Sharp is leading its pre UEFA’s Euro 2012 activation with an insight project into fan behaviour called FanLabs.
The objective behind this project is to discover more about European football fan culture and passion through biometric data and surveys.
To gather the data, the FanLab truck (a mobile laboratory) is a big screen showing matches and 16 places for fans upon which experts take biometric tests to obtain insights into the range of emotions fans experience while watching a match.
The truck will be on tour right up to June 2012, when it will arrive at “fan zone” parks in host nations Poland and Ukraine.
The research lab wheels feeds its findings back to a core information centre internet and the data results are then made available on the sponsor’s campaign hub at www.sharpfanlabs.com.
There is also an app, with a sister website, that uses a series of questions to place each fan within a matrix of fan behaviour.
These are based on the twin variables of “optimism” (your emotional support of the team) and “commitment” (your tangible demonstration of that support), with a fan scoring highly on both dubbed a “12th man”‘ and its polar opposite, “the Sightseer”.
The initiative offers European football supporters a chance to actively get take part in this socio-cultural study of fan culture and passion. Sharp’s aim is to work out which fans are the most passionate about football and who is prepared to go the furthest in support of their team.
The idea is that the app (and the truck research) will be a live, dynamic tool both in the build up to the competition and during the tournament itself. By asking questions throughout the tournament, it will observe how fans optimism and mood rises and falls.
In addition, it aims to find answers to questions such as what it actually means to be a fan.
‘We want to understand fans more and grasp their enthusiasm and passion – so we created Sharp FanLabs,’ says Sharp Europe CEO Paul Molneux. ‘FanLabs operates at the point where sport is combined with science, and science with passion. It will deliver us undiscovered knowledge and unrivalled insights into football fans across Europe. About their hopes, their rivalries, their match predictions, their banter and their emotions.
“We’re investigating fans’ passions with the help of neuroscientific technologies and biometry, along with playful surveys in an experiment we’re describing as the ‘fan passion score’. The experiment is made up of several components and delivers completely new impressions of and information about the dedication and the differing mentalities of European fans,” explains Molyneux.
Comment:
If sponsors should be focused on fans rather than on the event itself, then this initiative certainly adopts that strategy.
The idea behind the FanLabs concept certainly turns the traditional focus of analysis away from what’s happening on the pitch and what the players are doing (with stats systems such as Opta) towards the fans themselves.
Back in September 2010 Sharp signed up as official sponsor for UEFA EURO 2012 and EUROTOP partner covering all national team competitions within the programme until the end of 2013.
Under the agreement Sharp became the exclusive partner of audiovisual equipment and solar-related products for the next edition of UEFA’s flagship national team competition taking place in Poland and Ukraine in the summer of 2012.
Sharp was the seventh global partner for UEFA EURO 2012 joining adidas, Castrol, Coca-Cola, Hyundai-Kia, Carlsberg and McDonald’s agreements.
The EUROTOP commercial programme relates to the sponsorship of UEFA’s top national team competitions.
As part of the sponsorship deal, which includes integrated broadcast sponsorship rights in Europe, Sharp is activating various football-led marketing campaigns to enhance brand awareness and provide UEFA with leading-edge audiovisual products and solutions to help deliver best-in-class national team competitions.
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