At the centre of Accenture’s position as the official technology partner RBS 6 Nations Rugby Championships is developing the tournament app – which reflects the sponsor’s mission to bring technology and digital expertise to the property.
The multinational management and technology consultancy is in the fourth year of a partnership, which runs from 2014 to 2017 and is activated through the app and other digital initiatives that aim to enhance the fan experience and drive interaction though the Championship.
The latest version of its official Championship app offers a range of largely data-led tournament insights that range from player head-to-head statistics and video highlights, to a game momentum tracker which processes more than 1.9 million rows of data during every game.
Want to know ‘How to Tackle The Italian Defence’ or ‘How Wales Ran Into England’s White Wall’?
The App has the data analysis answers.
The app, which updates its statistics and analysis every minute, includes pre-match news, video clips, line-ups and previews, providing play-by-play commentary during the game and post-match analysis, including match-play data, reports and video highlights whilst allowing fans to interact over social media.
The app comes in English, French and Italian (the main tournament languages) and can be downloaded for iOS, Android and Kindle Fire.
Also, for 2015, it has a new dedicated iPad version.
Accenture runs a promotional integrated campaign to promote its analytics through traditional media and mobile and social media channels based around the app’s ability to drive deeper comprehension of match play and player performance and generally enabling fans to explore the stats that really matter to them.
Much of the promotion uses the #SeeBeyond hashtag.
A key strand of its partnership promotion is a media partnership with The Guardian which sees Accenture as the newspaper’s branded content partner for the 2015 RBS 6 Nations.
This deal takes a matching approach based around statistical analysis and revolves around a project called ‘Creative Data’ (a form of data-driven branded content campaign) and sees Accenture take the role of the sponsor of The Guardian’s 6 Nations coverage (giving the paper access to its rugby data).
This media campaign will run for 3 months through the Championship and will include a dedicated ‘partner zone’ that will carry Accenture-branded material.
Guardian Labs managing director Anna Watkins said that the deal is a ‘fantastic example of smart targeting, innovation and authentic collaboration” that promises to bring “real benefits to both our readers and the brand’.
This tie-up also gave The Guardian access to Accenture rugby data back catalogue which is being used to create an ‘All-time top 25 Six Nations players’ interactive feature, plus relevant analytics for each game and personal player profiles.
The activation also included an Accenture-sponsored panel debate asking ‘How the data revolution is reshaping performance in elite sport and business’ – which included famous rugby faces from past and present, as well as sports business experts and commentators.
Comment
The idea behind the app and the other data-led tools and utilities is that Accenture uses its expertise to deliver a series of digital-led value-in-kind projects for the RBS 6 Nations.
The primary objective for Accenture is to use the partnership as a high profile shop window for its data collection technology, statistical analysis skills and digital capabilities.
In addition to the vanilla rights such as awareness-building via in-stadium branding (both on-screen and pitch-side) and other associated benefits from partnering with the tournament, Accenture also activates the via a set of events, initiatives and hospitality opportunities to build existing client relationships as well as develop new business opportunities.
Accenture also uses its tournament rights as a vehicle for employee engagement and it builds internal excitement and opportunities via a range of bespoke programme of activities.
Accenture understands that the ways in which fans engage and interact with rugby union is evolving as technology and communication habits change.
It also sees that the tournament’s fan demographic is evolving too.
At the heart of this insight is the degree to which supporters are using their mobiles, tablets and social media to follow the game, to understand and analyse it and to use these insights to get involved with the conversation.
Over the past three years, the brand claims that users from more than 150 markets have downloaded and updated the Accenture-designed app more than 2.6 million times.
Links
Accenture’s RBS 6 Nations App
http://www.rbs6nations.com/en/fanzone/official_rbs_6_nations_app.php
RBS 6 Nations
Accenture Rugby Twitter
https://twitter.com/AccentureRugby
The Guardian’s ‘Accenture Partner Zone’
http://www.theguardian.com/accenture-partner-zone/2015/feb/06/six-nations-captains-statistics
