St George Illawarra Dragons, the NRL club, use Campaignware to turn social followers into known email contacts and collect richer fan data. Campaigns are typically built in under 30 minutes, and birthday emails sent using Campaignware-collected data achieved a 12x higher click-through rate than standard hospitality emails.
The challenge
For the Dragons, engaging fans means more than likes, clicks or surface-level participation. It means understanding supporters and building long-term relationships. As Head of Marketing & Insights Emily Cheyne puts it, the priority is to “get to know our fans better.” That means two things:
- Growing the club's owned audience by converting social followers into known email contacts
- Collecting richer fan data for meaningful segmentation and personalisation
Both underpin the club's commercial strategy. Email is its most effective channel for merchandise sales, so more contacts and more relevant emails directly support revenue growth.
What they did
The Dragons use Campaignware across several departments for always-on engagement, data-led campaigns and brand-led storytelling. Campaigns are typically built in under 30 minutes and are easy to adapt for different parts of the business, so more departments can take part.
Recurring campaigns such as Moment of the Month, Members Around the World and Most Valuable Pet keep fans involved, often by inviting them to share their own stories, photos and club pride. They also bring the club's values to life online:
- Courage, shown on the field but hard to express digitally
- Connection, between the club and its community
- Passion, rooted in history and handed down through generations
Share Your Favourite Moment asked fans for photos and reflections from the club's last 25 years, from childhood matches to the 2010 grand final.
The Team Picker campaign used Campaignware's Fan Wall template to let fans select and justify their ideal starting line-up. Submissions were reused on social media and on the match-day big screen, tying digital engagement directly into the game-day experience.
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The results
- Birthday emails sent using Campaignware-collected data achieved a 12x higher click-through rate than standard hospitality emails.
- The Team Picker campaign generated hundreds of unique entries and enriched hundreds more, capturing 25 new data records, and produced highly visual fan content.
- Campaignware has helped close the gap between the club's social following and its email database, its highest-performing revenue channel.
- Structured data such as date of birth, location and fan preferences feeds a central data warehouse and marketing automation platform, so the club can segment and personalise its communications.
- Fans who take part in Campaignware campaigns tend to skew younger than the wider database, an insight now shaping content, tone of voice and campaign themes.
Attribution across systems can be complex, but the marketing team sees Campaignware as a key contributor to both its revenue outcomes and its long-term brand strategy.
Used across the club
- Membership: campaigns help upgrade fans to members, for greater connection and revenue.
- Content: fan submissions become user-generated content for the big screen, in-stadium engagement and digital channels.
- Sponsorship: the club is now exploring sponsor campaigns, thanks to the value the extra engagement and data bring.
In their words
“We’re trying to get our fans interacting with us, because I think as a brand we are quite good at just talking to our fans or being very transactional, so it’s just about making it more interactive.”
Emily Cheyne, Head of Marketing & Insights, St George Illawarra Dragons
“If we didn’t have Campaignware, we wouldn’t have a tool to run digital fan engagement like this. It’s given us another arm, outside of just posting on socials, to create meaningful interactions and then continue the conversation by collecting data.”
Emily Cheyne, Head of Marketing & Insights, St George Illawarra Dragons
Key takeaways
- Turn social followers into email contacts: email is the club’s most effective channel for merchandise sales.
- Recurring campaigns built around club values keep fans coming back and sharing their own stories.
- Data collected in campaigns makes emails more relevant: birthday emails got a 12x higher click-through rate than standard hospitality emails.
Try it for your club
Start with a monthly fan vote or a team selector, ask for one more detail each time, and use it to make every email more relevant. Explore the rugby league fan team selector template, or see more fan engagement ideas for clubs and leagues.