Reimagine The Game – Siemens & Bayern Munich

Siemens showcased its data and analytics skills by bringing to life its FC Bayern Munich partnership by using audio to record live fan energy and emotion in reaction to matches in the Allianz Arena, mapping it to game-related data and then providing visualisation on a digital platform which explore how fans effect matches (and then promoting this to fans and to the technology and business communities).

Territory: Germany

Agency: The Economist Group / Signal Noise / TVC Group

Objectives

As part of its wider strategy, Siemens was seeking to position itself an innovator and a brand leader in the field of data, analytics, IOT and smart infrastructure and this campaign aimed to bring this to life through its sponsorship with FC Bayern Munich with a focus on how Siemens is using data to support the club and reimagine the world.

Siemens has sponsored the giant German club since July 2017 and the partnership sees the company’s digital technologies sit at the heart of the talent and fan experience in and around the Allianz Arena.

Indeed, Siemens’ partnership with the club uses data to reshape the football space: from tracking movement, passes, runs to create datasets which can then analyse and measure player performance and team tactics to gain advantages, to finding fans and understanding supporter behaviour.

This 2017/18 season initiative saw Siemens challenge The Economist Group to create an engaging piece of data-driven storytelling to celebrate the football club partnership and to position Siemens as a digital pioneer to football fans in particular and to the technology and media sector in general.

Activation

The initiative shined the statistical spotlight not on the players, but rather on the fans and their performance.

Based around the idea that ‘passionate fan energy’ (the so-called ‘12th Man’ effect) can empower a team and even change the course of a game, Siemens and The Economist Group created the web based ‘Reimagine The Game’ platform: an interactive online tool enabling fans to view FC Bayern games by listening to thousands of data points captured at key match moments.

Siemens leveraged The Economist Group’s media and custom content capabilities (working with the organisation’s client solutions team, its data design agency Signal Noise, and PR and content agency TVC Group) to deploy precise audio detection technology around the stadium and then create 3D soundscapes mapping the noise of the entire Allianz Arena.

The fan noise data was then analysed in combination with actual match data in order to identify interesting game-relevant narratives and to offer fresh perspectives on how ‘fan energy’ interplays with and possibly effects on-pitch performance.

Thus, the ‘Reimagine The Game’ platform recorded and mapped the voices of 75,000 fans reacting to everything from the team announcements ahead of kick off, to the in-game match timeline highlights (such as goals, saves and fouls) and even the most supported and appreciated players at the end of the game.

The sound mapped responses to every change of possession, refereeing decision or missed chance, the fans provided a fresh lens through which Siemens reimagined the game.

The data visualisation, analysis and commentary was hosted on a custom-created interactive website on The Economist platform and traffic was driven to this site through globally targeted media placement in The Economist app and it also promoted via The Economist Group, Siemens and FC Bayern’s social channels.

A content-led public relations strand leveraged the platform to generate media coverage across global lifestyle, trade and technology publications and outlets.

The platform also generated media assets tailored for specific markets to showcase the story behind fan energy and highlight Siemens’ role with the club.

Outcome

The online hub received 61,000 unique visitors, 67,000 total visits and 145,000 page views.

The audience was highly engaged with the data: viewing an average of 2.1 pages per visit (compared to The Economist Group’s benchmark of 1.3).

In total, there have been more than 277,000 interactions with the data tool.

The campaign also generated 275 items of media coverage: these included 570 Siemens brand mentions associated with ‘innovation’ and ‘digitalisation’ and 270 views of the brand video.

This campaign now had a combined daily audience reach of more than 37 million people.