SPORTS ASSOCIATIONS JOIN FORCES IN THE CLOSE APP

Get a behind-the-scenes look at the Dutch national team. No hassle with printing tickets. At a glance you can see where to park your car. Get specific tips about other events. Until recently, you almost always received this kind of information by email after buying a ticket for an event. Close came up with a more efficient and effective way to inform visitors and to enthuse them on several fronts. As the brand new winner of the Sportinnovator challenge Topsportevents, Close now wants to take a new step.

Continuous stimulus

Close was created five years ago. Co-founder Kiliaan Toorenaar: 'I was an avid visitor of events. I found the long e-mails or PDFs with visitor information too cumbersome to read properly. At the same time, I saw how KLM let passengers download an app in which you could find everything about your flight. That inspired me to also develop something similar for events.'

The idea of the app is simple. You buy a ticket at an online ticket shop. You will then receive a link to the Close app. In the app you will find everything about the event you are visiting: from ticket and route description to seat. 'In addition, the organizer can create contact moments with the visitor', Toorenaar explains. ‘By frequently sending a message, he is always stimulated to look at the app again. Think of a video of national coach Louis van Gaal or images of a training session, but also a reminder to buy a parking ticket or to bring your ID.'

Growth spurt

Close is growing rapidly. Even in recent years, when there were hardly any events due to Covid, Toorenaar's company and his partners set foot on the ground of the industry. ‘We participated in Field lab events. Visitors were required to download the app. Almost 100 percent did. It was proof to us that the idea works. Even those who did not buy the tickets themselves, but who received an invitation to the app through friends, used the app in large numbers. And where you can be happy with ten percent that respond when sending an e-mail with, for example, a questionnaire, with Close we achieve a percentage of forty to sixty percent.'

The Close app sends you relevant push notifications.

Close now works for sports associations such as the Wandel- and Rugbybond, but also in the musical and theater industry and at festivals. If it is up to Toorenaar, winning the Topsportevents challenge will add something to that. Close is an app that allows you to provide a visitor with the ultimate customer journey. The videos and notifications you receive via the app give you the feeling that you are close to the fire. The next step is that we encourage visitors to a certain event to go to another event. Not only to the World Cup hockey, but perhaps also to the European Championship rugby, for example. Moreover, we hope to inspire people to start exercising themselves.'

Time, love and attention

Close has now been introduced to NOC*NSF and a large number of sports associations via Sportinnovator. Toorenaar: 'It is expressly our wish to reach the smaller sports associations in addition to the large sports associations. We think it is precisely they who can benefit from collaboration via the app. Joining forces: that is what we want to achieve. They are not fragmented as individual organizations, but want to strengthen each other by referring to each other's events. That takes time, love and attention, but if the sports associations get the hang of it, it will fly. I'm convinced of that.'

Behind the scenes, Close is now working on making the desired functionalities technically possible. ‘We also try to make the sports associations familiar with Close. In the end, they have the most knowledge and expertise about their sport and target group. They therefore know best what content is needed. We hope to give them a boost with the examples of other sports associations, but of course every sport is unique.

Familiarity with Close is also growing in parasport. Toorenaar: 'We are working towards EPC 2023, a bundling of European Championships in parasport. Visitors make use of Close there. Furthermore, we are already looking beyond national borders to introduce our app abroad as well. Our ultimate goal is to use the power of collaboration through Close worldwide. By winning the Sportinnovator challenge, we are one step closer.'

More information

For more information on Close, contact us