Dive Brief:
- The USTA, the organization that runs the annual U.S. Open tennis tournament, knows a majority of the Open’s audience consumes content on mobile devices and in response is giving them content in droves.
- U.S. Open partner IBM is providing design and tech for the event's apps, with content including real-time data, push notifications and Snapchat videos.
- IBM embedded 45 employees at the site during the two week tennis tournament to make the content push happen.
Dive Insight:
The United States Tennis Association, who is behind the final grand slam event on the yearly tennis calendar, knows its audience. Given that knowledge, the USTA offered tennis fans access to a range of mobile content through apps powered through a partnership with IBM.
Nicole Jeter West, managing director of ticketing and digital strategy for USTA, told The Wall Street Journal, “For two weeks, our website and mobile apps generate about 50 times their normal traffic. So it is really important that we have an infrastructure in place to accommodate that. The IBM folks really become part of our staff during the Open.”
She explained that IBM's data helps pinpoint pivotal moments in matches, that in turn informs the content that gets served. That content includes real-time data on match and player stats, Snapchat videos and even push notifications on-site via an array of mobile beacons around the tournament grounds.
Fans attending the yearly event in New York will see that IBM is on the tournament grounds and be alerted to information about the company's data, cloud computing and enterprise expertise. Paul Papas, global leader at IBM Interactive Experience, told The Wall Street Journal the U.S. Open partnership can not only serve as consumer advertising for the tech company, but also an example for prospective sports and retail clients interested in utilizing IBM's mobile tech.
“We do bring lots of clients there [during the tournament's two weeks], especially companies from the banking and retail world. They all want to push the envelope in terms of customer experience. And they all want to turn customers into fans for their brands," Papas told WSJ.
A USTA-created Live Story for Snapchat of the best fan clips from the first day of the tournament garnered 10 million unique viewers, according to the messaging app.
