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Super Bowl’s Social/Mobile Angles Don’t Move the Needle

February 5, 2012 by

My quick post-game take on the whole “social Super Bowl” angle is that I don’t think any of the ad campaigns really moved the social-networking needle. Though I missed part of the first quarter I didn’t see any ads that asked for an online audience interaction, which might have been fun. And the mobile game platforms, both NBC’s website broadcast and Verizon’s NFL Mobile app, were so far behind the live action they were useless as a “second screen” for viewers also watching the television.

A quick kudo to Twitter for not crashing in what was probably the most-active day ever on Twitter (which is kind of a meaningless stat since every big event for the foreseeable future will become “the biggest” as Twitter becomes more mainstream and adds more users). But I have to give a conditional “fail” to NBC’s online broadcast of the game, which was anywhere from three to four plays behind the live action, even showing commercials while the “real” game was live.

Though I understand why technically the online show might be slower, the wide gap made it impossible to keep the laptop (or tablet) open while watching the game on TV, eliminating the whole “second screen” thing that the online broadcast was supposed to enable. Plus I was underwhelmed by NBC’s multiple-choice camera views — they were uninteresting and pretty much blah compared to the rapid-fire screen switching you get from watching professional broadcasters produce a game live. So maybe that whole viewer-choosing-the-camera thing is overrated.

And Verizon’s NFL Mobile app, while glitch-free over in-house Wi-Fi and a 4G cellular signal, was still anywhere from 23 to 28 seconds behind the live action, also rendering it useless except maybe for trips to the bathroom. But with all the commercial breaks that’s hardly a concern during the Super Bowl. Maybe these alternative platforms will be more important for events with multiple things happening at once, like the Olympics or a golf tournament like the Masters. And maybe advertisers will become more bold and try more live interactive ads in the future. But for right now the “Social Super Bowl” didn’t live up to its advance billing.

UPDATE: As we thought, the Twitterers were out in force:

In the final three minutes of the Super Bowl tonight, there were an average of 10,000 Tweets per second.

February 5, 2012 9:43 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite
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Filed Under: Facebook, iPad, Live sports via mobile, NBC Sports, NFL, Super Bowl, Twitter, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Super Bowl Advertisers Ready to Target Mobile Users

February 2, 2012 by

Are you a fan of football but do not watch the Super Bowl for the ads? There may be no escaping them this year as increasingly advertisers realize that there is an untapped market for them in the online world during a game known for its broadcast ads.

A recent survey by Harris Interactive that was commissioned by mobile marketing firm Velti, as reported by MediaPost, shows that a full 60% of mobile phone users plan to also use and view their phone while watching the game.

While the news that people will use their phones is hardly earth shattering, another part of the report shows that people are twice as likely to use their phone during the ads and during the half time show. This might not be great news to companies that are shelling out an average $3.5 million for a 30 second ad, up 17% from last year.

As mobile usage soars advertisers target new space

According to Forbes the price on Super Bowl ads has increased an average of 5.7% annually, and it is predicting that the going rate will double again within the next decade making online increasingly appealing.

A late comer advertiser or a company that delays in buying the time, which sold out prior to Thanksgiving this year have an option, and one that companies that are advertising on the game telecast are taking as well- targeting mobile users in what is now being called the second screen market.

Already the bulk of the ads that are slated for broadcast on the airwaves are available online as either an ad targeting users or as a YouTube video to attract more fans. However there is an entirely different class that is just sticking with the less costly mobile ad space.

The broadcast ads are dominated by major corporations, centering around 5 market segments: automotive, beer, motion picture, soft drinks and tortilla chips, according to a recent Nielson study. Many of these will replicate their presence online as well, but there is opportunities for others as well.

The popularity of Super Bowl ads is amazing. Simply head over to YouTube’s Ad Blitz, a site dedicated to Super Bowl ads, to get a feel for just how popular this is. As of Thursday morning prior to the game there were 39,000 subscribers to the channel and 800,000 video views.

Go to Coke’s Facebook page and you can see a group of polar bears, one set in each team’s uniforms, reacting to the game in real time. The loss of eyeballs during the broadcast could be part of the broadcast advertisers own doing since many seem prepared to drive broadcast viewers online.

The Harris study found that sites like Shazam, Subway and Chevrolet have specialized apps that will support viewers driven from broadcast ads to on-line and present the opportunity to win prizes or participate in some activity.

Then if you have seen an ad that seems worth viewing again on the broadcast, you can always head over to iTunes to get an app that allows you to view past favorite Super Bowl ads as well as new ones as soon as they are available on YouTube.

I expect that the number of ads that are designed to be viewed by mobile devices only will be a strong growth category in the future, particularly as tablets continue to grow in popularity. A sharp advertiser does not care if you continue to watch the game after you have viewed their ad, so why not try and snare your attention via some focused programs online at a corporate web site?

Filed Under: Apps, Live sports via mobile, NFL, NFL Mobile, Nielsen Ratings, Smartphone, Tablets, YouTube Tagged With: ,

Who’s Going to Get the Tablet Rights for NFL Games?

