FAN EXPERIENCE 2016
For more than 16 years, a gorgeous
outdoor space at the back of AmericanAirlines Arena sat mostly underutilized. The Miami Heat saw an opportunity to develop the area into a revenuegenerating fan entertainment center.
This past January, the team unveiled
the Xfinity East Plaza, a state-of-art
34,000-square foot outdoor experience
offering beautiful views of Biscayne Bay
and the Miami skyline. The plaza has a
stage for live entertainment, bars, eateries and retail, as well as a solar canopy to protect fans from the Florida sun
and rain.
Also integral to the plaza is NanoLumens’ display technology, which gives
the Heat another opportunity to boost
revenue via ads on column wraps.
“It’s generating revenue from additional concession sales; it’s generating
revenue from a sponsorship standpoint;
and it’s also creating another reason
for fans to come to the games early
and stay late, so it’s touching all of the
points the Heat wanted to accomplish,” said Rob Jackson, vice president
of sports and arenas for NanoLumens.
“It’s all about creating a wow factor,” Jackson added. “It’s all about creating an experience and surpassing the
fans’ expectations; it’s all about giving
the sponsors a way to activate their
sponsorship and be able to excite the
fans and generate revenue.”
JULY 11-17, 2016
NANOLUMENS
NanoLumens Technology: More Ways to ‘Wow’ Fans
Both AmericanAirlines Arena (home of the Miami Heat) and TD Garden (home to both the
Boston Bruins and Celtics) use NanoLumens’ technology to create exciting new spaces for fans.
Founded in 2006, NanoLumens offers
LED digital displays that are so lightweight and curvable they can be
installed in almost any environment. The
Atlanta-based company sold its first LED
product about five years ago and has
done more than 350 installations across
five continents. Recently, it identified
sports as a key area for growth.
“With some of the success we’ve
had in other verticals — whether it was
gaming, transportation, retail or corporate lobbies — we saw the same opportunities existing in the sports market,”
said Jackson. “Just as retailers are trying
to figure out, ‘how do we get customers
out from in front of the computer and
into our stores,’ sports teams and arenas
are asking, ‘how do we get fans off the
couch and into the game?’”
NanoLumens’ first sports projects
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
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were last year and included partnering
with teams from the NFL, NBA and NHL
— it was a “go big or go home” strategy.
In fact, NanoLumens solutions have
been installed everywhere in these facilities, from field-level suites to fan-engaging halls of fame. They accommodate
an engagement that puts the seasonticket holder right in front of the action.
A recent example includes four
22-by-4.5-feet, nine mm pixel pitch double-sided modules in a team hall of
fame that invites fans to interact with
the displays personally. They enter the
names of players and receive player
videos, photos and statistics on the
larger-than-life ribbon displays.
This summer, the Jacksonville Jaguars are renovating their US Assure
Clubs inside EverBank Field. The clubs
STREET & SMITH’S SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL
will feature several large format 2.5 mm
pixel pitch solutions to be used, not only
on game days to enhance the seasonticket holders’ game day experience,
but also on non-game days for private
events like weddings, corporate receptions and special events, creating even
more revenue opportunities for the
team.
The challenge for teams, according
to Jackson, is “how do we build these
facilities so they can be compatible
with other events throughout the year?”
The company’s work at Legends restaurant and bar in Boston’s TD Garden
highlights the technology’s versatility.
The building is home to the Celtics and
Bruins, so fans may see Larry Bird and Bill
Russell one night and Bobby Orr and
Ray Bourque the next.
“The content for our displays is basically plug and play, so it’s easy to
change content,” Jackson said.
“They’ve been able to create a whole
different look and feel in the arena.”
Jackson also stresses NanoLumens’
LED display technology is in step with the
worldwide emphasis on sustainability.
“It’s energy efficient, low power, low
heat — it’s all the benefits of LED technology wrapped up into our displays,”
he said. “All these arenas around the
world are trying to be as energy efficient as possible, and that’s another
huge advantage for our technology.”
25
FAN EXPERIENCE 2016
IMS Aims to Create the Ultimate
Weekend of Entertainment
role where they can make our fan
experience better,” he added. “That’s
the nature of sponsorship — to have a
dialogue with fans and customers.”
Glamping
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
Alexander Rossi drinks the famous bottle of milk after winning the Indy 500.
pollination of the speedway’s audience, “You had college kids going with
their dads to Journey on Friday and
one going to the race and the other
going to the Snake Pit on Sunday. The
impact is pretty wide.”
It’s all about turning the world’s
greatest race into more than just a
sporting event — in the same way the
Super Bowl is more than just a football
game.
