These camera angles, stats, content and bandwidth come at a cost. For marketers, embedding their brand on relevant and must-see critical gameplay content and stats provides more advertising value than placing a logo on a jersey or on the side of a sports car. With 5G, because the content is on-demand in real-time, it creates a richer in-stadium experience and a more impactful brand value for sponsoring marketers.
Though the engagement opportunities described above refer to the attendee in-stadium experience, 5G implementations—as at Super Bowl LVI—also provided an opportunity for users to watch on a device from home. By using Pepsi’s Halftime app, users at home could see 360-degree coverage of the halftime show stage from three different angles as well as watch videos of the headline performers. Fans of the NBA, PGA, March Madness Live and other sports are already benefiting from real-time, personalized videos.
Once attendees see the value of the added camera angles, close-ups and real-time player data, they’ll demand the same experience while watching sports from home. This will expand the marketing opportunity of 5G and the value of integrating a marketer’s logo across player stats and must-see close-up replay videos. Marketers will be able to measure the value of these activities based on time-viewed and engagement metrics.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg for marketers. By creating games and contests around team and player data, marketers can create high-engagement opportunities around content that users are passionate about. What brand wouldn’t want to be associated with a contest where users are asked to submit their team’s best play of the season? As users compete by offering their favorite plays, brands benefit from engagement around a topic their users care about. That sure beats sending in two box tops for a branded T-shirt. The competitive nature of sports will encourage high-engagement interactions that provide more brand value than having a logo appear as one of multiple ads on a page of content or a feed scroll.
And for the marketer lucky enough to sponsor a game decided by split-second play, a related replay will then run across social media and video platforms with the marketer’s logo prominently displayed.
With marketers constantly on the lookout for the next big thing, 5G can provide marketers with an opportunity to place their brand and sponsor contests around content that users are truly passionate about. By running a logo next to that 15-second video clip of the game-winning play, marketers will finally achieve what the Internet promised since the 1990s—active user engagement.