Europe’s premiere basketball association, the Euroleague, tipped off their current season on October 15th. Sponsored by Turkish Airlines, among others, the Euroleague hosts 24 teams and is broadcast in over 200 countries. This season, their digital campaign team has ramped up partnerships and created their own technology campaigns, enabling more people to engage and watch the competition in creatives ways. Rayde Luis Baez, Head of Digital & Content Marketing at the Euroleague wants “Euroleague to be on every screen available for the fans”. He discussed this and more in our conversation recently.
Even though Rayde took over this role earlier this year, the Euroleague piloted initiatives throughout last season in order to offer its fans a different look at the game. One of these initiatives was the use of in-jersey cameras, the first initiative of its kind in professional competition. This one-of-a-kind feature gives fans the “closest view to the complete on-court action,” according to Rayde.
In addition to on the court content, these cameras were complemented with a content program at the 2015 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four in Madrid, called The Insider presented by Turkish Airlines “to deliver the behind the scenes action with player and coach interviews, and offer the fans at home a full inside look at the event.” Not only were the players on board with this, but the referees have been donning the cameras as well, a view that Rayde opined is better than that of the player jerseys because it can enrich any broadcast feed as “it offers a holistic, up-close view of the action”.
Critically important to the value these cameras deliver to fans is a platform to consume it on. In comes the Euroleague’s Digital Ecosystem consisting of a website, social media channels, campaign micro-sites, and the new app, which will be launched in a matter of days. The application is a complete restructure of their previous app.
The Euroleague Mobile app improves on the prior version that mainly housed news and scores, and now enables fans to livestream games on the Euroleague TV platform (a joint venture with NeuLion), get play-by-play updates, integrate Euroleague’s own “Fantasy Challenge”, customize team feeds and the latest publications of Euroleague content.
Recognizing that “Multi-tasking and sourcing is the name of the game” Rayde talked about the integration of social channels available in the app as well. The goal as far as social goes is “to customize the experience without having to go elsewhere while watching the game.” While Facebook, Instagram and Vine are all social platforms the Euroleague utilizes and delivers to fans, Rayde says that Twitter is their go to medium, because “when you are live, Twitter is the weapon of choice.”
In a league that has teams competing in a dozen different countries, there are inherent challenges in harmonizing the digital strategy among all the partners. In a market where finding what works is locally dependent, Rayde says that Euroleague’s website (one of the first pro sports websites to be completely interactive) is is one of their best tools that allows fans to engage socially and experience the full depth of the Euroleague content in English.
To tackle the language barriers, they have struck Premium Media deals in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Greece, Turkey and Russia, where top Sports Media outlets like Gazzetta dello Sport, L’Equipe and Sport 24 customize and create Euroleague content in the local language. This provides added engagement for the fans, the competition’s teams and the league sponsors. As far as the main Euroleague.net destination, it contains the “Euroleague Social Hub presented by Turkey Home” on the site which gives fans the ability to interact with the different teams, as well as a “graphic platform to present social media content from the league and teams to their fans, which will allow for real-time interaction” called Euroleague Social Wall by ScribbleLive.
Because “what works for Germany may not work for Russia.” Rayde says “constant communication between marketing and teams to find the commonalities and differences is key, and they all meet once or twice a year to workshop on best practices for the entire “family”.
With most teams in the Euroleague playing in non-proprietary arenas, it’s been difficult to integrate extensive technological capabilities in-stadium the way some are now doing in the US. However, Rayde and Euroleague’s Digital Team have found ways to institute rules where all teams “provide live-streaming of post-game press conferences and added game content directly to social networks.”
Building on the cutting edge tools the new app provides for fans watching at home or the arena, Rayde’s team integrates Beemray’s technology in combination with mobile geolocation capabilities to identify fans’ content consumption and mobility patterns related to the Euroleague properties. For those fans, this feature “will unlock added benefits unique to fans engaging directly.”
Euroleague Mobile is a co-development project between the 2015 FASPO Newcomer Agency of the Year, D/Unit in Germany, and developers Modeso in Switzerland, that was designed to be lean from the drawing board and uphold the minimum viable product approach. The objective is to gradually deploy the special features, while incorporating “live fire” feedback from fans. This approach is also in play with the recent rollout of Euroleague TV.
Once the ‘Euroleague Mobile’ app is fully deployed, the next step for the Euroleague is “enhancing e-commerce for teams, the league and its sponsors,” says Rayde. He noted that teams are and have been “very savvy at developing locally, but we are constructing a suitable platform that will harvest knowledge at the league level to expand each team’s business internationally.”
Outside of all the visually stimulating features, the best part about the app is that it is free, outside of a Euroleague TV feature that fans can subscribe to directly at www.euroleague.tv. “Current revenue streams are known, where they can be are known, and we know what we need to do to reach critical mass”, and that, in combination with paid sponsorships allow the Euroleague to offer this service to fans free of charge according to Rayde. He also leads some of the big sponsorship accounts at Euroleague and has articulated digital as the most flexible way to deliver ROI for them.
The hard work that the Euroleague’s Digital Team has done to deliver this kind of fan engagement promises to maximize the amount of eyes on the Euroleague this season, and they have even more features in store for those watching. Integrating popular models such as daily fantasy into the app is something Rayde talked about as a “subscription/revenue based” engagement tool is in the works. And without being too specific, he hinted that “smartTV and video game console integration for Euroleague TV” will come next.