There’s no doubt that fan expectations have changed. They want as many connective avenues as possible to their favorite players and teams -- and those experiences need to be as catered as ever to their wants and interests. The ability to hit that evolving (and moving) target rang true in various panels throughout SBJ Tech Week.
One example: Camb.ai and its CTO Akshat Prakash. The startup, one of SBJ’s 10 Most Innovative Sports Tech Companies, has found success in developing AI to break language barriers for live sports broadcasts. As international aspirations grow for domestic leagues -- a point thoroughly broken down by NBA President/New Business Ventures Amy Brooks in a Wednesday panel -- they have to be ready to communicate with their budding fans.
“The goal really here is to make sure that you guys and us, we reach every fan in their native language,” Prakash said. “And so, converting content is merely the first step. Sure, broadcasting on VOD, but then your fan engagement needs to be in multiple languages, your PR and marketing, your internal training, your ops. You need to become a multilingual organization to go global.”
MLB’s Karri Zaremba described the greater fan experience pursuit with a wonderful turn-of-phrase. The SVP/product sees her league as “the stewards of nostalgia for our fans.”
Zaremba described an all-encompassing effort to understand what their fans want -- surveying, email outreach, in-person conversations stationed outside of the venue experiences. It’s a comprehensive endeavor to understand what fans need to enjoy the ballpark experience.
It’s why MLB has undergone work to eliminate a major friction point via stadium entry through their Go-Ahead Entry facial authentication. Zaremba said key tent poles of that tech deployment focused on making it an “eyes-up” experience, so that fans start taking in the scene instead of fumbling through the typical ticketing procedure. Creating less friction, in Zaremba’s mind, opens up more opportunity for memories to take hold.
“The rational brain’s job isn’t to decide -- decide to buy a ticket, decide to attend a game, decide to become a season ticket holder,” Zaremba said while harkening back to her early fandom, “but the rational brain’s job is to justify the choice that emotions already made.”
In a panel centering on digital innovation, SailGP’s Melissa Lawton pointed out that the league intentionally combs fan feedback from channels such as Instagram and Reddit to inform broadcast augmentations and leans on viral social media moments to drive interest.
“[Fans] are like, ‘Why did that boat get right of way?’ And we go, ‘OK, how do we explain this?’ We have all the data,” Lawton said, citing an addition SailGP made to its SBA: Tech award-winning LiveLineFX graphics system. “We created these circles -- a red circle means ‘no right of way,’ a green circle means ‘right of way.’ That’s autonomously put on using the data we have. In the broadcast, that’s really effective.”
