Brands urged to plan ‘sensitive’ creative amid rise of digital signage at sporting venues
Source: Wikicommons.
Brands advertising at cricket grounds this summer will come under renewed scrutiny as they prepare to use digital boards around the entire perimeter of stadiums for the first time.
Until now, the extent of LED screens has been limited but from this season all venues hosting test and 20/20 cricket matches will have full-perimeter electronic signage.
While opening new, although more costly opportunities for brands, the advertising itself will be studied to ensure it does not contain creative which impacts players, fans and broadcasters.
Sports marketing agency Team Epic, which works with numerous brands, the AFL and Cricket Australia in creating a “fan experience”, said the use of 360-degree signage during the Australian Rules season at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Etihad Stadium threw up some “key learnings”.
The Dentsu Aegis-owned agency effectively acted as the gatekeeper in the development of graphics during the AFL season, a role that will continue throughout the cricket season as it looks to reel in sometimes over-exuberant creatives.
“This is the first time this level of investment has been made in Australia. You would have to travel to the US to see investment on the same scale,” Team Epic managing director Richard Coyne said of the technology.
“It is first year we have had full signage around the MCG and Etihad Stadiums and there is no doubt we can do things better. But that’s ok. We were not arrogant enough to think we would get it 100 per cent right in the first year .”
The key lesson for advertisers is not to “interrupt and interfere”, he said, stressing the need for brands to “participate sensitively” and not to “over-animate”.
“Over animation creates too much of a distraction for both viewers at home and makes it difficult for the broadcaster because things are happening on screen which affect their cameras,” Coyne told Mumbrella.
“We had a couple [of creative executions] that we thought were ok and it was only when they were executed that we recognised they did not work and had to counsel back to our advertising partner and encourage them to change.
“You have to be sensitive to all people in the stadium and if there’s one thing you don’t want to see it’s strobing. Creative houses will seize the opportunity to grab people’s attention and that can often be the first thing they think of.
“But we are very conscious it is an interference and cannot be tolerated.”
Coyne admitted one AFL club began using strobe lighting last season as part of its goal celebrations, an activation that was pulled mid-game.
“As we develop better technology we also create complexity,” he said. “That is part of the marketing world that we live in and we are no different.
“We have important governance to protect fans, to make sure rights holders are looking after their fans and that brands aren’t doing something that is damaging for themselves.”
Coyne said such responsibility is not “universal in the industry”, claiming not all apply the same “depth of governance and good marketing that we apply”.
He stressed that Team Epic will approach the forthcoming international cricket season, which sees Australia play tests series against New Zealand and West Indies, “with conservatism”.
The need for player concentration, particularly batsman facing deliveries of 140kmh, is key in the sport with even minor movement near a sight screen causing play to be halted.
“We won’t experiment, we won’t be there to test boundaries,” Coyne said. “Cricket is a sensitive game for the players and the broadcasters. Things have to run on time and we don’t want to see delays. We will respect that.”
The new displays, which cost $15m to install at the MCG and Etihad Stadiums in Melbourne, will provide advertisers, sporting bodies and clubs, with an opportunity to create pieces of content that add to the “fan experience”, Coyne continued.
The perimeter fencing can also be used in combination with scoreboards to further enhance the activation.
Brands will also be able to tailor messages based on the time of day, and create content based on key sporting moments from the match.
Coyne pointed to a Virgin Australia activation during the AFL season as an example of a brand using the screens in an engaging and imaginative way.
It saw the airline use the screens as a roulette wheel in a promotion which saw an entire row win business class tickets to the US.
He claimed Team Epic’s own analysis demonstrate the use of such signage improves “exposure and performance” by between 20 and 30 per cent.
But it will come at a cost with prices for advertisers set to rise.
“Are we asking advertisers to invest more as a result of that better performance? Yes,” Coyne confirmed. “We’ll be asking advertisers, particularly those who are not sponsors, to invest appropriately. Partly because of the expense of the infrastructure but also because of the benefits it creates.
“But they are only looking at price increases of 10 to 15 per cent on improvements of 20 to 30 per cent.”
He added brands will save around half the production costs of producing static adverts which for large scale activations can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
One of the agreements surrounding the LED screens at stadiums is that six to eight per cent of the match time will be dedicated to non-branded fan engagement executions. Previously 100 per cent of inventory was sold to advertisers.
“The Australia sports market still lends itself to the fact that there is excess capacity so there is the opportunity for the casual advertiser,” Coyne said. “With the screens we could have sold it minute-by-minute but we have no intention of doing that.
“That would be a corruption of a good program just to reap a commercial reward without any recognition of the fan experience or that of the key sponsors,” he said. “We don’t want a proliferation of advertisers. We would rather build better programs for a core group of key partners.”
Steve Jones