“If we can do that effectively, it will
help us grow our fan base, our audience, the number of people that come
on site,” said Davis. “You’ve got to
always put more fans in the pipeline.”
Efforts to fill that pipeline go well
beyond those three days over Memorial Day weekend. In the month of May,
leading up to the main event, there’s
the Angie’s List Grand Prix; and Indy 500
practice, qualifying and Pole Day.
There’s also the Red Bull Air Race, more
major concert draws (the Rolling Stones
played the speedway last July 3) and,
of course, the Brickyard 400.
Sponsors and the
fan experience
Sponsorship drives the sport of auto
racing. It also drives the fan experience. That is true for concerts, video
boards, VIP experiences, etc. For the
100th edition of the Indy 500, Indianapolis Motor Speedway saw an
unprecedented level of sponsorship
activation.
IMS partners entertained as many
as 9,000 guests on practice days, Carb
Day (the Friday before the race) and
during the Grand Prix. Race day hospitality events drew thousands, and
retailers had hundreds of displays set
up around the city. Checkered flags
were distributed throughout neighborhoods for people to decorate their
yards for “porch parties,” a revived tradition where people host friends and
family to watch the race on TV or listen
to it on the radio.
“We’re trying to be this one-two
punch between being a business
driver for our sponsors and creating a
great experience for our fans,” said
Davis. “Whether we’re impacting what
sponsors are doing with their advertising or at retail, or entertaining on site
or b-to-b, or whatever the case may
be, a lot of times our fans are the beneficiary. As much as we’re trying to
entertain our fans, our sponsors are trying to use the sport to reach those
fans, so when that intersection takes
place, that’s the moment we’re shooting for.
“We try to have our sponsors take a
Another unique element to the fan
experience around the Indy 500 is glamping, or glamorous camping. At IMS,
the experience is equal parts luxurious
and convenient. It’s also wildly popular.
“Competition to be a part of glamping feels like trying to get to the top of
the Lambeau Field ticket list,” said Alex
Damron, IMS director of communications. “There’s a long wait list because
people love the experience. It offers
just about any amenity you would
want. It’s a first-class experience.”
Some families have made moving
into the luxury tents at IMS their new
Memorial Day tradition. And once
they’ve moved in for the weekend,
they can take advantage of all the
entertainment opportunities without
having to wait in any more lines.
Added Damron, “It’s luxurious
because it really is top of the line —
everything that you can think of is provided for you — it’s a very comfortable
set up. It’s convenient in the sense that
you come in for the weekend and
you’re here. There are no more lines,
there’s no more parking to worry
about, no more tickets to check. Your
experience is set.”
What’s next
After hosting the 100th version of
one of the world’s biggest sports
events, Indianapolis Motor Speedway
is not resting on its laurels. There is
another race next year, there are more
fans to convert and there are more
fantastic experiences to dream up.
“This notion of building a special
event around the world’s largest singleday sporting event is something we’ll
tether back to as we develop our
plans,” said Davis. “After this one,
everyone is asking, ‘What are you
going to do next year?’ So that’s part
of the plan moving forward, to make
sure the 101st Indy 500 is as successful
as the 100th.”
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
The party on the day of the 100th
running of the Indianapolis 500 got
started five hours before the green flag
dropped. Gates to the Snake Pit, a
music venue nestled in turn 3 of the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, opened
at 7:00 a.m., and 30,000 millennials
turned out for an EDM concert headlined by Skrillex, a DJ/singer/songwriter
who packs festivals all over the world.
Sunday morning’s EDM concert at
the Brickyard followed Friday’s rockand-roll show featuring Journey and
Saturday’s country set with Blake Shelton. The music series is central to the
evolution of the Indy 500 into the ultimate entertainment weekend, one
designed to offer something for everyone and grow the race’s already huge
fan base.
The 2016 version of the Greatest
Spectacle in Racing marked the first
sellout in the event’s history — 350,000
fans was the widely reported number.
With an audience that big, a property
has to market to a broad cross-section
of people, while IMS focuses on organically developing the next generation
of open-wheel racing fans.
“Music is a great entry for us to do
that,” said Rod Davis, chief revenue officer at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “It brings young people out to
experience events here and it introduces them to the facility and the track
and what’s taking place. Part of the
cycle of going from music fan at the
speedway to race fan at the speedway
is being exposed to all these offerings.”
Davis recalls the story of a race fan’s
son who, in May, attended his third
Snake Pit concert and after this year’s
show told his mother, “Hey, I’m going
to check out the race next year.”
