Sports Marketers: 3 Ways to Engage Your Fans with New Technology

As a Sports Marketer, one of the biggest concerns you face today is how to keep your fans engaged in an increasingly digital and technological world. As a graduate student at the Northwestern Medill IMC program who has an interest in sports marketing, I have found two articles which address the growing technology trends and how they affect the sports industry.

In the GeekWire article, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver predicts how we’ll watch basketball in 5 years, Taylor Soper explains the way sports are being watched and how that is changing. Nobody sits and just watches a game anymore; whether at home or in-person, people are always looking at their smartphones and other devices. The challenge and opportunity lie in providing opportunities for fans to be looking at content that is relevant to what’s happening in the game. One proposed solution is developing Augmented Reality (AR) applications that will enhance the game experience such as seeing additional information like stats or potential scenarios overlaid on the court or field through a smartphone.

http://www.affinityvr.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/livelike1.png

The VentureBeat article, How Marketers Tap Sports Fans in Connected Stadiums, by Chris Nguyen details the importance of connectivity in stadiums and how that impacts the fan experience. It’s crucial for stadiums to have great WiFi and large data capabilities because fans expect to have access to real-time content such as player and game stats and video highlights when they are at the game. Fans also want access to exclusive, contextually relevant, experiences such as instant replays from angles not shown on the jumbotron that allows them to feel even more connected to the game. Teams and brands need to focus on creating experiences for fans that enrich the game through the devices and technology they prefer to use.

Based on my review of these two articles and relevant studies I have done at Northwestern University, I have developed 3 action items to consider.

• Make Streaming Happen - The way that fans watch sports and engage with teams is changing; use live video to build a strong and intimate experience with your fans.

• Invest in Augmented Reality - With shrinking attention spans, embrace new technology and find ways to truly augment your fans' experience at the game.

• Share the Experience - Give your fans what they want by using Virtual Reality and 360 video to put themselves in the athletes' shoes, review a play from any angle, and more. 

The next time you are thinking about how to take advantage of new technology, remember these action items to enhance your fans’ experience.

Katie Amys is currently a graduate student at Northwestern University pursuing a Master's degree in Integrated Marketing Communications, specializing in Content Marketing and Brand Strategy. With over three years of experience in marketing and sales in a variety of industries, I hope to pursue a career in sports marketing upon graduating in August 2017. Please feel free to contact me on Twitter or LinkedIn. 

Using Augmented Reality to Sell Time

From my recent course as a student in Medill’s IMC department, I was exposed to the practical executions of the world of augmented reality. With an appreciation for innovations, being one amongst many reasons I chose to be a marketing – I’d wish to share this unique and innovative execution by Titan, an Indian watch manufacturing company.

Titan recently launched HTSE (Hi-Tech Self Energized) watches that run on light. To take the users close to the product experience, their local agency Maxus Digital conceived a first of its kind concept in the world: The World’s First Mobile Application Powered by LIGHT.

Users have to power the mobile app by pointing their phone’s camera to a light source such as the sun, a light, light bulb, or computer display, etc. An augmented realty feature was provided so that the users can virtually place the products in the HTSE collection of their choice on their wrist, capture the picture and share the same on their social networks!

You can have a look at the app in the video below:

Users can also check out the nearest store where they can find a HTSE watch through a GPS based store locator in the app. I think this is an unimaginable innovation taking product engagement to the next level and beautifully integrating augmented reality to create a UNIQUE experience for the customer. Augmented reality seems to have a great potential that can be harnessed for other marketing innovations in the near future.

Akshit Arora

M.S. Integrated Marketing Communications

@akshitaroraimc

Augmented Reality - a New Opportunity for Marketers

As a marketer, augmented reality[link]  – AR, is a trend we need to follow. While it is still an emerging technology, many major companies or retailers are executing successful AR campaigns that deliver catchy 3-Dimension graphics and even ROI by connecting to people's social networks and providing clear incentives to purchase.

In simple terms, AR is a visual layer of information that has the ability to give individual objects in the real world metadata or tagged properties. This means that anything from a table to a baseball card can have images, information, or even interaction built into it by simply viewing it through a camera, smartphone, or some other type of device. As this technology is gaining momentum on the digital marketing world, we can have a glance from the 3 successful examples below to see how it is used in the consumer sector for marketing, social engagement, amusement or location based information:

1. Dentsu Inc. iButterfly Campaign

photo source via asiajin.com    

iButterfly[link] is a mobile couponing platform created by Dentsu Inc.[link], Japan's largest advertising agency, providing customers “butterfly” shaped augmented reality coupon given their GPS information. On the mobile application, user can look through the mobile app to the town and find butterfly. These images are layered on top of the physical environment so the butterflies look like they are flying around the user. By shaking phone like using butterfly net, user catches the virtual butterfly carries coupons and contents related to the location. The mobile app also provides customer with the experience of collecting butterfly of different patterns and to exchange with friends. (watch iButterfly video below)

2. Burger King’s $1 Menu Ad Campaign

photo source via atttaackr.com    

Crispin Porter + Bogusky[link] adgency created an online augmented reality banner in 2009 promoting Burger King’s $1 value menu. The application brings the novelty of the experience, especially since this was one of the first augmented reality ads to hit the web. In the campaign, viewers can easily hold up a $1 note to their web cam and then a range of sandwiches appears to replace the note. In addition, users can superimpose the Burger King character's face on to theirs.[Try here yourself]

3. Lego Digital Box Kiosk

photo source by Antje Verena    

Lego also brings augmented reality into stores by teaming up with 3D animation company Metaio[link], which devise the system Lego Digital Box. The Lego Digital Box[link] is an augmented reality kiosk that can show customers what the Lego set will look like when it’s fully built. When bringing the unbuilt Lego set in front of the Digital Box, it shows customers holding a 3D model of the finished set. The difference with the picture on the Lego set is that customers can also look at every angle and detail of the assembled bricks without taking them out of the box.

Augmented reality should not be considered a just gimmick but the future. It has the ability to play with the technology helps consumers foster a deeper emotional connection to a product or brand, or even to create moments with consumers and brand.

Alice Ya-Ching Lee (@aliceyclee), Graduate Northwestern IMC