January 31, 2012 by

We all know by now that the Super Bowl is going to be streamed live by NBC, and also to Verizon Wireless smartphones via Verizon’s NFL Mobile app. It will be interesting to see what the viewer metrics are after the fact. But the bigger item on the horizon is who will snag the tablet, aka iPad rights for NFL broadcasts going forward?

I was thinking about this potential conflict earlier today when I read a report from my ex-GigaOM collegue Liz Gannes who was covering a talk with ESPN president John Skipper at the D: Dive Into Media conference. Skipper’s crew seems like it has clear vision on what the Worldwide Leader needs to do with mobile, which as we heard yesterday is the prime platform ESPN develops for.

Inside the industry ESPN is unique since it not only is a network, it is also a content creator as well as a clearinghouse for overall information. The latter is mainly SportsCenter, its enormously popular highlights show that dominates the sports world. But more recently ESPN has become a content creator/provider by bidding for broadcast rights to games themselves, across all major sports and a lot of minor ones too.

While finding broadcasts on TV is fairly easy — you just look up to see which network is broadcasting the game — on digital devices the access has been murky. Verizon does have an exclusive deal to show live games on phones, but that’s only covered Monday Night Football, Thursday night NFL Network games and the Sunday NBC games. ESPN, meanwhile, retains MNF rights for tablets but won’t show the games on phones because of Verizon’s deal. DirecTV Sunday Ticket customers this year could opt for a package that gave them access to the Sunday Ticket via mobile — an interesting twist but as a subset of a subset not really a mass-market solution.

The big question still out there is who will get tablet rights for NFL broadcasts going forward? Right now Verizon can’t offer NFL Mobile on an iPad, which would seem to be a bit of a no-brainer except it isn’t. The tablet market, aka iPad, is getting bigger every moment and it will be interesting to see how the tablet rights get broken out, or whether they are bundled into the overall broadcast rights for a hefty increase in fees. According to Liz’s report, ESPN won’t buy rights without all platforms included:

Since 2005, ESPN has made sure that all its content deals include rights for every device. As Skipper put it, “We don’t cannibalize ourself, we use those platforms to cross-promote.”

After several digital stops and starts ESPN seems to have crystalized its mobile thinking behind the WatchESPN idea, where you download an app and have access to all ESPN programming — so long as you also have a contract with a qualifying cable provider. This is a smart move because it keeps the people paying ESPN the big bucks happy, while giving the cable customers the kind of access that is commonplace for all other kinds of media.

Maybe sometime in the future ESPN will offer a non-cable-customer price to access all its content digitally, but for now it seems content to keep its window open only to those customers willing to pay.

Here’s the link to Liz’s story again. Good stuff, wish I was at that conference.

Filed Under: Apps, ESPN, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Monday Night Football, NFL, NFL Mobile, NFL Network, SportsCenter, Super Bowl, Tablets, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: , , ,

Pac-12 Looks to Build ‘Digital Network’ for Social-Media Centric Sports Future

January 31, 2012 by

The Pac-12 conference, one year into its new broadcasting deal is now looking to expand its presence in other areas aside from broadcast television, a move that will encompass streaming media and other technologies broadcast to smartphones, tablets and other devices, mobile and immobile.

To spearhead the program the conference‘s wholly owned subsidiary Pac-12 Enterprises has hired David Aufhauser as vice president and general manager of digital media. He has been in various positions in the sports and social media market for almost two decades with his most recent position being Vice President, Media at Say Media where he managed the global ad network. Prior to that he led business development at Yahoo Sports and has a variety of positions at Citizen Sports, Evite and Netscape.

The job will entail all aspects of the digital media properties of the Pac-12 as well as the creation and management of the Pac-12 Digital Network. The Digital Network will be a unified web site that will provide world wide access to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets as well as computers and even television for a wide range of sports activities that the Pac-12 is involved in.

The group will handle hundreds of sporting events and provide original programming at all 12 major campuses. This will include live streaming, mobile technology and social TV capabilities, the world. The network is expected to be launched in late summer 2012.

Last year the conference entered into a major upgrade on its broadcasting presence by working with major cable companies to create six regional cable networks as well as signing new national deals with FOX Sports and ESPN. The Digital Network is expected to work with the television networks to provide a more unified presence for the league. The new effort will also handle all sponsorship, licensing and event management for the Pac-12.

His hiring is just the latest in a string of newly enlisted personnel, all seemingly with wide experience in both sports and an array of various media. Last August the conference hired Gary Stevenson as the head of the Enterprise group. Stevenson has more than 30 years in a variety of sports and broadcasting experience including working with the NBA, the PGA Tour and owning his own sports consulting firm OnSports.

The Pac-12 Enterprise has also hired Bill Cella as its chief revenue officer. Cella has experience in sales and marketing and will design and implement long term strategies and oversee the management of all revenue generation for Pac-12 Enterprises.

Expect this to be the tip of the iceberg and a move that is carefully watched by both rival conferences and the NCAA governing body. No school is going to let additional revenue slip through its fingers and we will probably see a number quickly emulate the Pac-12.

