Designed and delivered the CRM and campaign management blueprint for Tennis Australia and the Australian Open, enabling hyper-personalised, data-driven customer engagement across millions of fans, players, and partners.
The Client
Tennis Australia, the governing body of tennis in Australia, runs national programs, grassroots development, and one of the largest sporting events in the world—the Australian Open (AO). They sought to transform how they engage with fans, players, participants, volunteers, and partners across every touchpoint, both digital and physical.
Industry Category
Sports & Entertainment
The Challenge
Despite its global reach and iconic events, Tennis Australia faced disconnected systems, inconsistent customer data, and a fragmented view of its audiences. Each team worked with siloed tools and limited insights, which hampered efforts to deliver timely, relevant, and coordinated engagement at scale.
The challenge was to develop a cohesive CX, CRM, and Campaign Management (CM) ecosystem to:
- Deliver a 360° view of the customer
- Enable real-time, multi-channel marketing
- Improve fan and participant experience
- Consolidate over 160+ platforms and spreadsheets used across departments
- Design an enterprise-ready data and engagement strategy
The Solution
I led the CRM & Campaign Management Target State Blueprint development as part of a major digital transformation program. This included deep discovery, stakeholder engagement, and strategic architecture development. Key contributions included:
🔹 Customer-Centric Insights
- Defined customer segments and delivered 6+ detailed personas
- Mapped full customer journeys across fan, player, volunteer, partner, and participant segments
- Captured data points, pain points, and moments that matter to inform future-state design
🔹 Integrated Technology Blueprint
- Designed a scalable architecture integrating Dynamics 365, Adobe Experience Cloud, and potential CDP/MDM solutions like Microsoft Customer Insights
- Delivered a unified, cloud-first CRM vision across sales, service, marketing, and event operations
- Mapped system dependencies, recommended simplification strategies, and prioritised use cases
🔹 Enhanced Marketing & Engagement
- Recommended campaign automation strategies using data segmentation and preference centres
- Defined how to personalise communications across digital touchpoints, including ticketing, mobile, email, apps, and in-venue activations
- Supported the development of a 3-year implementation roadmap including quick wins, foundational builds, and enterprise integration
Technologies & Frameworks
- Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement
- Power Platform (Power Apps, Dataverse, Power Automate)
- Microsoft Customer Insights (CDP)
- Adobe Experience Cloud
- Azure Data Services & Integration
- Persona Mapping, Journey Mapping, MDM/Golden Record Frameworks
The Result
The project laid the foundation for an enterprise-grade CRM system that powers the Australian Open’s record-breaking growth in both audience engagement and operational efficiency.
✅ 15% increase in NPS through personalised journeys
✅ 1.1M+ attendees in 2024, up from 746,000 in 2021
✅ 8.8–8.9 CSAT score vs. 8.5 in previous benchmark
✅ Targeted campaigns improved loyalty, fan experience, and onsite satisfaction
✅ Confirmed as the biggest economic generator in Australian sport
These results confirm the strategic value of designing customer-centred ecosystems that unify data, people, and technology.
In the Media
“Biggest show in Australia”: Australian Open breaks records, heading for a million visitors.
– The Age, Jan 2023
Australian Open confirmed as the biggest economic generator in Aussie sport.
– ausopen.com, June 2024
