AX Connect gives community sport and recreation providers a simple, secure way to connect approved brands with their highly relevant active audiences through digital and social campaigns.
Brands run better-performing campaigns, while sport & recreation providers unlock a new revenue stream that helps support participation and community programs.
AX Connect brings together community sport and recreation providers and approved brands in a secure, controlled network. Providers choose how their audiences are used, brands run more relevant digital campaigns, and a share of the value flows back into community participation.
Community sports gain access to new revenue (funding)
Brands get access to valuable audiences for better advertising
Brand marketing is increasingly data-driven, but community sport has remained fragmented, making it hard for brands to understand, reach and engage active audiences in meaningful ways.
At the same time, sport and recreation providers are not in a position to operate like digital media companies.
AX Connect makes this possible.
As the dedicated retail media network for community sport, AX Connect connects approved brands with millions of active participants in a secure, consent-based way.
It creates a clear digital pathway for brands to inspire, reward and support participation, while helping sport and recreation grow the active market together.
By being more joined up we grow the active market together.
Discover your target audience across sports, recreation, events and destinations.
Connect with highly relevant active audiences
You are 4-6 times more likely to change your consumer behaviour when advertising is linked to your real-world activity and interests.
AX Connect helps brands run more effective digital and social campaigns by connecting them with their highly relevant sport and recreation audiences.
Campaigns are delivered through familiar media channels, with relevance and timing that drive stronger engagement and measurable performance.
AX Connect makes these ‘active audiences’ more discoverable, and enables brands to run sponsored digital campaigns against these segmented target audiences (without the transfer of data to brands).
This means relevant brand partners can better align their paid campaigns across a range of social media platforms with the active ‘moments that matter’ of millions of participants and members.
Connect with sport and recreation audiences based on real-world participation, interests and demographics.
Run campaigns to reach active audiences where they are most engaged.
More timely, contextual messaging leads to higher engagement and clearer campaign outcomes.
AX Connect gives sport and recreation providers a secure, opt-in way to participate in digital media. Providers remain in full control of how audiences are used and which brands can engage, while unlocking a new revenue stream that can be reinvested into participation, programs and facilities.
AX Connect manages the audience activation, campaign delivery and reporting, removing the operational burden and allowing you to benefit without additional workload or complexity.
A percentage of media spend is charged as an audience-use fee, and paid back to the data owners.
This means new revenue is injected back into community sport and recreation, who can then further grow the active market.
The data owner stays in full control of which brands can engage with their audiences at all times.
A share of campaign value flows back to your sport or facility, creating a new revenue stream that can be reinvested to grow participation and reduce barriers to entry.
Member data is an existing asset. ActiveXchange provides an end-to-end media network solution (audience activation, campaign delivery and reporting), requiring no extra resourcing or spending.
Audiences are aggregated and de-identified at all times. No individual-level data is shared, sold or exposed, and data ownership always remains with the sport or provider. You decide if, when and how your audiences are used, and which brands are approved to engage.
Community sport has an incredible proposition. It has the audience and the loyal engagement. But because the datasets are so fragmented, its packaging is a massive barrier to entry for brands.
Andy Thwaite, ActiveXchange’s Head of Commercial & Brand Engagement explores how AX Connect is connecting membership, participation and location data into a single, privacy-safe ecosystem to give brands the reach and relevance they’ve been missing in the community sport sector.
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If you’re looking to leverage data for more informed decision-making or to better connect across your network, please get in touch with our team.
Chris joins ActiveXchange with 15+ years of professional experience in operations, business intelligence, and product-oriented roles. He has delivered tech-based products, digitalisation strategy and leadership in large enterprise (regulated/ government environments) and innovative and entrepreneurial small to medium businesses.
Chris holds a B.Sc – Engineering from Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada and an MBA from the Smith School of Business at Queen’s. Chris is a lifelong athlete, professional coach (alpine skiing & sailing), and volunteer club/ advisory board member.
Alex has 15 years experience across the UK, Europe, Australia and NZ of leading award-winning teams that have successfully re-defined how the sport, leisure and fitness sector uses data and plans investment into community programs and infrastructure.
This is underpinned by the development and application of innovative market and business intelligence platforms that have been used by multiple governments, 100+ sport governing bodies, 3,000+ facilities, and influenced how over 30 million people are active today.
Richard has a senior operations executive background focused on problem solving, building successful teams and promoting healthy culture within organisations. He has worked for a number of global organisations, with hands-on experience opening international offices on the ground and remotely. He played a key role in the growth experienced by Ai-Media, navigating its expansion into global markets and spearheading its journey to an ASX listing.
Being a father of two and having type-1 diabetes, Richard knows how important movement and health are and is excited to bring his skill set and experience to ActiveXchange.
Prior to joining ActiveXchange, Ben was CEO of Active Norfolk for 9 years. Ben’s an innovative and intuitive leader with a successful background in the achievement of organisational transformation, growth and high-performance. He has a deep understanding of public, private and VCSE sector priorities, and the opportunities related to data driven collaboration.
Ben leads the day to day operations at ActiveXchange, while driving success from our key partnerships, which often transcend sectors.
Matthew is a strategic and commercially focused finance executive focused on corporate strategy, developing commercial growth and operational awareness, driving transformation, outsourcing and enhancing internal controls, cash management and financial planning.
He specialises in management information, cash management, business intelligence, change management, financial planning & analysis, strategy, procurement, business development, controls and systems design & implementation.
Charles is a seasoned business leader with extensive experience driving market growth for high-tech software companies on a regional and global scale. He has played a key role in launching data and AI-focused software products, across multiple industries and scaling startups to successful exits. His leadership approach is rooted in strategic vision, resilience, and a dedication to empowering others to succeed.
