How Dreamy are Dream11’s Basic CRM Practices?

Dream11, a major fantasy sports operator, who is also the main official partner and sponsor of the Indian Premier League cricket, is gearing up to its biggest time of the year – the kickoff of the IPL tournament, later this September.

You can read about the race that brands are on to join as sponsors of this huge event here.

And so, we thought it’s an excellent opportunity to turn our sights to the east, on this week’s 7 Commandments of CRM analysis, and see how well Dream11 is doing against other brands we examined.

And, if you haven’t yet checked out PostFunnel’s weekly CRM tactics analysis, now’s the time to get familiar. Each week, we rate a significant brand’s basic CRM practices according to our version of the 7 CRM commandments that every brand must obey these days.

So, how do you think Dream11 scores? Get ready to find out if their CRM practices are a fantasy just like their games!

1. Be Transparent 9/10

When entering the company’s website and scrolling down to the HP’s bottom, we noticed their “Fantasy Cricket FAQ” section. Questions such as “what is fantasy cricket?”, how to play, what IPL (Indian Premier League) is, and more appeared.

A couple of more scrolls down, we liked the “Fairplay” link on the footer, where Dream11 dedicates an entire webpage to show transparency, authenticity, and brand values.

More specifically, the brand talks about equal opportunity, fixed player credits, deadlines, trust, and responsibility. Getting all this info out in the open to customers with an entire page dedicated to the matter shows the brand cares to be open and honest.

The score isn’t perfect because we had to dig a bit to find it all.

2. Incentives and Perks 6/10

At PostFunnel, we appreciate a brand that offers customers promotions, discounts, or other incentives – just for being a real-money customer. These are CRM basics.

Moreover, when it comes to online gaming – we believe, even more so, that brands should be offering promotional discounts, such as prizes and bonuses for both new and existing players. Welcome packages are widespread in the industry and other essential retention practices for existing VIP, high-value customers, etc.

Right off the bat, we noticed the following banner on Dream11’s HP, which obviously refers to some sort of bonus offer:

Only when creating an account, did we notice this offer under “My Profile” though:

No specific page has been dedicated to bonuses and promotional/seasonal offers that other major gaming platforms we checked do have.

3. Be Relevant 1/10

When rating other brands, we immediately noticed some sort of mentioning of the coronavirus pandemic or other major global issues and how they affected the brand and consequently, the end customer.

Unfortunately, on Dream11’s website we didn’t see any form of communication on any such issue.

Only when creating an account, this banner appeared that reads, “Stay home, stay safe.”

Maybe it’s part of the “escapism” thing sports fans are after, but when visiting Dream11’s site one could think nothing out of the ordinary is going on in the world right now. They don’t even mention the fact this year’s tournament was initially planned to kick off in April, and that it’s going to be entirely played in the United Arab Emirates, instead of India, because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Weird.

4. Be Helpful 3/10

Other than being helpful on their website, with clear instructions on how to play and download the app – we couldn’t find any ways in which the brand has been helpful to the community or society in general, especially RN, at times of need.

Customers appreciate and even expect brands to be showing support – as this creates trust and is something customers will remember in the long run.

It’s also a great way to differentiate your brand from the other sports/gaming platforms in the industry.

We did notice the post below on their Facebook account that talks about the Dream Sports Foundation initiative. In their own words:

“It is helping the Indian sports community rejuvenate itself 🙌

The program is supporting the athletes who are ready to stand up again and chase their goals in every way possible!”

It would be totally appropriate to communicate it on their site, or perhaps offer players a chance to donate as well.

5. Realtime Personalization 1/10

As far as personalization goes, it seems like Dream11 hasn’t yet mastered the technique across their marketing channels. For instance, we weren’t retargeted in realtime when logging off their website, nor were any noticeable cross-sell and up-sell techniques used – even after signing up.

In addition, their website should have recommended the appropriate options to a new player who has just begun their journey with the brand.

More importantly, so should have their other communications.

And it all better be in sync. For that, Dream11 would have to know how to segment players wisely, with a smart and proper CDP – and top that off with an intelligent orchestration engine.

6. Master UX 10/10

Overall, we had an outstanding, smooth experience with the site. Before creating an account and logging into the platform, it was clear what the website offers and it was easy to navigate and complete tasks.

Especially this being the first time we ever logged into play fantasy sports on their website.

Which made this “only for beginners” banner was super helpful and on point:

We also liked this game filter to narrow down our search options and help us find the match we’re looking for faster:

When creating an account, we found the layout of this menu bar super simple to use and appealing to click on.

7. Leverage Social Media 7/10

We checked the brand’s Facebook and Twitter accounts; here’s what we found:

On Facebook, they post in high frequency – content that varies from video posts to upcoming matches. With over 2.35M Likes, the brand obviously brings some fun and engaging content on this channel that gets its followers/users in the competitive spirit.

Here’s an example of the brand pumping its audience for the next match:

On Twitter, the brand posts plenty of Tweets in high frequency, as well.

We noticed the same type of content being posted here – which all in all, it seems to be used as a platform to promote their platform.

However, we did not see them using the platforms to push the brand’s values or leveraging it to promote any other activity besides their product.

**

Overall, Dream11 is getting a 37/70 here (53%), placing them last among the brands we analyzed so far. Perhaps it’s not entirely comparing apples to apples, putting them against top-notch D2C brands. And maybe their audience has slightly different expectations than those of the consumers of an American or a British lifestyle brand. Nevertheless, these 7 commandments of CRM are still true to Dream11. And it looks like there’s some work to be done here on their part.

Here are the full rankings of all the brands we analyzed to date:

1. Lowe’s 90%
2. Petco 90%
3. Target 87%
4. Uniqlo 86%
5. West Elm 81%
6. Best Buy 78%
7. Etsy 76%
8. The Body Shop 74%
9. Gymshark 73%
10. Tommy Hilfiger 70%
11. Walgreens 70%
12. Fiverr 67%
13. Next 63%
14. Patagonia 61%
15. Burberry 60%
16. COS 57%
17. Dream11 53%

We publish a new analysis every week, so watch this space for more brand analyses coming your way!