How Emma Partners with the Nashville Predators to Drive Fan Engagement and Fill Bridgestone Arena

Project Snapshot

• The Nashville Predators and Bridgestone Arena needed a dedicated email marketing platform to replace a limited ticketing-based system that lacked the functionality and flexibility required for high-volume, personalized fan communications.
• The organization required robust segmentation to serve 12 distinct audience groups, rapid campaign deployment for a fast-moving events calendar, and meaningful performance metrics that their previous system simply didn’t provide.
• Emma implemented a full email marketing solution with advanced audience segmentation, an intuitive drag-and-drop editor, embedded video capabilities, and real-time engagement analytics.
• Emma’s Nashville-based customer success team provided proactive, hands-on support, including early warnings about industry-wide deliverability changes that left some NHL counterparts scrambling while the Predators were fully prepared.
• The Predators now maintain season ticket holder open rates of 50-70% and click-to-open rates of 15-20%, dramatically outperforming the 2.5% industry average, with the agility to build and send campaigns in minutes.

The Problem: High-Volume Email Marketing on the Wrong Platform

Before Emma, the Predators’ email marketing was handled through Ticketmaster’s Archtics database, the admin tool for their ticketing system. Archtics included an email function, but it was a secondary feature of a ticketing platform, not a purpose-built marketing solution. The functionality was poor, and the flexibility was worse. The key limitations holding the organization back were:

• Lack of segmentation: Creating a targeted list from scratch meant exporting audience data from the ticketing database into Excel, and manually removing recipients who shouldn’t receive an email or marketing communication. For an organization like the Nashville Predators that manages thousands of campaigns per year, that process was unscalable.
• Limited design capabilities: The creative team for the Predators was creating quality graphics, but the Archtics email tool couldn’t support them, limiting them to flat, basic communications.
• Lack of performance data: Click-through, open, and bounce rates just weren’t available to those that needed them. Lacking visibility into what was working and what wasn’t left the Predators without a way to optimize their campaigns or verify to what degree email was supporting their business.

The organization recognized it needed a dedicated email marketing partner, one with more sophistication, more focus, and more flexibility than a ticketing system’s side feature could offer.

The Solution: The Right Platform for Advanced Audience Segmentation and Scalable Email Marketing

When the Predators began evaluating specialized platforms, Emma had an advantage no national competitor could match: a headquarters two miles down the road in Nashville. That local presence meant face-to-face strategy sessions, a team that understood the market, and the foundation for a partnership that has now lasted more than ten years.

Advanced Audience Segmentation Across Multiple Subscriber Groups

Emma’s audience segmentation tools replaced the old export-and-scrub workflow entirely. The Predators now manage 12 distinct subaccount audience groups and can build targeted segments directly within Emma’s platform, allowing them to:

• Filter by behavior, purchase history, clicks, opens, and ticket type
• Remove or suppress duplicate recipients across multiple, simultaneous campaigns
• Send mass-market emails to 600,000+ subscribers while ensuring no fan receives two marketing emails on the same day, avoiding email fatigue

Fast Campaign Deployment For a 2,300+ Send Calendar

The sports and entertainment calendar doesn’t wait. Events get added on short notice, ticket blocks open up unexpectedly, and the team regularly needs to go from concept to inbox in minutes, not days. Emma’s Editor tool makes that possible, with: 

• An intuitive interface that lets the marketing team build email campaigns without waiting on developers or designers
• The ability to build, review, and deploy campaigns in minutes or hours, not days or weeks
• Over 2,300 email campaigns in 2025 for the Predators, including season ticket renewals single-game promotions, pre-event logistics emails, concert presales, weekly newsletters, and new season ticket sales promotions

After the NHL lifted long-standing restrictions on game footage, the Predators launched their 2025-26 Theme Night Announcement with an embedded video featuring country music stars who are Preds fans and iconic Nashville locations. The campaign reached nearly 718,000 subscribers, achieved a 45% open rate with a 3% click-to-open rate, and generated significant social media engagement, a showcase for what the content team can do when the platform doesn’t hold them back.

Proactive Deliverability Support That Created a Competitive Advantage

When Apple introduced privacy changes that would significantly impact email deliverability across the industry, Emma’s customer success team notified the Predators in advance and helped them prepare. The result: when the changes took effect, the Predators’ deliverability was completely unaffected.

That level of proactive communication is powered by Emma’s Nashville-based customer success team. They don’t just manage the account; they attend games, hold season tickets, and have a personal investment in the Predators’ success that goes beyond a typical vendor relationship.

The Results: Campaign Performance at Scale

“Emma is affordable, can offer the same features that a Marketo or Salesforce does, and provides outstanding customer service. They understand our business, they want to see us succeed, and that personal connection is really, really great.”

–Lindsay Rutledge Director, Consumer Strategy & Communications, Nashville Predators

Emma gave the Predators something the Archtics system never could: data. Open rates, click-through rates, mailing scores, and bounce rates are now available for every campaign. The organization’s business strategy team maintains a dedicated email dashboard that pulls directly from Emma, enabling real-time reporting on campaign performance and ongoing optimization.

Open Rates Up to 18x the Industry Average

Recent mass-market campaigns demonstrate what the program delivers:

Campaign: 2025-26 Schedule Release, July 2025
Audience Size: 661,349
Open Rate: 42%
Click-to-Open Rate: 4%

Campaign: 2025-26 Theme Night Announcement
Audience Size: 717,853
Open Rate: 45%
Click-to-Open Rate: 3%

These sends reach hundreds of thousands of subscribers yet consistently achieve open rates 15-18x the overall industry average of 2.5%. Additionally, precise segmentation keeps opt-out rates low by ensuring fans receive content that aligns with their actual interests. Segmented campaigns to season ticket holders perform even higher, with open rates of 50-70% and click-to-open rates of 15-20%. The result is a program where every email feels like an invitation, not a sales pitch.

A Partnership That Continues to Grow

After more than a decade, the Predators are still expanding their use of Emma, and Emma has loved getting to support one of the most productive franchises in the NHL. Emma delivers comparable features, from advanced segmentation to robust analytics to rich content support, at a price point that makes sense for the organization, paired with a level of customer service that the more expensive alternatives often can’t match.

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