IBM, the Australian Open’s Official Technology Partner, not only provides match score statistics but also collates a huge spectrum of tournament data which it serves up to officials and fans in a variety of formats and notable stat-led activation strands from 2015 included its ‘Social Leaderboard’ and ‘CrowdTracker’.
The approach runs under the brand tagline ‘Advantage Made With Data’.
In 2015 IBM collected and collated a vast realm of player-based social media statistics for the tournament and presents the live findings to fans in the form of the ‘IBM Social Leaderboard‘.
This Social Leaderboard provides a live overview of each tennis star’s social media popularity and buzz – defined by the total number of mentions (eg #Djokovic or #Murray).
‘IBM’s CrowdTracker‘, on the other hand, is a partner platform for its ‘SlamTracker’ service which it has been running at the Grand Slam’s it partners with for the last couple of seasons.
While SlamTracker offers on-court action data such as score updates and match statistics, CrowdTracker aims to pinpoint where the crowd is at any given moment based on the use of Wi-Fi devices throughout the complex.
CrowdTracker, which ran on the official Aus Open apps and website, aims to gives tennis fans a birds-eye view of what crowds are doing on site and on line.
This IBM video explains both activation strands as well as the brand’s oher Australian Open work.
Comment
Each year IBM leverages its tennis Grand Slam partnerships by introducing new and innovative ways to enhance the fan experience and to showcase its data collection and analysis expertise.
This year’s Australian Open work follows in the footsteps of 2014’s virtual reality game ‘Return Serve’.
While new activation strands at Wimbledon 2014 included the ‘IBM Social Media Command Centre’ and its ‘Dispatches From Wimbledon’ and the stand-out IBM fresh feature at last year’s US Open was its ‘https://www.activative.co.uk/2014/09/12/ibms-us-open-tennis-data-creates-sessions-music/’ initiative with James Murphy that turned dry tennis data into music.
IBM’s objective, as with most other 2015 Australian Open’s partners, is to serve up fan value both for those at the tournament as well as people watching at home.
From main sponsor Kia, to associate sponsors ANZ, Rolex and Jacob’s Creek, through the tier three sponsors such as Emirates, Heineken, IBM, Lacoste and Wilson, all activate with the purpose of enhancing the fan experience and boosting value.
As well as IBM’s live data-led utilities, experience enhancing activations from the 2015 tournament ranged from Kia’s blending of its ‘Australian Open rights with its X-Men movie alliance‘, to Jacob’s Creek’s ‘Made By’ and ANZ’s ‘Your Game, Your Way’.
While TAC activated its Australian Open partnership by offering fans a unique chance to play tennis at a Grand Slam via its ‘People’s Court’ campaign which saw lucky fans get pre-match interviews and then get to play tennis with ball kids and an official umpire.
Heineken also activated its tournament rights primarily via ‘Live Stage’ – an on-site live music initiative.
While the property owner’s own online presence on-site at this year’s tournament stretched from activating fans around the grounds and at home via social media zones, to a ‘Twitter Treat’ vending machine’, as well as Twitter-quizzes and a ‘Fan Selfie Mosaic’.
Links
IBM At The Australian Open
http://www-07.ibm.com/innovation/au/ausopen/
Australian Open
http://www.ausopen.com/
