Luleå Hockey takes control of its data-driven marketing

How our partnership with Luleå Hockey works

In late January 2026, Emil Cederlund and Kaveh Sarvari met over lunch in Malmö. Talking with Emil, who is Marketing Communications Officer at Luleå Hockey, it quickly became clear that this wasn't going to be a conversation about why data matters. Luleå Hockey had figured that out long ago.

Emil described an organization that does a great deal right and creates significant value for the club, its partners and its fans. It emerged that the club had reached a point where its home-grown solutions were holding it back from taking the next step. To get the club's data to connect, he had built a local CRM on his own initiative, a solution that depended entirely on his own time and ability to keep it up to date. Together with Robert Hedlund, the club's Head of Communications, he had driven an admirable effort that, with better conditions, could have given Luleå Hockey far more in return than it did.

"We knew what we wanted to do. I'd pieced together our own solutions to get the data to connect, and it worked as long as I had the energy to keep it going manually. In the end it wasn't about working harder. We needed new solutions to get to the next level." - Emil Cederlund, Marketing Communications Officer, Luleå Hockey

Kicking off the development process

At the start of the engagement, we sat down together, Robert and Emil from the club and Kaveh Sarvari and Johan Sonesson from Stratigo, and mapped out Luleå Hockey's system landscape and data flows while talking through the club's day-to-day work. The picture that emerged was a familiar one. Information about one and the same fan sat in different silos, spread across a range of systems that each did exactly what they were built for, but together made data-driven work and business growth harder.

Some pieces were in place. Elsewhere, a scenario we know well was playing out: export from one system, import into the next, a manual check to make sure nothing fell through the cracks, then the same thing again the following week. Time that should have gone into developing the business went into moving data between systems instead.

Once the current state was visualized, the club's day-to-day made sense in a whole new way.

So what Luleå Hockey lacked was neither expertise nor will. Quite the opposite. What the club lacked was an architecture under its own control, and tools capable of matching its high ambitions and expertise. The decision was to review the most business-critical system right away so as not to lose any more time: a new marketing automation platform.

The marketing automation tool is what makes data usable day to day. It's where segments are built, where automated customer journeys are activated and where communication to fans actually goes out. Without an advanced tool that makes complex tasks simple and efficient, it matters little how much data a club collects.

Needs and ambition should drive the decision

The club already had concrete vendor proposals on the table when we came in, and that's nothing that sets Luleå Hockey apart from our other clients. We've said it before: clubs, leagues and federations are constantly courted by system vendors with solutions that promise to fix most of what isn't working. The result is that the decision is, in practice, made on the vendor's terms, rather than the buyer (the club) taking the driver's seat and controlling its own development.

Our job is to reverse that order. Before anything went out to the market, we wanted to know what Luleå Hockey actually needed, expressed in the club's own words and prioritized according to its own ambitions. We did that work together with Robert and Emil over a few intensive weeks. We asked the questions and contributed method, structure and experience from similar processes, while the answers and priorities came from the club. The club contributed its time while we led the process, so that Robert and Emil could still keep on top of their day jobs. The result was a set of requirements describing Luleå Hockey's real needs, rather than a generic specification that would fit most organizations.

Having the club involved throughout made a big difference to the quality. In our experience, the people who have wrestled with the export files and built the workarounds know exactly where the pain points are.

The shift the club made is a business shift rather than a technical one. When the requirements are defined before the market is approached, it's the club's needs that steer the conversation rather than the vendor's sales arguments, and only then does a meaningful evaluation become possible.

Some twenty vendors and nine demo sessions

With the requirements in place, we invited around twenty vendors across widely different categories, from sports-focused specialists to broad international platforms with extensive experience from comparable organizations. We fronted the process towards the market and ran the entire dialogue, making sure every vendor was given the same conditions throughout.

From that longlist, we selected nine vendors and invited them to demo sessions together with Luleå Hockey. They were deliberately spread across different types of solutions and price points.

Because Robert and Emil got to see both pure activation platforms and solutions with a built-in customer database, while also seeing what the different pricing models actually mean over several years, the comparison was fair and the decision well-founded.

"What gave us the most was seeing nine different solutions instead of one. We understood what actually sets the platforms apart and what the price tags really cover. As well as knowing what we chose, we also knew what we were ruling out. We'd never have gained that insight from individual sales meetings." - Emil Cederlund, Marketing Communications Officer, Luleå Hockey

We recommend, Luleå Hockey decides

The division of roles has been the same throughout the process. We have weighed up the options, scrutinized the vendors, asked the uncomfortable questions that rarely make it into a sales presentation and delivered a clear recommendation with our reasoning, while Luleå Hockey has made the decisions.

We sit on the same side of the table as the club throughout. When we recommend something, it's because we believe it's right for Luleå Hockey, not because we profit from it. We have no agreements with vendors and act entirely in the client's best interest.

"As a club, we've been in the driver's seat the whole way. Stratigo has run the process for us, prepared the material, asked the questions and given a clear recommendation, but the decisions have been ours. That means we can stand behind them internally." - Robert Hedlund, Head of Communications, Luleå Hockey

The crucial work starts now

Choosing a vendor isn't the end of this process. It's a prerequisite for the development that lies ahead for Luleå Hockey. In our experience, this is where a common pitfall in the industry lies. All too often a tool is bought, delivered as per the contract and then never properly activated, because the data architecture isn't in place, the integrations are left half-finished and the customer journeys shown in the sales presentation never get built.

That's why the partnership continues into implementation, where we act as project manager. A project like this involves several stakeholders who need to pull in the same direction, from the club's own key people and the platform vendor to the various services that generate data. Our job is to keep them aligned, drive the delivery plan forward, quality-assure the migration of customer data and consents, and make sure the tool is used effectively from day one.

Then comes the phase that determines whether the investment pays off: activation. Together with the club, we'll build the first priority automated flows and train the marketing, communications and sales teams. After that, we track the results on an ongoing basis. The goal isn't just for Luleå Hockey to have moved to a better tool, but for the club to actually use the opportunities the tool opens up. One example is cross-selling across tickets, memberships, merchandise and other products, which becomes not only easier but also something that can be automated. With this shift, the club enables efficient, well-targeted communication that runs all year round rather than mainly around matchdays.

"A new tool isn't a solution in itself. What matters is whether we use it the right way, and that's why we want Stratigo with us through implementation and activation as well." - Robert Hedlund, Head of Communications, Luleå Hockey

What other clubs can take away

Luleå Hockey is far from alone in its situation, but the club is unusual in one way that's worth highlighting. Emil and Robert recognized for themselves that they had hit the ceiling of what was possible with their existing tools, and chose to act before another year was lost.

What sets this process apart from many others is the order we've described. The decision now rests on a foundation that will stand up to scrutiny from both the leadership team and the board. And the work doesn't stop at the signature. It continues all the way until the flows are live and delivering.

The club deserves the credit for all of this. We've contributed method, structure and a few uncomfortable questions along the way, but it's Robert and Emil who have done the work and who will take the development forward. Now begins the part of the journey where the work really shows, both in day-to-day life at the office and in the communication fans receive.

About the partnership

In 2026, Stratigo Sports Business led Luleå Hockey's RFP process for a new marketing automation platform, from needs definition and market analysis to vendor evaluation, negotiation and decision material. The partnership continues with implementation, activation and ongoing optimization.