOS. RC Deportivo android and iOS.
Globally, the sports Industry accounts for between 1,5-2% of the worldwide GDP; and growing. In addition, is rapidly evolving. How do you envision the future of sports by 2030, mainly from a fan engagement perspective?
We focus on a change that is coming from the user’s side. People have less and less time and patience to receive information. The market should follow this change, which is why we focus on this. This trend comes at perfect timing for us, since we can make a lasting impact precisely by delivering well-thought-out information within a short period of time that can be processed very quickly. We definitely satisfy this need. The part of the market that is willing to adapt its decisions to these trends will sooner or later stumble upon us. We are not specifically a SaaS (software as a service) company, but rather a stylist and consulting house, whose expertise is realized in a very unique technological solution. In fact, the consultation itself constitutes a greater part of our services than the code that runs in the application.
We want to cover the sports industry as much as possible in the shortest possible time, because this is where we can create the greatest value for clubs, fans and sponsors. But we are open to finding the right model in other industries as well, to see how they could communicate more effectively. Personally, I would be very happy if the attention-grabbing potential of our technology was also used to deliver extremely important messages affecting everyone, which are thought-provoking or spur people to action, such as global warming, peace, or the fight against racism, etc. Unfortunately, there are many topics where we could achieve an extremely large impact if only a tiny bit more attention were directed to them, and attention is our product, so I hope that as soon as possible we can find a way to deliver messages that can contribute to a better world. If you have something worthy of attention, we want to be there and help.