FanServ and Sportradar have come together to create a unique advertising platform. The new platform, SportServ, combines the ad platform of FanServ and the sports data provided by Sportradar to change the way sports advertising works. “SportServ brings the game to your ads by combining Sportradar’s incredible real-time stats coverage, play-by-play and game results with out proprietary take on sports ad technology…including specific fan, stadium and event targeting that affords brands the opportunity to engage audience when they are the most fanatical,” said Brad Friedman, CEO and co-Founder at FanServ. “We think of it as the advertiser’s seat at the bar, where they can join in on the fan’s conversation with messaging that is both timely and relevant.”
Excited to promote our patent-pending tech SportServ with launch of our updated @fanserv site! Team stepping up to make the push #GSD
— FanServ (@FanServ) May 24, 2016
The patent-pending technology allows advertisers to run a campaign during a certain part of a game on all digital platforms and creative formats. The time period or moment a campaign is run is based on the merging of live game feeds that allow for the targeting of events and timeliness of an advertisement. Advertisers can connect their messages to key in-game events, such as a Bryce Harper home run. Or as shown on the FanServ website, ticket advertisers can have different ads throughout the game, for baseball they may try to sell tickets for the next game in the ninth inning or right when the game ends. Another example may be every time Stephen Curry hits a 3-pointer, an Under Armor ad for Curry’s new shoes may pop up.
One competitor of SportServ is ESPN’s new service, LiveConnect, which was introduced in May. It has almost all the same functions, as it allows advertising to coincide with the emotion of the fans. But SportServ has a few more advantages, the main one being that it can be used with any site and campaign.
SportServ gives users a lot of freedom because of its ability to be used with any site. It allows advertisers to create ads based on upcoming games and for specific markets, it also uses their real-time and targeting techniques to make dynamic creative advertising. And it allows 3rd party data integrations, like real time ticket prices. SportServe is already being used by big name companies like SeatGeek.
There are lots of opportunities for the company to grow and change advertising in sports. “With SportServ, advertisers can more effectively control the content of their messaging. This alliance allows both brands and publishers to sync creative to live game action and target delivery based on live events and location like they’ve never been able to before,” said Benn Gurtion, Business Development at Sportradar. Companies that players sign with would have more opportunities for exposure, rather then just paying for ads with the athlete. Instead they can have ads be triggered during peak fan engagement throughout a game. The market of sports advertising is definitely going to change with ESPN’s LiveConnect, and SportServ.