Stadiums and their sponsors will soon be connecting with fans and their smartphones like never before.
Story: Christopher Holder
The race is on. Every big stadium in Australia knows its future lies in being ‘connected’. Live sport is competing with lounge room big screens (with its cheap beer, no toilet queues, all-you-can-eat Cheezels and home wi-fi for double-screening) and/or the pub (with the slightly cheaper full-strength beer, comfy chairs and smokers’ terrace).
Of course, live sport at its best has unbeatable atmosphere, but poor 3G access and no wi-fi has really hampered spectators’ desire to share the event with their friends via social media and/or to use their smartphone to punt on the result.
Big stadiums are getting left behind. But they’re fighting back. In fact, they’re frantically gearing up to be fully ‘connected’ for the 2015 Winter football seasons. Practically, this means running hundreds of kilometres of ‘blue string’ Cat5/6 cable, installing hundreds of wi-fi access points, and hundreds, nay, thousands of digital signage displays. But that’s just the nuts and bolts. The 2015 punters’ experience is going to be far, far more than free wi-fi and some wayfinding signage.
HAPPY, ENGAGED, SOCIAL
Allow me to introduce you to Ed Abbott, CEO of OAMM. Five years ago OAMM was largely responsible for bringing us LED sideline/perimeter signage in stadiums. Now it’s at the forefront of bringing ‘connected stadiums’ to Australia. OAMM mantra is ‘connect, engage, deliver’ and has currently found itself in the eye of a perfectly connected storm, in talks and/or contracted with many of the major Australia stadiums. Throughout, Ed maintains that it’s ‘all about the fan’.
And even the most hardened cynic would have to agree and here’s why: Advertising revenue may well be driving much of the digital infrastructure spending, but ultimately it exists to keep fans happy. Happy fan; happy sponsor. Actually: happy, engaged, social fan; delighted, shut-up-and-take-my-money sponsor.
If 2014 was a proof of concept year for stadium, the OAMM has proved a few things to the SCG, ANZ, Etihad, Allianz, and Adelaide Oval.
SCG/ANZ PROOF OF CONCEPT
“At SCG we launched Queue Hopper,” enthuses Ed Abbott. “Which is a mobile ordering and express queues service. That was a great success. We also conducted a social media trial at ANZ Stadium and the Olympic Park precinct during the AFL finals.
“Connectivity is most important. Allowing us to bring added services and functionality; to compete with TV and entice people to the game. When the punter engages, the venue responds by providing content that is rich, live and fresh. It’s not a stale platform you build and leave; you continually work it. This isn’t a one or two year rollout, it’s a five year-plus campaign.”
The social media push at the Swans preliminary final at ANZ stadium was particularly interesting. As soon as fans got off their train or bus, or left the car park, signboards bombarded them with invitations to use the handles #goswanniesgo or #gobuddygo. And via 3G or the free stadium wi-fi fans were tagging Instagram pics, tweets and Facebook posts which were going straight to screens, live.
FREE WI-FI FOR APP
The nub of the connected stadium’s transaction with the fan is: we’ll give you free wi-fi, but please would you consider downloading our stadium app. The free wi-fi splash page will advertise a bunch of attractive features provided by the app: player stats, half-time promotions, content streaming, giveaways and more.
With the app on the spectator’s smartphone the stadium can commence wooing the patron, and of course so can the stadium’s commercial partners, not only on gameday but at other times. But with free wi-fi, everyone’s happy!
“The functionality complements what’s on the ground,” continues Ed Abbott. “Not only that, we’re developing loyalty and live redemption programs. So the more our patrons support the games and their clubs, the more they’ll be rewarded. Accumulated rewards can then be redeemed instantly or at a later stage and there are myriad options to avail yourself of those redemptions.
360 ALL THE WAY
As mentioned earlier, stadiums are installing digital signage as fast as they can. According to Ed Abbott, 1100 screens are going into Allianz and 1500 into Etihad. The IPTV network (where each screen is simply a computer cable endpoint, and can be sent any ‘channel’ of content from a nerve centre/server) allows content to be tailored specifically, in a granular fashion… not just free-to-air or live coverage from the field of play.
Screens will invite people to log-in to the free wi-fi; will encourage people to use specific game day hashtags; and will display F&B queue hopping options (where you can order and pay for your beer and pie from your phone, and pick up your order without the wait), for example.
You can see how digital is starting to close ‘the loop’. You can begin to see how the stadium can be the digital nexus point for all the gameday action that’s happening off the field as well as on: food, drink, social, dream team, punting, and fanatical tribalism.
“It’ll be a different experience; certainly one that fans have never before experienced in an Australian venue — I can guarantee it.”
OAMM: (02) 9939 3264 or www.oamm.com.au
CASE STUDY: DIGITAL SAUCE
Pie Boys wear iBeacons at the ’G.
Footy fans who attended AFL finals at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in September found themselves having a decidedly 21st century encounter with a ‘Pie Boy’.
A number of ‘Pie Boys’ (or roving pie sellers… “Hot pies! Hot pies!”) were equipped with iBeacons that triggered location-specific messages via Bluetooth to patrons’ smartphones as they moved around the stadium.
MCG patrons who had downloaded a pass to their smartphone would then receive a message notifying them if a pie seller carrying an iBeacon was nearby.
Fans who spotted the pie seller and presented their notification message would receive a free pie, while anyone who downloads the pass – regardless of whether they are at the stadium – went into the draw to win a year’s supply of Four ‘N Twenty pies. It simply doesn’t get better than that!
Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) is exploring the use of iBeacons as another device to engage fans at the ground while plans for a whole-of-stadium connectivity solution, encompassing wi-fi and improved 3G/4G coverage, are finalised over the coming months.
“We are investigating a range of enhancements to the MCG fan experience and we’re excited about the role iBeacons and Bluetooth technology could play in a future stadium connectivity solution,” said Ben McAuliffe, MCC executive manager customer engagement.
“We understand that the fans have expectations when it comes to connectivity and engagement at the MCG and we’re keen to test how iBeacons can contribute to making the MCG experience as easy and enjoyable as possible.
“We’re thrilled to have Four ‘N Twenty on board for our first iBeacon trial and we look forward to working with all of our partners on ways we can use the technology to provide our customers with new stadium experiences as they move around the ground.”
Patties Foods Managing Director, Steven Chaur said the technology is very exciting for the Four ‘N Twenty brand, the MCG and all footy lovers.
“The Four ‘N Twenty pie boys are a traditional part of going to the footy and it’s terrific that we can now equip them with real-time technology to sell our hot pies and sausage rolls,” said Mr Chaur.
The MCG iBeacons and passes have been supplied by Australian firm DC4G.
DC4G CEO, George Kaloudis said: “We are very proud to be working with the MCC and supporting their continuing efforts to provide fans with enhanced experiences at the MCG.”
DC4G: www.dc4g.com.au