While I am having a wonderful festive time in San Francisco right now I really would love to be on the Sydney foreshore for the New Year’s Eve celebration tonight.
LIVE coverage and all the photos will be found here
What I’m missing promises to be a truly amazing event as Telstra in partnership with Imagination the Sydney NYE event producer and the City of Sydney activates the official 2012 Sydney New Year’s Eve celebrations by lighting up the Sydney harbour like never before.
Telstra has created the official smartphone app that features how you can take part in an interactive light show as well as send messages to the Harbour Bridge throughout the night.
Cool!
It’s certainly not too late to join in the event so watch the below video links this will lead you to download either the iPhone or Android versions.
During the nights celebrations, the app drives four amazing Telstra Colour Moments in the lead-up to midnight. To join in the fun simply tap on the ‘Colour Moments’ tab on the official app. At 10:15PM, 11:00PM, 11:30PM and 11:45PM, your smartphone will automatically sync with a colourful light and fireworks show around the harbour.
Once last thing if you are on the Sydney foreshore for New Year’s Eve make sure you hold your phone above your head to help transform the Sydney foreshore into a dazzling sea of colour. Check out what’s planned tonight with this video from Australia’s Queen of Pop, Kylie Minogue, the Creative Ambassador for 2012 Sydney New Year’s Eve.
Rugby League fans will, for the first time, be able to watch matches live on mobile phones and tablets, regardless of their carrier, under a five-year digital media and sponsorship agreement between Telstra and the Australian Rugby League Commission, announced today.
Under the partnership, Telstra will have:
Exclusive broadcast rights of all NRL matches for mobile and tablet devices*,
Naming rights to the Premiership and Sunday Football,
Operation of the NRL website and related team sites, the official NRL app, and the official NRL fantasy games;
Extensive highlights packages during and after games
Exclusive post game access/press conferences to mobile and tablet devices
Extensive signage and marketing activation rights.
Telstra Media working alongside Australian Rugby League Commission will deliver a game-wide NRL digital strategy committed to providing fans with the ultimate digital experience.
For the first time, Rugby League fans will be able to watch Telstra Premiership, State of Origin and Test matches live to-air on mobile phones and tablets via the Official NRL App on iPhone and Android, regardless of their carrier. Matches on Channel 9 will be simulcast and those on Fox Sports will be live.
A full-time NRL Digital Media production unit will be established working out of Rugby League Central and featuring a large full-time staff focussed to deliver and provide fans with the best digital content in Australian sport, including unprecedented levels of video, player interviews and special behind-the-scenes.
Rugby League’s technology platforms will be rebuilt from the ground up, with the NRL, NRL clubs, NSWRL, QRL and One Community all slated for new digital solutions that will give fans fun and easy interactive access to all the latest content. Fans will have access to extensive highlights packages during and after games and to exclusive post-game features and press conferences on their mobile and tablet devices.
Interim ARLC CEO, Shane Mattiske, said the new partnership Telstra and the ARLC will jointly deliver more fans unprecedented coverage of the game and benefits that flowed through to the sport’s grassroots.
“The Telstra Premiership is the longest running competition naming rights sponsorship in Australian sport and to extend that with the most significant naming rights sponsorship investment in the game’s history is a wonderful indication of the strength of Rugby League’s brand,” Mr Mattiske said.
“Telstra’s proud history in supporting Rugby League and its fans at all levels of the game, from the Telstra Premiership through to the game’s grass-roots and community programs, is at the heart of its commitment to providing the investment and latest technology for a digital network that is changing the ways fans connect with the game.
“Together we have achieved significant growth in the game’s digital network over the past few years and this new investment will fast-track its future development and provide fans with unrivalled coverage and engagement with the game.”
Question time at Telstra Experience Centre
From left to right: Rick Ellis Group Managing Director Telstra Media, David Thodey CEO Telstra, John Grant Chairman Australian Rugby League Commision, Shane Mattiske Interim ARLC CEO
Telstra Chief Executive Officer, Mr David Thodey, said Telstra was unmatched in its ability and commitment to deliver Rugby League to more Australians and match content will be available to all consumers via the NRL app.
“Australians have embraced smartphones and tablet devices and this partnership provides for us to make the app and its live coverage available to all NRL fans where and when they want it,” Mr Thodey said.
“Whether it is watching live coverage of the Telstra Premiership while they are out and about, catching up on latest news or highlights or competing with friends in fantasy football and tipping, the 2013 season will see Telstra and the NRL deliver an unprecedented experience,” he said.
Mr Thodey said that as well as taking the league to a wider audience, the partnership between Telstra and the NRL would support the continued growth, success and enjoyment of the game.
“At NRL games and events, fans will have the opportunity to interact with the sport and their heroes in new and unique ways. Meanwhile we will continue to develop the sport through local community programs,” he said.
*Five matches per round live and three as per Nine Network broadcast times
Today is the 152nd Melbourne Cup, Australia’s major thoroughbred horse race and marketed in our sporting calendar on the first Tuesday in November as “the race that stops a nation”. It is a 3,200 metre race for three-year-olds known around the world as richest two-mile handicap. The event is hosted by the Victoria Racing Club on the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne.
