From Data to Devotion: How New Technology Is Powering the Next Era of Fan Engagement and Decision-Making
NEW YORK, Feb. 7, 2025 -- Elevate, a global, integrated agency network dedicated to helping sports and entertainment properties, brands, and universities forge deeper connections with their audiences, today announced the launch of EPIC (Elevate's Performance and Insights Cloud). This groundbreaking data and AI platform combines consumer insights, ticketing management, and property analytics to transform audience data into actionable intelligence, enabling organizations of all kinds to build meaningful connections with fans.
EPIC goes beyond traditional data platforms by integrating emotional, psychological, and behavioral insights with advanced applications for managing ticket inventory, property data, and consumer behavior. Powered by cutting-edge AWS technology, EPIC brings all these elements together in a dynamic app-store-like ecosystem, providing unmatched capabilities for clients to tap into the minds and hearts of their fans to deliver personalized experiences and maximize ROI.
"EPIC is where data meets devotion," said Jim Caruso, Chief Innovation Officer at Elevate. "Our vision is to empower brands and properties to deeply understand and connect with their audiences by providing real-time, actionable insights and intuitive tools. This is just the beginning of how we're revolutionizing the way businesses build and sustain fandom."
EPIC's ecosystem launches with three core applications:
Consumer Insights: Harnesses diverse data sources—including SambaTV, Audience Acuity, StatSocial, and more—to provide a comprehensive view of audience behaviors, interests, and emotional drivers. Businesses can create granular audience profiles, ask targeted questions, and even simulate conversations with fans to refine engagement strategies.
Ticketing Management: Streamlines the ticketing process by centralizing inventory, automating dynamic pricing, and integrating with primary and secondary market platforms. Clients can access real-time analytics to optimize ticket sales and pricing strategies, maximizing revenue while improving the fan experience.
Property Insights: Delivers actionable data on sponsorship performance, ticket pricing, and venue operations. Properties can benchmark against peers and uncover opportunities to monetize more effectively, all from a centralized hub.
At the heart of EPIC's transformative power is its sophisticated AI engine, designed to address two key challenges in sports and entertainment: the overwhelming volume of fan and venue data and the complexity of making that data actionable in real time.
How AI Powers the Platform
EPIC's AI is a custom-trained large language model (LLM). Unlike general-purpose LLMs, this model is specifically trained on the most comprehensive sports and entertainment dataset available, incorporating fan, venue, brand, and property data from over 1,000 global partners and multiple third-party sources. This specialization enables the platform to address highly specific queries such as:
- "What's the optimal price for upper-level end zone seats?"
- "What have been the most successful fan engagement campaigns for mobile users in the past year?"
By creating connections between datasets that are traditionally siloed—such as ticket sales trends and venue fan behaviors—the AI uncovers patterns, predicts outcomes, and enables teams to act in ways that were previously unimaginable. Key use cases include:
- Ticketing Optimization: Predicting ticket demand using variables like historical prices, sales data, weather, and team performance to enable real-time price adjustments that maximize profitability.
- Fan Engagement Insights: Correlating fan engagement data with behaviors outside the stadium, such as digital content consumption or TV viewership, to refine marketing strategies and enhance loyalty.
EPIC's AI-powered interface is designed for ease of use, as well, enabling teams, venues, and brands to interact with data in natural language. This "data assistant" approach replaces traditional dashboards with a Google Search-like experience tailored to specific needs. Teams can ask questions such as:
- "What's the best way to engage season ticket holders this month?"
- "Which fan segments are most likely to churn based on last season's attendance?"
- "What are the top 5 beer brands that fans aged 25-35 engage with?"
This intuitive interaction makes data accessible for non-technical users like marketing executives or venue managers, delivering instant insights and recommendations without requiring a data science background.
"EPIC isn't just about understanding who fans are; it's about uncovering why they're engaged and predicting what will keep them coming back," added Caruso. "By integrating emotional and psychological data, the platform empowers teams to make smarter, faster decisions that drive revenue and deepen connections."
"Elevate is an established leader in sports and entertainment, helping clients connect with fans on and off the field," said Al Guido, Chairman and CEO of Elevate. "With the launch of EPIC, we're proving that our combination of brain and brawn—where the science of data meets the art of fandom—is best in class across all industries. This platform solidifies our evolution into a technology powerhouse that helps brands and properties build meaningful, data-driven connections with their audiences."
EPIC's outputs have been leveraged by more than 25 clients, with plans to expand its suite of applications and capabilities in the future. Whether clients are exploring fan motivations, managing ticket sales, or analyzing property performance, EPIC offers the tools to unlock deeper engagement and lasting connections.
ABOUT ELEVATE
Elevate is a global, integrated agency network committed to helping properties, brands, and universities forge deeper connections with their audiences to unlock growth. Serving more than 1,000 clients across sports, entertainment, consumer products, retail, and more, Elevate transforms followers into devoted fans.
An agency rooted in innovation, Elevate leverages EPIC, its proprietary intelligence platform powered by advanced data and AI technology. EPIC integrates tools for consumer insights, ticketing, property analytics, and more, empowering clients to maximize ROI, enhance fan engagement, and craft campaigns that foster lasting loyalty.
Founded in 2018, Elevate partners with clients worldwide from offices across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. For more information, visit us at www.oneelevate.com.
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