To leverage with the start of its new 2017/18 season, the NBA has become the first US sports league to launch its own augmented reality iPhone game.
This small scale AR Apple app game enables iPhone users play a ‘’virtual pop-a-shot’ outdoors: iPhone owners can even customise the AR court to match their favourite team.
Promoted across the NBA’s various digital and social channels,
Catch #NBA action in the App Store including the new NBA AR app to play hoops anywhere, anytime! https://t.co/Ll9Z6Sld03 pic.twitter.com/LjIJWvetIO
— NBA (@NBA) October 17, 2017
this is a fairly straightforward initiative in terms of access: fans/iPhone users simply need to download the free ‘NBA AR’ app from the App Store, point the phone at a chosen space/place and then start shooting hoops on a virtual backboard and court.
This is basically flicking balls (with plenty of in-game product placement for official NBA ball supplier Spalding) at the hoop using the phone’s inbuilt accelerometer.
There is a 30-second time limit on each round and, when players are finished, they can share scores on social media, iMessage, and email and see how their AR hoops skills stack up on the in-game leaderboard.
NBA takes its shot in the AR game https://t.co/nMlgTNmSFQ pic.twitter.com/FKlIrLvC9o
— Byung Chung (@BChungter) October 21, 2017
Once the app has been downloaded onto a handset, the NBA also has further plans to feed-in follow up experiences throughout the season.
Melissa Rosenthal Brenner, NBA senior vice president, Digital Media, said: “We’ve always said that basketball can be played virtually anywhere – and today that takes on an expanded meaning.”
“Augmented reality presents a variety of fascinating engagement opportunities, so we hope our fans download the app and try out their skills wherever they might be.”
Comment:
AR has become something of an experimental play thing throughout the sports and sponsorship marketing industry as rights-holders and partners turn to AR experiences through the likes of Facebook and Snapchat to drive engagement (and PR).
Today, the @NBA unveiled its first augmented reality app. https://t.co/5V51Bo61yw
— Fast Company (@FastCompany) October 16, 2017
The NBA and its sponsors and suppliers have been steadily building up its virtual reality output in recent seasons and this launch sees it move into augmented reality too.
This is yet another slice of engagement showing that the NBA is the most culturally relevant (see our case study on the league’s new season “I’m Why” campaign) and technically far sighted of the big US sports leagues.
One of the few downsides of the initiative is that the game relies on Apple’s ARKit AR platform and thus is restricted to newer iPhone models (the 6S and more recent) running on iOS 11.
Indeed, the new season launch sees the NBA become the latest big name outfit (joining the likes of Ikea and Edmunds- who have also released Apple AR lifestyle apps) to explore and experiment with the new Apple’s technology that CEO Tim Cook says will one day be as important to brands as a website.
According to Sensor Tower’s recent research, data suggests that games are by far the biggest category of all ARKit apps on the App Store.
We wouldn’t be surprised to see the other US sports leagues follow suit soon.
Links:
Apple App Store (NBA Game)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nba-ar-app/id1273888016?mt=8
NBA
http://www.instagram.com/nba
http://nba.tumblr.com
