Lateral thinking is key to advertisers’ ability to score

While digital replacement technology is impressive, it is just one of a number of interesting ways that marketers are reaching fans at live matches.

Technology is transforming advertising at live sports events.

The stadium ads that football fans in Dubai will see, when watching a live Spanish La Liga match on television, are completely different from the ones that fans in Beijing see, thanks to digital replacement technology (DRT). The system allows different messages to be displayed in the grounds to different audiences in real-time through a separate broadcast feed.

Brands use DRT to advertise in creative and dynamic ways at football matches as well as on TV, says Joel Seymour-Hyde, the senior vice president at the global sports and entertainment agency Octagon. They can change the copy to appeal to local markets, include hashtags to start a conversation on social media, or create real-time advertising by changing the copy on the board to react to what is going on the pitch, for example.

A good example is the campaign run by the England national team sponsor Mars during last year’s Fifa World Cup, says Mr Seymour-Hyde. “They had the rights to boards and they knew [the Spurs striker]Harry Kane was making his debut for England.

“They scenario-planned for things that could happen on a player’s debut, and they came up with the copy line ‘scoring on your debut … winning’. As it turned out, Harry Kane came on, scored on his debut, a button was pressed, and as he was off celebrating his goal, that copy was running round the stadium. So everyone could see it in the stadium and on TV, and comment at home on social media.”

While DRT is impressive, it is just one of a number of interesting ways that marketers are reaching fans at live matches. Brands have to think laterally because the advertising channels on boards at sports venues are finite, says Mr Seymour-Hyde. “Fans come close to kick off and watch intensively, then rush off when the match ends. So you’re restricted as a brand in terms of what you can do in a stadium.”

Instead, he says, brands are focusing on other ways to amplify their reach at live sports events, by creating an experience or content that is shareable on traditional and social media. “You’ve got your 80,000 people there at the stadium, how can you create value from them which they share, and turn that 80,000 into a much bigger number?” says Mr Seymour-Hyde.

Some of the most impactful sports ad campaigns use clever ideas to get the fans involved, he adds, citing examples such as the KFC-sponsored Skybox, an open-air restaurant seating 20 that hovers 40 metres above ICC Cricket World Cup events in Australia. The Skybox offers competition winners a unique vantage point over the cricket match, and of course makes for good TV while at the same time spurring fans with smartphones to ping images of it across their social media networks. Another innovative idea is the Samsung Slider at the UK rugby union stadium Twickenham, which is a four-person seat that glides along a rail at the side of the pitch at matches, giving fans a novel way of watching the action.

Then there is the Catch-A-Million ad campaign in New Zealand by the local company Tui, which is deployed at cricket matches. Spectators can win up to NZ$170,000 (Dh456,047) by taking a one-handed catch off a player who hits the ball off the pitch during a match, which happens quite often, but only if the successful catcher is wearing a bright orange Tui-branded T-shirt.

“You’ve got 1,000 brand ambassadors wearing your branded T-shirts in the stadium, who are all going to get on the TV feed because the producers know it makes great content if a fan’s diving after a cricket ball,” says Mr Seymour-Hyde. “And you see some brilliant examples of the commentators when the fan catches the ball, they’re replaying it in slow motion as part of the TV production.

“As a brand it’s a magical place to be, you’ve put yourself into the broadcast in actually a subtle way, rather than an overt piece of wallpapering,” he says.

“That’s where a lot of the creativity comes now, working out how can we add to the experience, which could potentially integrate us into broadcast.”

And it seems some marketers have already hit the opposition for six.

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