The problem with game-day segmentation (and how we’re fixing it) 

During my years leading business analytics and ticketing operations at the Portland Trail Blazers, I watched our marketing team face the same frustrating reality every game day. 

They needed to run pre-game ticket campaigns, day-of engagement, post-game follow-ups—campaigns that followed the same logic every single game. The campaigns drove revenue. But they were a ton of work to execute. 

Fast forward to today. Marketing automation has evolved significantly. Tools now exist to automate routine campaigns and segment delivery—but they’re still built for fixed calendar schedules. “Send every Friday at 5 pm.” “Run this campaign on the first Monday of each month.” That works for retail or B2B. 

It doesn’t work for sports.  

Game-day campaigns need to fire relative to each game—4 hours before Tuesday’s 7 pm tipoff, then 4 hours before Saturday’s 1 pm game, then adapt if game scheduling shifts.   

So, teams still have two choices: spend 5-10 hours per week manually recreating the same segments dozens of times per season or skip proven revenue-driving campaigns entirely because the manual work isn’t sustainable. 

Either way, marketing ops stays stuck in execution mode instead of focusing on strategy, creative development, and optimization. And fans miss timely offers because teams couldn’t scale their best-performing campaigns across every game. 

This is why we built Event-Based Segment Automations. 

What it does 

Event-Based Segment Automations ties directly to your actual game schedule. StellarAlgo ingests your schedule so each automation knows exactly when to fire — configure your pre-game, day-of, or post-game segment once, set your timing — 1 day before each game, or 2 hours after the final buzzer — and the right fans are automatically ready in your marketing destinations, every game, all season. 

You still own campaign creative, messaging, and the final send in your destination platform. We make sure the right audience is ready at the right time. 

How is this different from Segment Automations? 

When we launched Segment Automations, we gave teams the ability to automate routine fan engagement on fixed schedules. Now we’re adding event-based triggers that tie directly to your dynamic game schedule. 

Instead of setting up separate automations for each game or manually pushing segments, configure it once and it fires automatically relative to each game on your schedule. 

Your pre-game ticket campaigns hit fans at the optimal moment—4 hours before each game, whether that’s Tuesday at 7 pm or Saturday at 1 pm. Your post-game nurturing reaches first-time attendees 2 hours after every final buzzer. Campaigns that follow the same logic every game but need different timing can now run automatically across your entire season. 

How teams can use it

Event-Based Segment Automations work for any recurring game-day campaign where the segment logic stays the same but the timing needs to flex with your schedule. Here’s how teams are already putting it to work:

• Smarter pre-game timing. Know Before You Go campaigns are most effective when they reach fans relative to game time — not on a fixed daily schedule. Teams like True North Sports & Entertainment are timing KBYG sends relative to puck drop, ensuring fans get the right message whether the game falls on a Tuesday night or a Sunday afternoon.
• Eliminating post-game manual pulls. First Known Attendees is one of the highest-value segments in sports marketing — and one of the most time-consuming to pull manually after every game. The Milwaukee Bucks reduced from 3 custom segments per event to 1 segment running automatically all season. No manual list pulls, no uploads, no sends.
• Running campaigns you’ve been putting off. True North saved 80+ hours across their two-team calendar in a single season. That’s time reinvested into campaigns that actually require a human — creative, strategy, and new fan engagement opportunities that don’t run on autopilot.
• Scaling across a multi-team or busy calendar. If you’re managing multiple teams or a packed home schedule, the manual work compounds fast. Event-based automations set up once and scale across every game on your calendar automatically.

“When the Stellar platform automatically sends targeted lists to activation channels, we unlock personalized customer service campaigns that help drive revenue. Adding end-to-end automations has made a significant impact on our ability to work ahead and save time.” – Ben Conrad, VP Digital Marketing & Activation, Milwaukee Bucks

How it works

Step 1: StellarAlgo ingests your game schedule

StellarAlgo ingests your schedule so each automation knows exactly when to fire — whether that’s 1 day before each game or 2 hours after the final buzzer, for every game, all season.

Step 2: You configure your segment and trigger

Build your segment criteria in StellarAlgo (just like you normally would) — or start from a proven Play like Know Before You Go or First Known Attendees. Then set your event-based trigger: “4 hours before game time,” “day-of at 10 am,” “2 hours after the final buzzer” — whatever timing makes sense for your campaign.

Step 3: You choose where it goes

Select your destination: Meta, Mailchimp, HubSpot, Marketo, or any marketing platform you’ve connected to StellarAlgo.

Step 4: StellarAlgo handles the rest

The system automatically generates and pushes that segment to your chosen destination for every game on your schedule.

You still build the campaign creative, messaging, and final send in your platform. We make sure the right audience is ready at the right time.

Step 5: Monitor and control

Monitor success rates of different campaigns and destinations in audit logs. Need to pause a specific trigger or override for one game? You can do that without breaking the entire automation.

Step 6: Optimize based on results

Track how your automated campaigns are performing across games. See which segments and timing are driving the best results so you can refine your approach for the rest of the season.

What this unlocks

Event-Based Segment Automations fundamentally changes how sports marketing teams operate during the season.

Instead of spending hours each week manually preparing audience segments, marketing ops can focus on testing creative, optimizing campaigns, and identifying new fan engagement opportunities. The repetitive work that used to consume 5-10 hours per week now happens automatically in the background.

For teams that have been skipping campaigns entirely due to bandwidth constraints, this opens up new revenue opportunities. That post-game nurture campaign you wanted to run but couldn’t justify the manual effort? The day-of engagement you knew would work but didn’t have the resources to execute every single game? Those campaigns can now run all season.

Early results tell a clear story. Major league teams are saving approximately 140 hours per segment automation — minor league teams up to 230 hours — while generating an average of $45k and $15k in incremental revenue per automation respectively.

And for executives looking to scale fan engagement without adding headcount, Event-Based Segment Automations delivers measurable ROI. Your existing team can run more campaigns, reach more fans, and drive more revenue—without burning out in the process.

How to get started

Event-Based Segment Automations is available now at no additional cost for all StellarAlgo customers.

If you’re already running Segment Automations, you’ll find Event-Based as a new option when you create an automation. If you’re new to automations entirely, this is a great place to start—especially if you’re in the thick of your season and need to get game-day campaigns running quickly.

Your Customer Success Manager can walk you through setup, or explore our help resources — webinars, how-to guides, and community courses — to get started on your own.

Looking forward to seeing the impact this has for your team.

—Vince

More fans. Better engagement.

Talk with us