“That’s a common evolution,” said
Davis. “The Snake Pit is the place to be
for the millennial who wants to go to a
special event, but maybe doesn’t follow racing yet. There’s this natural curiosity to go from the Snake Pit to want
to see what else is happening, where
someone says, ‘I’m going to watch the
race this year, because I heard how
great it was last year when I was in the
Snake Pit.’”
Kyle Krisiloff, senior director of music
and entertainment, added of the cross
Crowd for the Miller Lite Carb Day concert headlined by Journey.
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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
IndyCar driver Conor Daly visits the Snake Pit.
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STREET & SMITH’S SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL
JULY 11-17, 2016
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway would like to thank:
THANK YOU TO OUR PARTNERS FOR THEIR SUPPORT AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO A FANTASTIC
100TH RUNNING. IN 2017, THE 101ST INDY 500 PRESENTED BY PENN GRADE MOTOR OIL TURNS
THE PAGE TO THE NEXT CENTURY OF “THE GREATEST SPECTACLE IN RACING.”
JULY 11-17, 2016
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
❘
STREET & SMITH’S SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL
27
FAN EXPERIENCE 2016
DC Events Surrounds Visitors
for a Total Event Experience
EVENTS DC
For Events DC, the official convention and sports authority for the District
of Columbia, the fan experience
begins well before you enter the venue
— it starts as soon as you arrive in the
nation’s capital. Events DC works
closely with hotels, restaurants and
transportation authorities to make sure
you are welcomed and a part of something bigger than the production.
“We recognize the importance of
the entire event experience, not just
what happens inside our venues,” said
Erik Moses, senior vice president and
managing director for sports, entertainment and special events at Events DC.
“As a result, we engage our partners
across the District in an effort to optimize the overall event experience for
residents and visitors, including the
booking of your travel and accommodations, the ease of maneuvering
throughout the city and the customer
service you receive at the event.”
Events DC brands itself as an event
management organization, with hospitality industry values, that works with the
city’s professional and collegiate sports
teams, concert/festival promoters, conference organizers, rights holders,
media and business and community
partners to add value to events —
large, small and everything in between.
Those values extend to fans, patrons
and attendees. It’s about ensuring a
positive experience from beginning to
end.
For example, 2013 marked the 100th
anniversary of U.S. Soccer. As the U.S.
Soccer Federation shopped for a location and venue to host its centennial,
Events DC promised to deliver the VIP
treatment for fans, sponsors and other
partners. DC was decked out for soccer, as city assets were made available
to showcase the event, including having bus shelters and Metro stops
adorned with U.S. Soccer logos and
colors. The Restaurant Association of
Metropolitan Washington (RAMW)
coordinated with members operating
local restaurants and bars to curate
menus to offer German food and beer,
as well as discounts for soccer fans. A
very special event — a match between
the U.S. men’s national team and world
soccer power Germany — served as
the celebration’s centerpiece.
“It felt like a city takeover,” said
Moses. “Other cities could offer a very
big venue, but nothing as comprehen-
Recently named the “fittest” city in America, D.C. is a perfect location for endurance events
like the Rock ‘n’ Roll DC Marathon, Army Ten-Miler, DC Bike Ride and many others.
EVENTS DC
Affordable and
accessible DC
D.C.’s extensive Metro system connects venues,
hotels and the city’s many tourist attractions.
28
The celebration of the U.S. Soccer Federation
Centennial included a match between the
U.S. and Germany.
There is nothing more important to
the fan — or any consumer — than
affordability. And, in 2015, Washington,
D.C., was named “best in sports travel”
by Hotels.com and SeatGeek for its
affordable ticket prices and popularity
in both sports and travel. With an average ticket price of $51 across its pro
and college teams, as well as an average hotel room price of $160 per night,
a trip for an event in DC will not break
the bank for most fans.
In addition to staying within their
budget to attend an event in DC, fans
also find themselves in a remarkably
accessible town.
The 68-square-mile city consists of
sports venues that are accessible by
bicycle, public transit and car. Bikesharing program Capital Bikeshare has
more than 3,000 shareable bicycles at
hand for fun and easy transit, while
teams such as the Washington Nationals offer free bicycle valet for riders.
Each sport venue is also located less
than a mile from the nearest Metro train
station and, with parking lots and
garages available throughout the city,
commute options are endless.
Accessibility is especially crucial for
fans who want to arrive early. And they
have plenty of reasons to arrive early to
a game in DC. The Redskins’ tailgating
experience, one of the best in the NFL,
features a DJ, live music, food trucks
and craft beers. For the MLS fan, D.C.