The best way to prepare for this exciting event today is to visit Telstra Media’s Racing Network so you can be best prepared for your afternoon flutter.
The Racing Network is a four screen digital experience consisting of a dedicated IPTV channel, a powerful and exciting online and mobile destination that offers best-of-breed Australian thoroughbred racing information and multimedia content from TVN (ThoroughVision), Best Bets and editorial support from Telstra Media Sports team.
This month during the Spring Carnival we have launched a new IPhone app offering all racing enthusiasts the opportunity to watch daily live thoroughbred racing from Sydney and Melbourne metropolitan and Victorian race tracks via 3G and 4G mobile. The app also offers latest racing news, Best Bets Form and Results, Profiles (Horse, Jockey and Trainer), Stewards Reports and much more.
The Odds Comparator is a popular feature that is present throughout the online and mobile sites, providing frequently updated odds for every race. Fans of the Sport of Kings will also be able to place a bet through the Wagering Comparator via a selection of approved wagering company websites.
The linchpin of the Racing Network destination is the Calendar, which gives you access to every race during the season and all relevant racing data. Use the dashboard for quick access to live vision, next to jump form data and Race Books.
So what are you waiting for, get a closer look at this years Melbourne Cup at The Racing Network.
GameArena from Telstra Media is one of Australia’s largest and longest serving games services that is celebrating ten years of operation this month.
GameArena is a destination for Australian gamers that features hard-hitting editorial news, reviews and previews and a massive community of active gamers featuring ladder competitions, epic forums and hundreds of game servers.
GameArena gives gamers the opportunity to buy, rent and play from the largest and best range of both online and direct to mobile games available. GameArena is where Australians can chat to other gamers, join online games, win great prizes, and get the latest reviews and trailers of PC, Xbox, Nintendo, Playstation as well as smart mobile device games.
GameArena members can enter a round robin competition with players vying for the wall of honour, or you can book a gamer server to play with friends. the destination offers a rich digital media environment for brands to reach a hard to get audience through pre-roll and video sponsorship opportunities.
Advertising can be booked on cult-status gaming programs, 5 Inch Floppy, The Benny and Richie Show and GameArena’s Weekly Update that has just celebrated 300 episodes.
GameArena currently operates over 100 gaming servers, which are monitored by a volunteer force of administrators, known as GameOps. Over 2,802,955 forum posts have been logged to date from over 120,000 active community members each month.
GameCreate is a service offered free of charge where users may book a server for a specific game for a 2 hour period of time. This server is private and can be used for either ladder training or social events.
Our massive file library, public servers and booking service is freely available to anyone, but provides specific advantages to Telstra broadband customers such as preference in downloads and unmetered usage. In order to gain access to a majority of game servers, the client The Arena, can be installed to connect through company firewalls. This means that GameArena administrators can ensure troublemakers are consistently dealt with.
So where are we headed with GameArena over the next ten years?
No doubt more gaming, more gaming partners and of course more on demand services that allows direct and on-demand streaming of games onto a computer or other connected devices is our future. This new gaming world will be similar to video on demand or music on demand product offering through the use of a thin client, in which the actual game is stored on the operator’s server and is streamed directly to connected Internet devices accessing the server through the client.
This streaming future will allow access to games without the need of a console and largely makes the capability of the user’s computer unimportant, as the server is the system that is running the processing needs. The controls and button presses from the user are transmitted directly to the server, where they are recorded, and the server then sends back the game’s response to the input controls.
When I was Executive Producer at News Interactive (now News Digital Media) way back in 1997 I worked with the Australian Football League launching and maintaining their very first web site, as part of a joint venture between News Limited and Network Seven.
On launching AFL.com.au back last century it soon became the most popular sporting web site in Australia.
Some fifteen years later it still remains the number one sporting web site and I find myself back working alongside the AFL on their digital strategy this time with Telstra Media. How lucky am I!
This year was an unprecedented season using digital channels to engage with fans. To celebrate we have gathered with our 2012 advertisers at the Studio, Etihad Stadium to launch the 2013 Digital Media AFL advertising sales and sponsorship packages.
Checked in at Etihad Stadium for the 2013 Telstra and AFL Digital Media Melbourne Launch
In 2012 the AFL have broken new ground for sports broadcasting in Australia as for the first time, the sport was watched by fans across four different platforms, from terrestrial to subscription television, from IPTV to coverage streamed live via mobile handsets and tablets.
The AFL broadcast rights agreement for 2012-17 was a landmark agreement, valued at $1.25bn, a record rights deal for Australian sport. It has seen Channel Seven, the free-to-air broadcaster, televise three live games per week – one on Friday night, one Saturday night, one Sunday twilight – as well as a Saturday afternoon game more often than not on delay. FOXTEL has re-establish the beloved Fox Footy channel, and telecast five live games exclusively each weekend, as well as simulcast every other match with Channel Seven.
