Just in time for the AFL season kick-off this weekend comes the announcement that Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium has received a $10 million digital upgrade to make it the most advanced and connected stadium in Australia.
And to announce the digital improvements to fans, Admark has produced a multi channel campaign to launch long-term client Etihad Stadium.
Admark creative director Andrew Crook said Etihad Stadium will “turn spectators into game day participants, utilising high density Wi-Fi and a new Stadium App.” The campaign uses digital, television, print, radio and in-stadium brand activations.
The announcement follows on from the AFL’s commitment to becoming the most digital savvy sport in Australia.
Last month the AFL’s general manager of media, Peter Campbell, was quoted in B&T as saying that “data-tainment” was the way the it now wanted to engage with fans.
Campbell said fans wanted a lot more than just the action out on the field and gone were the days when “putting on a scarf and beanie” and sitting in the bleachers was all you had to do to give fans a “sense of tribe and community at a match”.
“It’s not just what’s going on on the ground anymore,” Campbell said. “It’s what’s on the big screens, the perimeter hoardings; the music over the PA, a fan’s engagement with their friends and other supporters on social. There’s just as much uploading at games these days as there is downloading.
“The next big thing, the next evolving shift for us as a sport and the fan experience is what’s happening at venues. The ability to be connected at all times within the venue, to be able to access live matches, stats, highlights, news information, and particularly being social with other supporters,” he said.