November saw the Minnesota Wild become the first NHL team to use wi-fi-enabled Snapchat Spectacles to give fans a new behind-the-scenes view on the team.
The Wild teamed up with ad agency Space 150 to bring this fresh approach to first-person social sharing to life for hockey fans on the day of a game against The Winnipeg Jets.
Fans simply needed to follow The Wild on Snapchat with the username ‘Minnesotawild’ to see the team’s latest Spectacle content feeds.
Snap Inc’s $129 mustard-coloured sunglasses are one of the year end’s hot, wearable consumer tech trends: the Bluetooth glasses have embedded cameras that wirelessly send 10-second video clips to the linked app on user phones and Snapchat accounts.
The hockey franchise used the new device to give fans several fresh insider glimpses into the team: from clips of the pre-game skate session, to getting up-close-and-personal as one of the team’s stars gets his skates sharpened during warm-ups, locker room views, players walking out to the rink and even jumping on board a Zamboni (ice resurfacer) for a rink ride.
We joined the soccer circle with #mnwild players
You have to see what else happened on @Snapchat with the @Spectacles: "minnesotawild" pic.twitter.com/uOlYeEl7D8
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) November 23, 2016
#StewieSprint through @Spectacles
Watch more on @Snapchat: "Minnesotawild" pic.twitter.com/P47zOCgRct
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) November 24, 2016
Nordy, the Wild mascot, also wore the Snapchat Specs while firing a T-shirt Cannon into the Xcel Energy Centre crowd.
This post-event video collates much of The Wild’s Snapchat Specs content.
‘Here in the State of Hockey, we’re always looking for new and unique ways to bring the action to hockey’s greatest fans while better connecting Wild fans with their team,’ explains Minnesota Wild content strategist Phil Ervin.
‘We’re always looking for new ways to bring our fans closer to the team and the game. The Spectacles certainly delivered, providing a cool, new point-of-view that was really simple to execute.’
‘We were thrilled to partner with the Minnesota Wild to bring the Spectacles perspective to hockey fans tonight — what appears to be the first time a pro sports team has tested these out,’ adds Space 150 brand innovation VP Greg Swan.
Comment
Snapchat Spectacles offer social and digital marketers a new approach to sharing the type of content already being amplified across social channels like Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat itself.
But the difference is that it offers a fresh perspective with a pseudo first-person feel (plus, the users don’t have to worry about actually holding a filming device).
Thus they open up a new route to providing fans with mobile content: from access to the pre-match stadium experience to player engagement and potentially action too – all delivered directly via the eyes of players and coaches themselves.
After all, every fan wants to know what it is like to be in the locker room, to run out on the field, to get amongst the action and to hear what is said in the huddle.
The Wild may have been the first sports team to put the specs into action, but they certainly won’t be the last one.
Especially those focusing on engaging millennials: Snapchat’s own user data claims that as many as 41% of all 18 to 34 year-olds in the USA use the app every day.
Whether the trend will go mainstream, be a genuine sports and entertainment social game changer and last more than a few months is another matter.
Whether players and coaches can actually be persuaded to wear them regularly (rather than as a one-off experimental gimmick) is a matter for debate.
Not least because they are basically just silly-looking plastic sunglasses.
Snap Inc’s Snapchat Spectacles launched earlier in November in an unexpected fashion and can be bought for $130 from ‘Snapbots’ (yellow vending machines in major US cities that only remain in a single location for 24-hours) in what is a fairly unusual retail launch strategy
Links
Minnesota Wild Snapchat:
“minnesotawild”
Username #mnwild
Minnesota Wild Twitter:
Minnesota Wild Web:
Minnesota Wild Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/minnesotawild/
Minnesota Wild Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/MinnesotaWild/
Minnesota Wild Pinterest:
https://uk.pinterest.com/nhlwild/
Space 150 YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/space150
Space 150 Web:
