The tech world has worked to earn your trust via mobile portals on the biggest Sunday of the year. This week, we’re looking to determine if the Super Bowl has done the same, offering a review of the official NFL mobile apps specifically developed and/or updated for Super Bowl XLVIII. Our focus today is the Super Bowl Media Guide app.
One quick note of clarification: there are three particular apps removed from our review this week, including NFL Mobile (the official league app, a known commodity and source of news for football fans updated accordingly), NFL Pick ‘Em (a traditional game of choice sports fans during the regular season, leaving one more game to pick), and the NY/NJ Super Bowl Host Committee Volunteers app (a special application designed by enterprise superfirm SAP AG in support of the league’s volunteers working the event… though we’re betting, based on SAP’s reputation, its outstanding).
Super Bowl Media Guide
Developer: DoubleDutch
Function: Productivity
iOS: Available (access restricted)
Android: Available (access restricted)
The digital era has been ruled by the in-house team for the NFL until this season. Whether they wanted a fresh take, sought pursuit of an evolving biz model or are simply paying for inspiration, the rise in mobile dedication from the league has provided an opportunity for DoubleDutch to get in on the action.
This dev crew has an extensive resume in event engagement (a list of clients that includes the aforementioned SAP, Tony Robbins, Lowes, TED Talks, McAfee, HP and Logitech) and claims responsibility for three apps for this year’s Super Bowl. They’ve provided advanced mobile solutions for a wide variety of environments, a level of experience and comfort in support of live events that should shine through with an NFL campaign worthy of praise.
Unfortunately, we lack proper credentials or login information to utilize any of them, and as such we cannot access the full content of the apps… and that truly sucks.
The Media Guide has been designed to serve any and all who do own those credentials with some interactive features to help coordinate and locate various Super Bowl hospitality and promotional events. A full menu of official event schedules, including celebrity appearances, sponsor offerings and league speaking engagements, are provided and updated in real time.
Interactive maps as well as agenda settings and push notifications give users integrated access to every day they are on the job, and to spice it up, DoubleDutch appears (based on available screenshots) to have added a variety of event-related scoreboards and analytic reports that suggest a bit of gamification is available to those who enjoy competing while they work.
To add to the frustration, the NFL also commissioned DoubleDutch to create a similar app titled “NFL On Location Super Bowl” that appears to be a slightly-modified version of this same format for non-media members, or as we would hope to call the target audience, the public.
However, the app’s description on iTunes and Google Play notes this is “the official mobile app for NFL On Location guests”… guests who have, apparently, been provided with a functioning username. Failure to enter an accepted username upon launch of the app restricts access, leaving the public on the outside looking in (again). Research fails to provide any information about becoming an On Location guest and several iTunes users have left comments on the app page requesting information (requests that appear to be going unanswered).
DoubleDutch has also developed “NFL House presented by Verizon”, available on both iOS and Android, with the same format and features to serve “Super Bowl XLVIII Members” and “VVIP guests of the NFL” (whoever they may be, again gaining exclusive access via approved username).
While this audience of credentialed media and attending VIPs might be the largest created for a single sporting event, it would be nice to have an app like this for the public to utilize, capable of inspiring those in NY to brave the horrid weather in support of the Super Bowl and could certainly tempt those who have yet to attend a Super Bowl to make plans to change that.
Based on the small window of information we have, these apps look like winners (or, at the very least, steps in the right direction) and we sincerely hope they serve as the foundation for public NFL engagement via mobile tech in the future, at the Super Bowl and beyond.