The NCAA on the other hand may want a bigger piece of the pie. When Major League Baseball teams started to move onto the Internet MLB itself was a bit slow to follow. When it did it moved everything under its own umbrella, and no doubt gets a larger cut for its effort.

Filed Under: ESPN, Fox Sports, Live sports via mobile, Major League Baseball, NCAA Football, NCAA Hoops, Pac-12, Smartphone, Social Media, Tablets Tagged With: ,

ESPN: We Design First for the Mobile Experience

January 30, 2012 by

There’s a lot of talk on the interwebs today about ESPN saying that it designs its content sites and programs first for the mobile experience, a statement that is not so surprising on its face but still probably somewhat of a shock to the general public who still thinks of ESPN as something you watch on a TV, either in a bar or in your living room.

But as our old pal Om Malik notes, with 400 million smartphones out there it’s pretty clear what’s going to happen. Om says:

With more than 400 million smartphones expected to be sold, it makes perfect sense for sports to get the mobile bump. I mean, don’t we want the baseball gossip, score updates or results of the F1 race when on the go?

The obvious takeaway from ESPN is: The future of fat profits in content is mobile, and we’re all over it. What that means for startups and established players looking to get into the mobile-sports arena is that your business plan better have a provision for what you will do when the WorldWide Leader becomes your competitor.

The design-for-mobile-first mantra is widespread in the sports content world — it is even part of our internal thinking here at humble MSR — but when big players like ESPN and Bleacher Report start talking about how mobile isn’t something in the future but something that is here now it makes sense.

For most desktop Internet connections, bandwidth, screen size and network latency generally aren’t problems when it comes to site experience. On a small handset with extreme variables in network connection, screen size and local processing power, how a site is designed has a huge impact on how it is seen. And you don’t need any exhaustive usability studies to tell you that people don’t come back to a site that doesn’t load or isn’t usable on a small screen. With development resources in demand everywhere, it makes sense to put an emphasis on mobile, which is growing fast and has the more-stringent demands.

At least it does to ESPN. If you’re a business looking at the mobile-sports space, the question is now: if the leader is already there, what are you doing to design for mobile?

The MediaPost recap by Mark Walsh of the keynote speech from Michael Bayle, vice president and general manager of ESPN Mobile, is worth a long read because it touches on a lot of places where ESPN sees mobile going. But a quick grab of a stat from the post should make it easily understandable why ESPN cares so much:

Bayle pointed out that its mobile audience across its mobile properties has surpassed 20 million, with users spending 45% more time with ESPN mobile content in 2011 than the prior year. ESPN Mobile now ranks as the company’s fourth-largest network and it has 150,000 people plugged into its mobile offerings at any given time.

Sounds like it’s more than just cowboys at horse troughs watching ESPN in a mobile fashion. And it will be more so going forward.

Filed Under: bleacherreport, ESPN, Live sports via mobile Tagged With: , ,

MSR Profile: Stadiums a Target for Wi-Fi Gear Maker Xirrus

January 26, 2012 by

Add Wi-Fi gear maker Xirrus to the expanding list of technology providers targeting stadium owners who are looking to better serve the wireless needs of both the fans sitting in the seats, as well stadium owners looking for wireless applications to help run their business better.

Like networking giant Cisco, which has created an entire business unit dedicated to stadium installations, the relative newcomer Xirrus is going to aggressively pursue more stadium clients this year, according to Steven Wastie, chief marketing officer for Xirrus. Last year Xirrus’s high-performance wireless network arrays (the antennas and other gear that provide the wireless link between Wi-Fi user and the network) helped bring video services and Wi-Fi power to business applications inside Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots.

In a snappy video (embedded below) you get not only a customer’s explanation of the benefits Wi-Fi can bring to teams (wirelessly enabling point of sale systems allows for greater building flexibility), but also a quick data point on why you need Wi-Fi to provide features like video highlights — the Patriots’ content guy talks about how each video highlight stream takes up 300K of bandwidth, something that would be nearly impossible to provide using cellular airwaves.

The Xirrus xr4000, which can fit up to 8 wireless radios into its smoke detector-like housing. Other arrays can fit as few as two or as many as 16 radios.

The edge Xirrus brings to the stadium Wi-Fi game is its “high density” arrays, which can fit up to 16 wireless radios into a single device and are highly configurable especially directionally. By comparison, the wireless router in your home or business probably has just two antennas, which are pretty much just set to broadcast out in a circle as far as they can reach.

Being able to have more throughput per device, Wastie said, is key for stadium deployments where there are a lot of people in one place, all trying to do the same thing on their mobile device. “It’s very different from just two years ago,” Wastie said in a recent interview. “Back then high density situations were a niche. Now high density is everywhere.”

Having arrays that support more users also gives Xirrus a technology edge over competitors, since it can cover a stadium with fewer devices and less network infrastructure — often meaning significantly lower costs. Mobile Sports Report will be watching Xirrus closely throughout 2012, to see if its less-is-more wireless message gets across to stadium owners and operators.

Founded in 2004 by CEO Dirk Gates and some of his pals from chip manufacturer Xircom, the Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Xirrus is privately held.

Filed Under: Cisco, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Video Streaming Tagged With: , ,
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