United hosts a pregame tailgate just
outside the historic RFK Stadium that
features live music, food trucks and
drink specials. At Nationals Park, guests
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EVENTS DC
sive and citywide as we brought to the
table. The demonstration of our collaboration for this event was helpful to our
city’s successful bid to host the 2014
NHL Winter Classic, 2016 ACC Basketball Tournament, 2017 Big Ten Basketball Championship and 2018 MLB AllStar Game.”
❘
have diverse and delicious food
options, as they can enjoy classic ballpark fare, local flavors and gourmet
concessions created by celebrity chefs.
Additionally, Monumental Sports Network provides WNBA fans the opportunity to stream Washington Mystics
games for free anytime and anywhere.
No matter where they decide to
stay, visitors have hundreds of attractions to choose from — the Washington
Monument, John F. Kennedy Center for
the Performing Arts, Newseum and the
National Zoo — and they are all easy to
find.
“One of the many wonderful things
about Washington, D.C., is that it is built
on a human scale,” added Moses. “We
don’t have towering skyscrapers. It’s a
very walkable city and it’s an easy
place to navigate. It’s not like other cities that are so spread out. If you stay
downtown, you can walk to just about
everywhere or you can jump on the
Metro — whether that’s the subway or
the bus.”
Active DC
Everybody wants to stay active and
healthy these days and that is no truer
than in DC. In 2016, the city was named
the nation’s “fittest” city by the American Fitness Index for the third consecutive year.
Whether there are runners along
Embassy Row, yoga at the National
Mall or rowers on the Potomac River,
scattered around the city, DC is bus-
STREET & SMITH’S SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL
tling with athletic activity.
Organizers and sponsors do well to
keep this at the heart of their events.
“DC is not only a great city to be a
spectator, it’s also a city whose the
population wants to be in the game,”
according to Moses. “The citizen-athlete here is huge and that’s why we’re
such a natural for fitness and endurance events, like the DC Bike Ride,
Rock ‘n’ Roll DC Marathon, Army TenMiler, Events DC Nation’s Triathlon and
countless fun runs, such as the Ridiculous Obstacle Course Race (R.O.C.
Race) and Night Nation Run.
“Washingtonians are looking for
ways to be involved,” Moses added of
the city’s sports fans, “and the challenge that we, along with the organizers and sports teams also have is, ‘how
do you make those folks who are running and playing on the weekends and
don’t want to just have a beer and a
hot dog while they sit in the stands, feel
more connected to the event?’”
A prime example of sponsor activation around this dynamic is the Marines’
partnership with the AT&T Nation’s Football Classic, an annual football game
celebrating the tradition, heritage and
unity of Historically Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCU). The military branch
features physical contests, obstacle
courses and chin-up bars in the tailgate
area.
Social DC
DC is not just physically active, it’s
also socially active. Teams, such as the
Georgetown University Hoyas, use a
social media platform called Zoomph
to aggregate fan posts across multiple
social media platforms to use during
breaks in basketball games at Verizon
Center. Georgetown approves posts to
feature on the videoboard, which
encourages fans to interact with the
team’s social media accounts and
gives everyone a chance to be part of
the action by seeing themselves on the
big screen.
Events DC also uses Zoomph (a local
tech company) to engage attendees
during fun runs, festivals, galas, sporting
events and concerts.
Through Zoomph, Events DC and
Georgetown are able to engage in
and generate online conversations that
continue even after an event or game
has concluded.
“We’ve made it our mission to
broaden the narrative about Washington, D.C. DC is not only a city of government, monuments and museums —
and politics isn’t the only game in this
town,” said Moses. “When residents
and visitors have memorable experiences about what our city has to offer,
they become ambassadors for the city
and embrace local teams. These sentiments also shape visitors’ expectations,
demonstrating that if it’s a great place
to live, it’s a great place to visit. We
work to provide residents and visitors
alike with unforgettable experiences
they can share together at all of the
events we host and produce.”
JULY 11-17, 2016
NAME YOUR
GAME.
Make your next event one
to remember. We have the
imagination, venues and knowhow to help you create an original
experience. Visit our photo gallery
to spark some ideas.
RFK Stadium Festival Grounds: 80 acres
of performance space. Open to possibilities
from multi-stage festivals to major concerts.
EVENTSDC.COM/PLAN
Bring Your
Imagination
FAN EXPERIENCE 2016
Experience Gives Fans More Flexibility
When it comes to purchasing tickets
to games and events, sports fans want
the ability to attend certain games and
skip others. They also want to see the full
value from the packages they buy,
even if they cannot make some games.
