(Let's Go Wild!)

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Player highlights and game-day energy sell season tickets. That's not wrong – it works. But what if there's a whole segment of potential buyers who aren't motivated by the game itself?

The Minnesota Wild professional hockey franchise used the Hive Platform to find them.

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The Challenge

The Wild had strong renewal rates among existing season ticket members. The fans who loved the game were staying. But acquiring new members – especially younger ones – had plateaued.

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The traditional approach was working for the people it was designed to reach. The question was: Who else is out there, and what would motivate them to join?

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Season ticket sales are cyclical, with most activity concentrated in the off-season. They needed answers fast.

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Step 1: Understanding the Psychology

Using the Hive Platform, the Wild revenue marketing team cast a wide net across their media market. They had hypotheses going in – maybe high-income, high-octane personality types who'd respond to more of what was already working. The Hive data revealed something more interesting: a segment of potential buyers with a completely different motivation.

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Some psychological drivers of purchase were familiar:

• These buyers are socially energized, extraverted and seek out group experiences.
• They have a gain-orientation; they prioritize opportunities for upside even when some risk is involved.
• More than others, they see the world as exciting & full of opportunity.

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But some hidden drivers pointed to an untapped angle:

• These purchases & experiences communicate identity to others - a season ticket membership isn’t just access - it’s a statement about who they are, to be seen by those around them.
• New potential buyers see the purchase as a way to move closer towards the person they’re trying to become in life.
• They’re not always driven by love for the sport itself, but as a means to other ends - networking, social positioning, relationship building. The game is the vehicle, not the destination.

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The picture that emerged revealed an expansion opportunity: there's a segment of potential members who aren't primarily buying hockey. They're buying membership – and everything that membership signals to their network.

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Step 2: Applying the Insights

The existing creative – player highlights, stadium atmosphere, game excitement – continued to resonate with fans motivated by the sport itself.

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But now the creative team had a new angle to reach a different segment: marketing focused on the member – who they could become with a membership, how their network would perceive them, what doors would open.

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This wasn't about replacing what worked. It was about expanding the reasons to believe – adding a new message track for buyers who weren't responding to the traditional approach.

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Think about it: For some fans, the draw is watching a great game. For others, it's being the person who got their friends into a great game that was sold out. Now the franchise can speak to both of these psychological drivers with confidence.

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The Results

The Wild ran a true A/B test of creative performance in paid social campaigns for membership deposits. Budget, impressions, reach were all held constant — the only variable was the creative itself.

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The shift wasn't about better production or a flashier ad. It was about matching creative to the psychological dimensions that actually predict action. The same media budget — but different creative built on different psychology, dramatically different results.

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A/B Results Impact (Meta Campaign):

• Click-through-rate (CTR):  64% Improvement
• Clicks:  65% More Clicks

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Beyond the lift, the MN Wild marketing team also gained a strategic advantage:

• An expanded addressable market: The team identified a segment of potential buyers they weren't reaching with existing creative – and now had a clear strategy to speak to them.
• Net-new creative territory: Within weeks, the team generated concepts that complemented their existing approach. Ideas that speak to aspiration and social positioning, reaching buyers who weren't motivated by game excitement alone.
• A broader strategic toolkit: The team now has multiple angles to deploy across the season – game-focused creative for fans motivated by the sport, membership-focused creative for buyers motivated by status and identity. 

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The Bigger Picture

Great marketing isn't always about finding what's wrong and fixing it. Sometimes it's about finding who else is out there – your hidden Psychological Addressable Market™. 

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The Minnesota Wild didn't abandon what was working. They expanded it – adding a new psychological angle that unlocks a new segment of buyers.

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The game still sells. Now membership does too.

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