US Sport has had a bad autumn with controversy snaring the NFL in a number of unexpected ways but there is always an option and ‘America’s game’ Baseball was only too happy to fill the need for a heartwarming story over the past week.
In the not so easily hours of this morning the San Francisco Giants won their third World Series in five years with a tense seventh game 3-2 win over the home town Kansas City Royals. After losing 10-0 in the sixth game the previous night this was some bounce back and it was a victory for the pitchers with MVP Nelson Bumgarner throwing nine straight strikes in the seventh inning.
The TV coverage was in many ways quaintly old fashioned with pre game analysts at a desk in the midst of a fairly raucous home crowd outside the ground and plenty of close ups of smiling kids, at least when the Royals were going well.
It was on Twitter though that the game came to life in a way that points to the future of sports broadcast.
Yes you need to see the action, that’s why the TV companies pay the high sums but the engagement of the fans is coming through the second screen experience, or the ‘best screen’ in a phrase coined yesterday by Susan Daly of the Journal at a business breakfast on the future of the media.
A regular stream of original content both gif and images such as that above were supplemented by bite size chunks of stats and data that fans were sharing and commenting and bringing the game to life.
As an experiment I watched the fifth, sixth and seventh innings purely on twitter following a number of hashtags and the experience was immersive in a way that could never have been imagined when the Giants won the first of their streak in 2010, and which even now would not be understand by many over the age of 40.
There is still some room left for old rockers though as Metallica were among the many celebrities to join the party with their own ‘fan shout.’
Social is a major strand of any serious sporting sponsorship in 2014. Three have been to the fore in soccer and are likely to be so again in the Guinness Series of Autumn rugby internationals. Eircom captured the ‘your shout’ zeitgeist through the All Ireland football Championship and Liberty Insurance will continue their series of Twitter Q&A’s with Hurler of the Year Richie Hogan this Friday at 1pm.
Last night though was a case study in what can be done around a big game that people are engaged by, willing to comment on and indeed, would feel deprived were the new social community ever to be taken away.
This is the future. Built on the traditions of yesteryear. Brought to life by the technologies of today and tomorrow.
Edelman Ireland, and the GAA will be two of three speakers in the social strand of Digital Sport and Sponsorship 2014, a one day conference this November 27th. Over half the tickets are already gone. Secure yours today right here.