Providing this flexibility is a challenge
every team and athletic program
faces. Atlanta-based Experience offers
solutions to these challenges via technology integrated into teams’ mobile
apps and venues.
Most teams’ revenue generation
goals still hinge on season ticket sales,
but there is growing recognition of the
need to provide fans with additional
options for ticket purchasing in order to
optimize revenue and create a pipeline
of future season-ticket purchasers.
“Giving the fan base flexibility is nontrivial,” said Greg Foster, CEO of Experience. “It involves an enormous amount
of effort for us to create technology
that allows fans to access different
sports at various times throughout the
year. The reality is, you can’t just
develop that without the expertise.”
Experience, a two-time Sports Business Award winner (Best in Sports Technology in 2014 and Best in Mobile Fan
Experience in 2016), counts about
three-quarters of U.S. professional sports
teams and upwards of 60 college athletic programs as partners. Fully owned
by Cox Enterprises, Experience does not
lack for resources to develop new solutions.
The fan experience is the company’s
core focus because that is the primary
objective of the teams Experience serves. But Foster and his
group are being pulled into highlevel discussions to solve newer
and bigger problems for teams.
“We’re answering those questions with product development,
design and innovation,” Foster
said.
One partner, the University of
South Carolina, “has seen tremendous success using Experience’s technology,” said Eric
Nichols, USC associate athletic
director and chief marketing officer. “For men’s basketball,
we’ve attracted new fans to the
arena — 28 percent more to be
exact. Additionally, our fans that
use Experience’s technology are
attending four times more
games than single-game buyers.
“Not only are we happy with
these results for subscription
access, we’re also giving seasonticket holders more options with their
tickets, allowing our loyal fan base to
add tickets or return tickets for credit, all
via mobile. Experience continues to be
a great partner for us and we plan to
expand the technology across all sports
in 2017.”
Another partner, a professional team
with a winning on-court product, was
looking to create a new rung on the
season-ticket ladder and get a new
type of buyer into its arena. The solution
— use ticket inventory for a subscription
package at a price point that makes
attending the games more attractive to
once-reluctant fans. Now, not only are
more fans attending games, but concession and retail areas are busier and
more profitable as well.
Experience has also helped Oregon
State University implement a new Netflix-like ticketing model, under which fans
pay a monthly subscription fee of $19.99
or an annual fee of $239 for access to
all of the school’s athletic events,
including football and basketball. Foster
sees this model also working in pro
sports, where consumers will be able to
subscribe to a buffet of events in
one market.
The next level of products Experience will introduce will incorporate predictive data, analytics and
social media to increase ticket
sales, give fans a broader experience and facilitate longer-term
relationships between fans and
teams.
While increasing teams’ revenue via ticket sales, flexibility and
repeat business is at the core of
what Experience offers its partners.
The company’s technology also
provides opportunity to expand
sponsorship inventory.
“Sponsors want to spend in
mobile and put relevant advertising in front of people on their
mobile phone,” Foster said. “We
can do that and we can even
bring in new advertisers. That’s a
huge market. Now, we’re talking
billions of dollars that we can
address.”
Foster concluded, “There’s an abundance of issues we can solve. Teams tell
us, ‘Wow, here’s where I was before
Experience, here’s where I am now. I
want more of these innovative ideas.’
“We get asked all the time, ‘What
else do you have that we can take
advantage of?’ That’s a great question
to be able to answer as a business. A
successful company listens and understands demand for certain types of
offerings and our product development
road map is a reflection of that.”
Nothing beats being there.
There’s a reason 325 live sports and entertainment properties rely on our fan experience technology. Last-minute ticket
and subscription access programs powered by Experience
technology drive four to seven times higher fan attendance
compared to traditional ticketing products.
www.expapp.com
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STREET & SMITH’S SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL
JULY 11-17, 2016
FAN EXPERIENCE 2016
When a customer comes back for
more of a product, a company is
doing something right. When most customers do so, you have a trend.
Such is the story of 4Topps Premium
Seating, a manufacturer and marketer
of innovative and functional premium
seating products for stadiums and ballparks. 4Topps’ products have been
installed in venues across the NFL, MLB,
MLS, college sports, the PGA and
Champions Tours, the CFL, minor league
baseball and the Nippon Professional
Baseball in Japan. And in many of these
facilities, there have been multiple
installations. Why? Because fans love
the cool, innovative mesh seats, and
front offices are able to boost their premium seating revenue.
