New Zealand telco Spark brings its partnership with Team Emirates New Zealand by opening a ‘5G Race Zone’: an immersive, multi-sensory experience that aims to get New Zealanders closer than ever before to the country’s home team and to the America’s Cup.
Objective:
It was back in X that Spark signed on as a partner of Emirates Team New Zealand which is the official defender at the ‘36th America’s Cup presented by Prada’ held in its home harbour of Auckland.
Spark is working with creative agency Shine on amplifying its Emirates Team New Zealand partnership and briefed the agency to create an immersive interactive event space inside the Emirates Team New Zealand base showcasing a convergence of sailing and technology.
The aim is to inspire and excite the public about the event, educating them about the ways that technology has revolutionised the boats and shining a light on STEM subjects, to inspire a new generation of kids while also giving Aucklanders a preview of the 5G network soon to launch in the region.
Activation:
The branded visitor experience, built at the Emirates Team New Zealand Base (at 161 Halsey Street in Wynyard Quarter), sets out to give people a chance to feel, create, learn and even smell the America’s Cup sailing experience – without even getting out on the water.
The company, which rebranded from Telecom New Zealand back in 2014, leverages its team sponsorship by bringing together the best of sailing and technology through seven fully interactive zones.
The zones, which include a sailing simulator, a wind tunnel and a controllable weather modeller, each tap into a different aspect of the world’s oldest sports competition and how it links to the principal benefits of 5G: speed, low latency and mass connectivity. Sailing fans can build their own AC75, take the helm in a multi-crew simulator, test their design skills in a 5G streamed gaming environment, capture selfies with the crew and experience the America’s Cup course through augmented reality and a hi-res projection, as well as see daily visual representations of the wind, currents and weather on Waitemata Harbour and Hauraki Gulf, collected from NIWA and familiarise themselves with the America’s Cup course through a high-res projection of the Waitematā Harbour.
Visitors aged eight to eighty-plus will receive a RFID lanyard on arrival at Spark’s 5G Race Zone to use as their digital companion to capture shareable photos and content from their tour.
Working Auckland agency Shine, Spark – which provides fixed line services and a mobile network, as well as internet services and it is a major ICT provider to NZ businesses – has spent the past 14 months putting the project together.
The Spark 5G Race Zone offers visitors a taste of the action from 1 October 2020 to March 2021 and the family-friendly experience is free to the public with bookings made at spark.co.nz/racezone.
“Using our 5G network we will give visitors the chance to feel what it’s actually like onboard the team’s boat during a 4D virtual experience, where they will hear the sounds of the boat racing through the water, feel the breeze and even smell the sea air,” said Spark Technology Director Mark Beder.
The campaign was created for Spark by agency Shine Limited (Auckland) where the team included Chief Creative Officer Rich Maddocks and Senior Creative Mike Ramsay, with New York based Executive Producer Adam Jenkins and Executive Creative Director Mick McConnell, General Manager Annabelle Pitkin, Senior Business Director Kate Gilmour and Design Director Danny Carlsen.
The build partner was Spur, the experience delivery partners were Satellite, Perceptual Engineering and Buildmedia.
Comment:
The contemporary America’s Cup AC75 yacht – which can reach speeds of 50 knots/90kmh – is more like a Formula 1 race car than the original boats who raced for the trophy 100 years ago and included composite materials, digital technology and hydraulic systems which are more often associated with aircraft than boats.
So the most effective way of telling a technology-led story about them is by showing (not telling) through an immersive experience and the 5G Race Zone gives the public a chance to get hands-on with tech the team used like never before, while also becoming a platform for a school’s program promoting STEM education.
Spark is developing an increasingly strong sports marketing heritage for inventive and original initiatives and this experience follows in the footsteps of its 2019 ‘Play By Spark’ high-tech rugby ball which aimed to incentivise kids exercise levels (see case study).
Links:
Spark
https://www.spark.co.nz/5g/home/race-zone.html
Shine Limited, Auckland
https://www.shinelimited.co.nz/
Emirates Team New Zealand
https://emirates-team-new-zealand.americascup.com/
https://www.youtube.com/c/EmiratesTeamNZ
https://twitter.com/emiratesteamnz
https://www.facebook.com/EmiratesTeamNZ/
https://www.instagram.com/emiratesteamnz
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.