This review was written by Benson Chukwueke, a sport marketing consultant with proven expertise in sports business. He has help several sports companies and businesses gain mileage with their target customers. Chukwueke is the CEO of GreenHunters Sports International. And this post first appeared @ CheerOnNigeria
I hope Redstrike and NPFL officials get to read this review and quickly adjust or tweak their present business strategy where necessary.
Maybe it seems a little early to review the Redstrike's Npfl.tv App performance, but as they say, "a stitch in time saves nine." Npfl.tv is suppose to be a rave App, something many football enthusiasts in Nigeria and Nigerians in diaspora had clamored for so long.
Nigeria is estimated to have over 100million active football consumers. And following the fact that the league is now played under closed doors and spectators can't gain access to the stadium, you would have expected fans to rush and download npfl.tv App as the next alternative..
Just a day after the launch of Npfl.tv, the App got 3600 unique downloads from the UK and 2456 downloads from USA. We expected the number of downloads to quickly jump into millions in the following days, but after two months or so, only about 10,300 downloads has been recorded in the Google play store and 4,391 in iOS store.
What got my attention the most is, out of the 14k+ downloads only about 3.3k fans are actively using the App as I write this article now.
About 5k+ started with the free trials, but didn't subscribe after the free trials elapsed on January 20, 2021.
What may be the reason football fans are not downloading Npfl.tv App as expected?
1. No Awareness: A survey conducted by GreenHunters revealed that 0ne out of every 1000 fans in Nigeria are not aware there's npfl.tv App that they can now watch npfl matches live on their device. We also found out that two out of every 3 fans who are aware of the App were not willing to download it or to give it a trial.
2. Competitiors Engagement: Our study also shows that more football consumers in Nigeria prefer to follow top European leagues such as Premier League, La Liga... And have free access to several highlights, scores on YouTube and Live matches on their DStv subscriptions.
3 Wrong Pricing Strategy: Over 5k fans that had free trials where not convinced npfl.tv App is worth to pay NGN1, 500 monthly subscription. Not all the games can be watched live on the App. The probability that your choice match may not be shown live when you try to watch has affected the interest of those that sampled the free trials.
How to Get A Lot More Fans to and Actively Use the Npfl.tv App
1. Launch Massive Campaign to Create Awareness: Redstrike should launch a massive campaign to persuade football fans to download the App. We suggest a three to six months massive campaign on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter... As well as online sports blogs and websites such as cheerOnnigeria.blogspot.com, goal.com, completesportsnigeria.com...
They should advertise on billboards in front of every stadium where NPFL matches are played. These will go a long way to create the needed awareness.
3. Engagement through Free Sampling: To get more fans to understand how valuable the npfl.tv App can be to them, Redstrike should give at least six month to one year free trial or free sampling period to enable them to properly engage the users to the point they don't mind paying the monthly subscription fee.
Redstrike should be dynamic and have a listening ear to include what users are clamoring for and to continually improve the users interface.
4. Right Pricing Method: Redstrike should deploy the right pricing method such as stadiums where we have VIP and popular side. There should be a free-user and a pro-user interface.
The free users are giving limited access to what they can do or watch with the App; while they are regularly and kindly persuaded to take up a pro-user subscription.
With these in place, there will be more users and growing subscription.