4Topps’ patented flagship product
is four 360-degree swivel seats around
a semi-circle table — a mini, turnkey
loge box. All of their seating products
are made of a breathable mesh material, a welcome departure from the
hard plastic or vinyl seats found in
many sports venues. The mesh seat
also dries instantly after a rainfall.
The 4Topps’ design provides a social
and functional experience for fans, an
enhancement from a typical experience in which four fans seated in a row
barely get a chance to converse with
one another. When the same four people sit at one of 4Topps’ tables, they
watch the game and socialize at the
same time.
“Fans are raving about it and paying top dollar to sit in our seats, and
JULY 11-17, 2016
4TOPPS PREMIUM SEATING
4Topps: Giving Fans the Best Seat in the House
Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Fla., spring training home of the St. Louis Cardinals and Miami
Marlins, converted a section of row seating to 4Topps swivel row seats and table units.
that’s driving teams to find additional
space to put our products,” said Deron
Nardo, 4Topps’ principal and president
of sales and marketing. “With venues
trending away from tightly-packed
seating bowls, we like that our products are able to generate incremental
revenue for teams.”
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
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If a team is interested in maximizing
its venue’s premium spaces, its next
call should be to 4Topps. The Detroit
Tigers, Miami Dolphins, Jacksonville
Jaguars and Sporting Kansas City are
among the teams that have made
that call, and they’re also among the
North Carolina-based company’s doz-
STREET & SMITH’S SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL
ens of repeat customers.
The Tigers furnished their 2014 right
field Pepsi Porch renovation with
4Topps swivel seats and tables and, this
season, asked 4Topps to furnish a
brand new premium area of Comerica
Park. The Jags have furnished three
areas of EverBank Field with 4Topps
tables and barstools.
Because of the intense summer
heat and humidity in Atlanta, the
Braves are installing 2,500 4Topps mesh
row seats in the first 15 rows down the
foul lines at SunTrust Park, making the
best seats in the brand new ballpark
even better. The Braves also sold out of
4Topps’ terrace tables in just two
months.
“There will always be some teams
that sell out consistently because of
their brand, market or a winning culture,” said 4Topps CEO Joe Bellissimo.
“All the rest have to get creative and
offer fans something new, comfortable
and functional.”
The next frontier for 4Topps is suitelevel seating, where teams typically
use traditional seats in the outdoor
areas. Teams can do more to dress up
the outdoor areas of these spaces and
make more comfortable, Nardo and
Bellissimo believe. And while 4Topps’
success has predominantly been in
outdoor sports, the company is starting
to see traction in indoor arenas and
amphitheaters as well.
“Wherever people go to be entertained,” Nardo said, “we want to be
the premium seat of choice.”
31
FAN EXPERIENCE 2016
How do you get a sponsor’s attention? By putting its brand on a fantastic
fan experience and showing the sponsor a great return on its investment with
reliable and detailed metrics.
MVP Interactive, which is quickly
becoming the premier interactive technology provider connecting big-time
brands like Anheuser-Busch and CocaCola with sports teams all over the
county, is doing exactly this.
“We’re providing fantastic, unique
experiences for fans and we are creating a return on investment for sponsors,”
said James Giglio, founder and CEO of
MVP Interactive. “This is the backbone
of our business.”
The Philadelphia-based company is
at the heart of the experiential marketing trend as sponsors are shifting away
from static signage and other traditional forms of in-venue advertising.
Via its cutting-edge technology,
MVP Interactive is helping fans interface
with teams and brands. The technology
includes virtual reality, photo capture,
facial and gesture recognition, character morphing, augmented reality and a
host of multi–touch technology, providing opportunities at venues such as virtual penalty kick shootouts and home
run derbies, an interactive QB Challenge to test fans’ passing ability and
photo activation like virtual bobbleheads, team face paint overlays and
augmented reality player selfies.
This interactive technology — fans
may see as the coolest toys ever —
serves to create brand awareness for
MVP INTERACTIVE
MVP Brings Virtual Reality to Live Events
With installations like the virtual penalty kick shootout, MVP gives sponsors the opportunity to
pair their brands with popular sports experiences and fans the chance to participate.
sponsors and leverages fans’ passion for
their teams. Teams benefit when fans
come to the event early and stay late.
The fan experience goes way beyond
the game on the field.
“It’s a co-branded experience
between the property and the sponsor,
all to the benefit of the fan,” said Giglio.
For sponsors, it’s easy to see the
results. MVP Interactive’s back-end system shows them a true snapshot of how
a day at the stadium or ballpark went.
