As sports fans, we show up on gameday expecting to be entertained by the game on the field. Jay O’Brien takes us inside the production side of the gameday experience that fans don’t always get to see. As the VP of Broadcasting & Gameday Productions for the Baltimore Ravens, O’Brien is the thought-leader behind building an immersive, interactive gameday experience for fans. “For all of us who wish we were pro athletes, it’s such a rush to be able, we think, to affect the game.”
As we pass the halfway point of the NFL season, Jay joins us on #Stoyteller to chat all things fan engagement, and how sports marketers can directly impact the sport, themselves.
On affecting the outcome of the game using content:
For all of us who wish we were pro athletes, it’s such a rush to be able, we think, to affect the game. So one example is in our home opener, we played the Arizona Cardinals. And it was Kyler Murray’s first road game. So we launched a new stadium moment, a video, we had a bunch of large flags waving and it brought a ton of energy. We were hoping that our fans would latch onto it, which they did. The stadium was rocking so much that the Cardinals had a false start or had to call a timeout or maybe it was both. But in the post game press conference, Kyler Murray referenced that our stadium was loud as hell and that it affected them. That’s such a badge of honor for our fans, and for us as the content producers.
On receiving feedback from fans:
I’m certainly guilty of this, that you get so close to it, you can think from your eyes you’re giving the fans exactly what they want. And we’re lucky that we receive a lot of fan survey results after every game. And the fans will tell us, we’re not doing enough out of town scores, I can’t see this, this piece of content is great but I couldn’t hear it. So that feedback is great and then you can take a step back, and say alright, I understand it.
On the power of a ‘share’:
The best stories evoke a response. You know when we’re posting our content onto social media, if people are sharing the content or retweeting the content or commenting on the content, talking about it, for us that’s such a win. Especially the share. The views are great, but for me, it’s about the shares. It’s about someone saying, ‘this content is really good. Friends and family, you guys should really watch this’.
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