Charles is a sports enthusiast (with a bias toward rugby!), deeply committed to giving back through mentorship, coaching for youth sports and has raised significant funds for charitable causes through marathon running & community initiatives.
Andy is a commercial executive who has spent two decades in the business of sports technology, working for leading sports marketing agencies (IMG, WPP), media companies (Turner Sports) and rights holders (PBR).
Andy has a track record of bringing digital marketing innovation to sports, including the use of ad-tech to enable sports audience data to be commercialized through sponsorship and advertising.
As an ex-player and now parent and coach, Andy has a deep passion for community sports.
Grant is a Software Engineer with 10+ years of experience building scalable, event-driven systems on Azure and .NET. He leads platform modernization by empowering teams and driving strategic impact, always balancing technical excellence with maintainable, future-ready solutions.
Grant is known for bringing clarity to complexity and fostering engineering practices that scale.
Ries brings to the team the unique background of having a Diploma in Sports and Exercise Technology and 10+ years of experience in both software and database development.
Ries has a passion for both sport and data and hopes to combine the two to help ActiveXchange to improve people’s health and wellbeing.
Josh is a full stack developer bringing experience from multiple industries and technologies to create modern, performant software. He has a keen eye for detail, and is passionate about building applications that are intuitive.
In his spare time he can often be found working on personal software projects to keep his skills sharp, playing guitar, or trying out new board games with friends.
Sara is experienced in analysing data and developing predictive models using a variety of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence techniques. She recently received her master’s degree in construction engineering and management from the University of Alberta.
Sara’s expertise in using Data Visualization to translate data into valuable insights and embedding these into business processes supports a range of ActiveXchange data intelligence partners.
Michael has a strong background in the sport and health sectors, completing his Sports and Exercise Science Degree in the United Kingdom.
Originally on the frontlines for health and leisure operators across the UK and Australia, Michael has over 5 years of experience shaping individuals’ health and wellness and has forged a deep connection in linking people to higher levels of activity. Michael’s passion to provide a flawless customer experience ensures our clients receive the best value from their product.
Sydney joins ActiveXchange with 7+ years of experience working in Aquatics Leadership and Recreation Planning (including for Strathcona County), bringing a wealth of frontline experience to our clients.
Sydney holds a BA in Sociology and Psychology and is an advocate for the importance of universal access to sports, recreation and leisure. Her background as a competitive dancer has instilled in her a passion for physical activity and its transformative powers. Using data driven decision making, Sydney helps clients achieve their goals.
With Stephanie’s data expertise and passion for helping the community become more active, she supports the ActiveXchange team to build strong client relations and undertake data processing and analytical modelling.
Monique has 10 years of marketing & communications experience, with the majority of her career spent in the sports licensing and merchandise industry. She has worked closely with many of the major Australian sporting codes and teams, including the NRL, Football Australia and Cricket Australia, as well as international brands such as ’47 and Nitro Circus.
Monique shares the team’s passion for sport & physical activity, and can usually be found at a netball court in her spare time.
Justine is a strong administrative professional with a Graduate Certificate in Management (Professional Practice) focused in Business Administration and Management, General from Charles Sturt University.
She is an experienced Office Manager, skilled in trust accounting, administration, accounts payable, management and customer service.
With over 20 years experience in the sport and leisure industry, Simon has developed a vast range of expertise. He has frequently demonstrated strategic leadership through an ability to identify opportunities and cases for change.
Over the past 4 years, he has managed a range of project engagements as a strategic consultant. This has included working with local government, state government and state sporting organisations on analysis, strategy and implementation of sport and community infrastructure initiatives.
Alexandra is CEO of YMCA Australia and President of Royal Life Saving Society Australia. She’s also been CEO of Gymnastics Australia and Executive Manager of YMCA Victoria for Recreation. Therefore Alex brings a wealth of c-suite leadership expertise across community sport and recreation.
John is an influential leader across the UK’s recreation and activity sector. He’s currently CEO of Life Leisure (leisure operator in Stockport) and previous COO of Places Leisure, managing over 100 facilities.
He has developed and delivered CIMSPA-endorsed transformational leadership programmes, and is passionate about physical activity, sport and wellbeing.
Mike has an MBA from the University of Alberta specializing in Leisure and Sport Management and has held numerous leadership positions in the recreation and parks sector over the past 20 years.
Mike is a past President of the Alberta Recreation and Parks Association and the Canadian Parks and Recreation Association.
With a software development career spanning nearly three decades, Darryl started his software development path with kitchen design CAD software in C++ in 1996, before moving into embedded systems for ATMs, encryption devices, and large-scale document processing. He later worked on high-reliability, low-latency financial data systems in London, and transitioned into .NET, earning Microsoft certification along the way.
His experience spans SaaS modernisation, mobile development, and cloud migration, recently helping move services to Azure.
With expertise in multi-threaded, embedded systems and mobile apps, he enjoys solving complex problems, and occasionally fixing electronics when he’s not doing that in code. Darryl’s social life included being a DJ and being the singer and keyboard player in a Ska band at the end of the 90s.
Karim joins ActiveXchange with a strong foundation in data analytics, sport performance, and mentorship, bringing a unique blend of technical expertise and frontline sporting experience to clients.
He holds a Master’s in Data Science and a Bachelor’s in Economics and Mathematics, equipping him with advanced data science skills. As a professional basketball player competing at a high level, he has developed a deep understanding of performance, teamwork, and the role data plays in driving improvement.
Passionate about making a meaningful impact, Karim combines analytical thinking with front line real-world experience in teaching, coaching and mentoring. He is a strong advocate for the power of sport to develop individuals and communities, and uses data-driven insights to help organisations make informed, impactful decisions.