“The gaping hole in experiential marketing is ROI data,” Giglio added. “Our
technology is able to quantify and track
impression rates and traffic flow, and
we have an integrated dashboard
where we collect user information. The
technology creates a profile of an
event space and we can track how
many people came through, demographics, dwell time, etc.
“That has really caught the interest
of sponsors.”
Anthony DiPrizio, co-founder and
chief technology officer, explains, “Creating a connected 360-degree overview of users’ experiences ties directly
into the growing demand of IoT (Internet of Things).”
MVP Interactive’s technology was
featured at the 2013 NBA All-Star Jam
Session in Houston, which jump started
the company’s relationships with teams
like the Houston Rockets, Houston
Dynamo, New York Giants, Philadelphia
Eagles, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New
York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers,
Los Angeles Clippers and Philadelphia
Phillies.
No team’s venue serves as a better
showcase for MVP’s technology than
the Washington Redskins’ FedEx Field,
where the Bud Light-branded Social
Lounge gives fans the opportunity to
interact with a wide range of the com-
pany’s products. Since opening in 2014,
the Social Longue has been so well
received that the Redskins and their
sponsor keep expanding it.
“It has performed very well,” said
Giglio. “Each season the Redskins and
A-B add new elements to the Social
Longue and then they’ve identified
entire sections of the stadium that were
completely unused that we helped
them activate. So this season, not only
are we going to keep operating our
Social Longue, we’re going to convert
the Bud Light Pavilion into a full-on
‘combine of the future,’ leveraging our
technology. So fans on the opposite
end of the stadium can now participate in this really cool interactive combine experience, where you’re going
through the same activities players do
during the draft combine – the vertical
jump and 40-yard dash, for example.”
MVP Interactive is also helping the
Bucs sell season tickets with a virtual reality experience in the team’s sales center.
Through 3-D architectural renderings and
imaging of Jameis Winston and on-air
talent, fans get a virtual tour of the newly
enhanced Raymond James Stadium.
“We want the marketplace to see us
as the go-to provider for whatever
technology they want to implement,”
said Giglio, who launched the company in 2012 and just sat on the NFL
innovation panel at Bud Light’s NFL Partner Summit, along with A-B, WME|IMG
and The Players’ Tribune. “And the market is starting to see us as such. It’s an
awesome start.”
MVP-INTERACTIVE.COM 211 N 13TH STREET #702 PHILADELPHIA PA 19107 267-273-0176
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STREET & SMITH’S SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL
JULY 11-17, 2016
FAN EXPERIENCE 2016
Something seemed different to a
longtime Arizona Cardinals’ seasonticket holder as he sat in the stands
watching his team play the San Diego
Chargers on the first Monday night of
the 2014 season.
“It looks like they repainted the field,”
he said to his friend sitting next to him.
“The colors are much more vibrant than
they’ve been here in the past. It looks
amazing.”
Except it was not new paint, nor was
it new Cardinals uniforms making the
colors on the field pop.
“I heard the Cardinals replaced their
lighting system,” his friend said.
He was right — the Cardinals had just
installed Ephesus’ LED lighting technology at University of Phoenix Stadium. The
decision to become the first NFL venue
lit with LED lighting was driven, in no
small part, by the fact that the facility
would be hosting the Fiesta Bowl on
New Year’s Eve and Super Bowl XLIX in
February.
Traditionally, when sports teams and
facility managers thought about the
benefits of installing an LED lighting system, it was energy efficiency, environmental friendliness and low heat emissions that came to mind. Fan experience was not necessarily atop of the
list. That notion, however, is changing.
“What we’re seeing is that the fan
The fan experience is
impacted dramatically
by Ephesus’ capability
to adjust the tone of the
lighting for each event.
experiential impact of LED lighting is driving the purchase decisions of professional sports teams and facilities,” said
Mike Lorenz, president at Ephesus Lighting Inc. “Teams and facilities understand
the benefits for players and that the systems are energy efficient, reduce maintenance costs and improve the presentation on television. But the fan piece of
the story is quickly evolving and it’s exciting the maturation of the market.”
Bridgestone Arena in Nashville is a
great example of how the fan experience has been enhanced with the
addition of Ephesus’ LED lighting systems. The Predators game presentation
staff now has the ability to control and
integrate the lighting at the beginning
of games and during intermissions.
“You can hear the fans gasp when
the lights all go dark, all come on and
all go dark again,” said Lorenz.
The multi-use Bridgestone Arena also
hosts regional and national college basketball tournaments, concerts, family
shows, ice performances and special
events, like the Country Music Association Awards and even the 2016 NHL AllStar Game.
