Accenture has rolled out its latest version of the official 6 Nations mobile app with a focus on providing improved audience participation and interaction.
Accenture’s 6 Nations activation continues to focus on delivering tech-driven enhancements that place digital fan engagement at the core of the tournament and the latest mobile app, which now includes a Twitter feed, offers news updates, video highlights, real time scores and live commentary throughout the championships.
Thus aiming to give rugby fans an in-depth second screen experience that compliments the live TV coverage.
The sponsor’s analytics gives fans greater insight into the games using real time match data and innovative data visualisation – all of which help fans learn about which are the key individual battles, the crucial areas of play, which players are performing particularly well and even when to consider substitutes.
A promotional webfilm, featuring takeaways from last year’s tournament, accompanied the launch of the 2014 version of the app.
The 2014 mobile app, which is not only designed for iPhone, Android and Kindle Fire, but is also available in English, French and Italian to maximise engagement and accessibility right across the six markets, is actually populated by a cut-down data and analysis stream taken from Accenture’s wider 6 Nations statistics programme.
The underlying data for the 15-match, six-market tournament (running from February through March) consists of hundreds of rows of information provided by OptaSports – one row for every action on the pitch from metres gained and passes completed, to poor handling and missed tackles.
This data is then filtered by Accenture analysts who apply algorithms and weighted values based on observed statistical relationships and then transmitted with a 60-second lag behind what the fans are watching on the pitch.
Accenture has been leveraging these analytical skills through the official RBS 6 Nations mobile application since 2012 and the 2013 version was downloaded 759,000 times.
Accenture renewed its sponsorship as the Official Technology Partner to the RBS 6 Nations for a further four years in January so it will continue to develop the app up until at least 2017.
On renewal, the company stated that its objective was to work on a range of 6 Nations projects to ensure that the Championship responds to the changing needs and expectations of fans.
Thus, over the next four years, Accenture aims to enhance and improve the platforms that enrich the digital fan experience and add value to the Championship.
Comment
The 6 Nations is increasingly seen as THE sponsorship platform for B2B brands to develop fan-facing utilities whose objective is actually to showcase their expertise to the business community.
Using the competition to showcase its technical and analytical skill set is certainly central to Accenture’s tournament partnership which the world’s biggest management and technology consultant primarily uses as a shop window.
This strategy not only follows the trend for rugby fans to interact with the sport in fresh ways – particularly via mobile and social platforms, but also dovetails with the parallel rugby coaching trend which places an increasing emphasis on technology-driven player and statistical analysis.
Elite rugby players now wear shirts with GPS units sewn into them which allows the coaching team to monitor their performance through measurements that range from distance covered to real time heart rates.
The future of sport is changing fast for both fans, players and coaches and commercial partners are increasingly becoming a key part of driving this evolving landscape.
Links
RBS 6 Nations App
http://www.rbs6nations.com/en/fanzone/official_rbs_6_nations_app.php
Accenture 6 Nations Website
http://www.accenture.com/gb-en/company/sponsorships/Pages/rbs-six-nations.aspx
