Patriots, Krafts spin out data team as standalone business
The Krafts have found another way to make money off the New England Patriots. This time, it involves selling the team’s secret sauce to other organizations.
The Kraft Group — which owns the Patriots and the New England Revolution, as well as Gillette Stadium and its surrounding commercial real estate empire at Patriot Place — feels so good about its ability to understand its customers that its spinning an internal marketing analytics team into a startup, to sell its software to other organizations.
Kraft Analytics Group, or KAGR, launched as a standalone company this week with a team of 18. Jessica Gelman, its CEO, has worked for the Krafts for 14 years, formerly as the head of customer marketing and strategy.
Fueled by other organizations calling for advice, the Krafts have long wanted to turn the department outward and have been planning to do so for several months, she said. KAGR will sell software to sports and live entertainment organizations, and Gelman said the college market looks like “there’s a lot of room for this type of technology.”
Gelman said sports and entertainment groups are aware of the importance of data analysis, but many struggle to simplify the process.
“I think there’s a lot of organizations that are figuring out what they need to do, and doing it in varying degrees of success,” she said. “The process of data management and data integration is incredibly challenging.”
KAGR’s technology is designed to help customers manage data across their organizations, forecast future performance, and provide visualizations to better understand customers and their choices, she said.
Gelman offered a couple of examples of the types of insights her team has gathered for the Patriots.
An early one applied to season ticket holders. The team found that fans who missed four or more games were far less likely to renew their season tickets. Acting on that information, the Patriots tested out new ways to reach out to fans who had missed three games, leading to higher retention rates, she said.
More recently, the team was able to recognize fan interest in the Patriots’ “Do Your Job” tagline, leading to the heavy marketing of the phrase, she said.
Patriots spokesman Stacey James said the Kraft Group will become a KAGR customer, meaning Gelman and her team will still work with the Patriots, the Revolution, and Gillette Stadium.
Peter Giorgio, who leads the sports consulting practice at Deloitte, said that the Patriots’ ability to turn an internal department outward speaks to the increasing amount of business savvy in pro sports.
“Usually you see that kind of capability coming from outside of sports rather than from within sports,” he said.
Gelman said the Krafts are “always looking for ways” to branch out with their sports offerings.
“In my experience working with them, they’ve always treated the sports properties as a business,” she said.
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