These events all have different lighting requirements and their presentations are improved by adjusting the
color and tone of the lights. The Ephesus
system allows venue operators to transition seamlessly from hockey to rock and
JULY 11-17, 2016
JOHN RUSSELL
Ephesus Makes Lighting a New
Element in the Game Experience
Bridgestone Arena, home of the Nashville Predators, is using Ephesus lighting to add a new dynamic to their game presentation — adjusting
lighting tones to fit the event and create dramatic transitions from live action to breaks.
roll to basketball to shows for the kids —
with just the push of the button.
The fan experience is impacted dramatically by Ephesus’ capability to
adjust the kelvin temperature to personalize the tone of the lighting for each
event. For a basketball game, warmer
lighting is optimal because fans can
better see the wood tones of the floor
and flesh tones of the players. For
hockey games, cooler light is best.
“Aesthetically, it dramatically
enhances the look of the event for
fans,” Lorenz said.
He added, “The fan is now getting
consistent light based on the event or
activity they are watching. They can
count on the light matching that activity
and enhancing their experience. And
that’s a really cool effect. Before the
advent of LED, lighting technicians were
compromising to a middle ground, a
place that wasn’t great for anyone, but
was okay for everyone. LED lighting
allows them to be much more specific
with how they light an event.”
Out with the old,
in with the new
As a digital lighting company, Ephesus engineers its products differently
than sports lighting providers have for
the past 50 years. For example, all Ephesus sports fixtures are built with the power
supply integrated into the rest of the fixture — similar to how power supplies are
integrated into mobile phones and
computers — as opposed to the conventional lighting approach of installing
the power supply as a separate component. This traditional approach is inefficient and can result in interference
between the lighting fixture and other
electronic devices in sports venues.
“Our engineers utilized a unique perspective to design our state-of-the-art
digital lighting solutions because they
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do not come from a traditional, bulbbased lighting background,” explains
Lorenz. “As a result, we have been able
to debunk many preconceived notions
to revolutionize sports lighting with innovative solutions that offer facility managers many benefits beyond just
energy efficiency and better quality
lighting.”
Also, because of a new predictive
feature of Ephesus’ lighting systems, the
company’s customers are never left in
the dark.
With traditional lighting systems, we
could see only if a light was on or off.
Ephesus’ systems can gauge the health
of a light, monitor it and predict the performance of a system before it fails or
even before a single light fails.
“This is fantastic from an operator’s
perspective,” said Lorenz.
Making the
broadcast better
While Ephesus’ LED system is best
known for allowing fans in the arena,
ballpark or stadium to see a better
game, it also enhances the way highdefinition television cameras see the
light. The company has been integrating the Television Lighting Consistency
Index (TLCI) into its systems with an eye
on moving its technology up that scale.
A higher TLCI translates to broadcasters’ ability to maintain consistent
light in the shows being watched by millions of fans. This is especially important
for outdoor venues or those affected by
changes in natural light as daytime
fades into darkness.
Said Lorenz, “The broadcast quality
allows the production team to transmit
the image in a much more vivid and
accurate color rendering than the case
with other lighting systems where they
are forced to actually Photoshop the
image before transmitting it.”
STREET & SMITH’S SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL
What’s next?
Thanks in part to Ephesus, the fan
experience will continue to improve. In
the near future, facility managers can
expect the Ephesus system to offer
additional intelligence to connect with
wearable technologies. There will be
more information available to spectators in the venue based on sensing
technology and player wearables that
will allow fans to track how fast a player
is running, how hard a ball is being hit or
how fast a ball is being pitched. Adding
cool features like this will not be difficult
for Ephesus customers.
“We built our technology with the
ability to upgrade to that level of intelligence when the technology is available, so you won’t have to replace the
system,” said Lorenz. “We can just
upgrade the software for a system,
much like you would update your
phone or computer.”
Ephesus does it all
With an industry-leading 500-plus
installations, Ephesus’ systems have
been in operation for more than 270
million hours since the company
became the first to install an LED lighting
system at a professional sports venue in
North America in 2012. The company’s
LED lighting is in indoor and outdoor
venues, spanning from pro facilities to
college facilities to municipal fields.
“This is an exciting time to be part of
the rebirth of sports lighting. After a
60-year run, the industry realizes the benefits of well-designed solid-state LED
sports lighting and is embracing it as a
far better alternative to legacy metal
halide fixtures for new and existing applications,” said Lorenz. “We have been
lighting a wide range of venues from all
four major professional sports to universities to municipal ball fields with the best
technology in the marketplace.”
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