IBM kicked off its French Open activation in late May with a ‘Road To Roland Garros’ spot following a branded tennis ball bounce through the streets of Paris en route to the second Grand Slam tournament of 2016.
The film was amplified on IBM social sites such as Twitter,
NYC to Paris, the @IBM tennis ball is back in action just in time for the kick-off of #RG16 #IBMsports pic.twitter.com/EfOSjRKffB
— IBM Sports (@IBMSports) May 22, 2016
and all version drive viewers to IBM’s Rolland Garros digital hub where they are encouraged to ‘discover the solutions IBM brought to the tournament through the last 30 years of its partnership’ at http://ibm.co/1HHtipY and to use the brand’s feeds to follow along as the tournament unfolds at @IBMsports and join the conversation with #IBMsports.
Indeed, for IBM, it is the brand’s vast range of dual language digital, social and cognitive technologies that truly lead this year’s new IBM tournament innovation.
As with its activation around the 2016 Australian Open, the main new thrust of IBM’s activation continues to promote its global, Watson-based, ‘Cognitive Era’ initiative at this year’s French Open.
In a French player reworking of its Serena Williams led Watson-focused work around the Australian Open at the beginning of the year (see case study), Marion Bartoli interacts with IBM Watson to explore how the cognitive system can offer competitive advantages in real-time.
Once again IBM has developed the official Roland-Garros mobile app for 2016 which enables fans to follow scores, statistics and match analysis in real-time and get live videos, photos and radio on their smartphones or tablets.
For the first time this year, its IBM SlamTracker (which deepens fan understanding off the games live through pro-level, data-led real-time tactical insight) is now integrated into the app
As well as its individual game data-driven analysis,
.@andy_murray survived another 5 setter. Can he keep rallies shorter during the rest of #RG16? #IBMsports #ibmRG pic.twitter.com/Z0ciTEvKo5
— IBM Sports (@IBMSports) May 26, 2016
When matches go the distance, these players are most likely to come out on top https://t.co/pVDUflSPPQ pic.twitter.com/Q6pTrySgRt
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) May 26, 2016
.@RafaelNadal displayed an effective serve in his 1st round win, looking poised for a deep run in #RG16. #IBMsports pic.twitter.com/S9G8ORvPB0
— IBM Sports (@IBMSports) May 25, 2016
and action clips and shots,
What a shot ! Quel coup de génie de Rafa #RG16 https://t.co/UNcocMCnlc
— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) May 24, 2016
IBM also offers fans a behind the scene tour of the Roland-Garros complex via YouTube films,
and social channels from Twitter,
At @RolandGarros, IBM collects match data and analysis and distributes scores and statistics. #RG16 pic.twitter.com/wt5fbDjH8W
— IBM (@IBM) May 24, 2016
to Snapchat.
Follow us on @IBM's Snapchat at #RG16 today. You'll enjoy it. #IBMsports https://t.co/ZXBzk1lE7Z pic.twitter.com/ujmjJCreBa
— IBM Sports (@IBMSports) May 24, 2016
Comment
IBM’s sophisticated social and digital data-led activation at Roland Garros and the other tennis Grand Slam tournaments continues to set a future-facing benchmark in sports partnership activation.
And it’s not just IBM driving the Roland Garros digital and social landscape.
The 2016 tournament has seen the rights owner roll out a slew of new social and digital activations to immerse fans in the Roland Garros experience like never before.
Following on from new initiatives at this year’s first Grand Slam, the Australian Open (see case study), the umbrella objective behind the tournament’s new fan-facing social and digital tools is simple – to enrich and enhance their experience.
For example, in addition to using its own Facebook, Twitter, Dailymotion and Periscope platforms, 2016 sees Roland Garros launch its Snapchat account to take Snapchat users behind the scenes – from the courts to the dressing rooms and from the inside of the tennis complex to the post-game press conferences.
The account was launched on the opening Saturday with a special story created by the Snapchat team using videos from fans and integrating interesting content such as live scores and serve speed.
Another social strand for 2016 is the use of hashtags and emojis in tweets and video posts to drive interaction between the tournament, the fans, the players and other celebrities.
For example, to drive social engagement, Roland Garros launched three hashtag emojis on Twitter:
> #RG16 (featuring a clay court emoji) is the global hashtag of the event used by the official @rolandgarros Twitter account.
> #rolandgarros and #FrenchOpen (both feature a racket emoji) and are being used to cover all content around the event
> #InsideRG (featuring a hat emoji) aims to enable fans and players to share content and photos.
Wild emoji alert at Roland-Garros! Will you find the hashtags associated with them for the upcoming tournament? pic.twitter.com/xQxzDgPyfi
— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) May 14, 2016
Sunday afternoon #InsideRG pic.twitter.com/6u3Z7Kk5I1
— Francesca Schiavone (@Schiavone_Fra) May 22, 2016
Others hashtags being used by the rights owners include #RGBall (launched at the quarter finals stage to encourages fans to take a selfie to show how they’re watching the game with the chance of winning a signed ball) and #RGFigurine (which gives fans the opportunity to win a special 3D printed figurine if the official account gets a certain amount of retweets).
Roland Garros also launched its first online fantasy game called ‘RG Contest 2016’: this enables fans to manage players through the tournament (a little like ‘Football Manager’) and gives the inners a chance to scoop tickets for the 2017 tournament.
Choose your players, create your team and win the 2016 RG Contest! https://t.co/l6JbxxKhNb #RG16 pic.twitter.com/PluoqtXnxb
— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) May 20, 2016
Another on-site gaming experience sees tennis lovers at the complex play a shooting target game against a racket equipped robot equipped.
The robot even had its own Twitter hashtag – #RGRobot.
In another tournament first, French TV broadcaster France Télévisions has jumped on the bandwagon and has launched the ‘RG 360 app to offer live virtual reality broadcasts in 4K.
The first opponent of @la_pouille at #RG16 is our #RGRobot! / Le 1er adversaire de Pouille… Le robot du RG Lab ! pic.twitter.com/NpH5PSLnUx
— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) May 19, 2016
Indeed, this tactic is certainly on-trend in 2016, as Eurosport also launched a Virtual Reality app to coincide with the French Open tennis tournament – providing highlights of each day’s play, behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the players all in 360-degree video, as well as 360-degree on-court views to enable fans to see through the eyes of the players.
Eurosport serves up new #VR app ahead of the #FrenchOpen
Read more: https://t.co/Lk9mo7X0L7 pic.twitter.com/0urEwS9pHY
— Eurosport (@Eurosport) May 24, 2016
Links
Roland Garros Web:
Roland Garros Twitter:
https://twitter.com/rolandgarros
Roland Garros YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/rolandgarros
Roland Garros Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/rolandgarros/
Roland Garros Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/RolandGarros
Roland Garros Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/rolandgarros/
Roland Garros Google+:
https://plus.google.com/+rolandgarros
iTunes App:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/official-roland-garros-2016/id991378595?ls=1&mt=8
Google Play App:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ibm.events.android.rg&hl=en
IBM France YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/IBMFrance
IBM Sports Twitter:
IBM Roland Garros Web:
http://www-05.ibm.com/innovation/fr/r…
IBM Cognitive Think Web (FR):
http://www.ibm.com/cognitive/fr-fr/outthink/