What’s more, the new rights agreement has allowed the AFL to establish AFL Media to drive editorial content for AFL.com.au and associated products with a view towards independent and newsworthy coverage, with exclusive access and the ability to break stories. Highly-valued journalists such as newsbreaker Damien Barrett joined the team, while former News managing editor Matt Pinkney headed up the editorial team.
As the digital rights holder, Telstra steeped up in 2012 to maintain the delivery of AFL.com.au via relationships and deals with outside agencies that in turn provided everything from raw in-game statistical numbers to tailored data to facilitate fantasy sports and other related products to continue to provide an interactive experience for fans wishing to interact with the game be it via a game experience or via tipping, as well as hosting and maintaining AFL.com.au for the period of the new rights deal.
Telstra is the exclusive mobile broadcaster, allowing the fans to take the football with them wherever they were, meaning that follower’s of ‘Australia’s Game’ would never miss a minute of the action in the 2012 Toyota AFL Premiership season, as they were able to watch every match on their mobile handset or tablet device.
This in turn lead to the development of the AFL Live Official App, launched for iPhone, iPad and Android platforms ahead of the regular season beginning in late March, 2012. The AFL Live Official App incorporates content from AFL.com.au as well as the live streaming capabilities delivered by Telstra to effectively become a one-stop shop for fans of the game.
This was created by Telstra Media utilising a range of different outside vendors who provide app building services, as well as Telstra internal agencies that are able engineer the delivery of the live streaming platforms within the app experience.
Once fans have downloaded the AFL Live Official App, they are able to consume a variety of free content, from news and latest ladder positions, to in-depth coverage as part of the match centre, covering all live games and incorporating live stats delivered by an external vendor to Telstra and the AFL who produced the official AFL stats via an xml feed fed into the system via Telstra’s engineering team.
Another free component of the AFL Live Official App has been the availability of full radio coverage from each broadcaster being available to all users, regardless of whether or not they were Telstra customers. The greatest advantage held by Telstra customers in this regard is that the AFL Live Official App is unmetered for Telstra customers, meaning that their use of data is not charged against their plan.
From within the match centre itself, fans are able to select to watch a live match, and elect to subscribe free for the first month, before deciding whether to pay on a match-by-match basis, buy a monthly pass, or purchase a season pass. The subscription service has been made available exclusively to Telstra customers in 2012, and was also unmetered for subscribers.
Telstra has worked collaboratively with the AFL to deliver a host of products with integrated sponsorship between editorial content provided by AFL Media and advertising agencies, an innovative team structure that has allowed product managers and sponsorship managers on both sides of the divide to come together to deliver the best outcome for both fans and advertisers.
The success of the AFL Live Official App on both the iOS and Android platforms has been nothing short of extraordinary from both a commercial and engagement perspective. To the end of August, 2012, some fine months after launch, the AFL Live Official App had been downloaded just shy of 900,000 times across both platforms, with fan engagement attracting over 17 million page impressions, 500,000 unique visitors, and nearly 2.5 million visits each week.
The subscription service has also been a success, generating revenue for Telstra as part of the rights agreement. The streaming of live games regularly attracts over 25,000 viewers who watch around one million minutes of live football each round via their mobile handset or tablet.
So while this year has been big, expect 2013 to be even bigger.
This month we re-launched our Mobile FOXTEL product in response to customer feedback. Mobile FOXTEL from Telstra is Australia’s only streaming pay-tv service on your mobile phone or tablet. Mobile FOXTEL has 35 channels you can choose from across a wide variety of channels.
Mobile FOXTEL offers Telstra customers access to a wide range of custom-programmed TV channels from Foxtel covering sports, entertainment and the latest news. The product is available on a range of compatible Next G™ handsets, Android, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and our mobile tablet range of devices including the Apple iPad and iPad 2.
Search for “Mobile FOXTEL” in either the AppsStore or in the Google Play Market place. Mobile Foxtel is also available from your mobile browser. Visit m.bigpond.com and scroll down to Mobile Foxtel and follow the direction to subscribe to the pack of your choice. Mobile Foxtel is Unmetered. Telstra Mobile customers are not charge for any data usage whilst watching Mobile Foxtel.
For our re-launch we have improved the content channels available and simplified pricing so we can now offer a selection of great value subscription packs. One month free trial – An introductory offer is available whereby customers with a compatible post paid or prepaid mobile can get a free trial of the new ‘Ultimate Pack’ for one month (30 days).
There are three packages available to subscribe to:
Value Pack
16 Channels $2 per week (Prepaid) or $8 per month (Postpaid)
SKY NEWS NATIONAL, SKY NEWS Business, BBC World News, CNN, FOX SPORTS News, Cartoon Network, National Geographic Channel, The Weather Channel, [V], Nickelodeon, TV1, Discovery Channel Mobile, Channel [V], MAX, ABC and SBS.
Ultimate Pack
30 Channels $3.75 per week (Prepaid) or $15 per month (Postpaid)
SKY NEWS NATIONAL, SKY NEWS Business, BBC World News, CNN, FOX SPORTS News, Cartoon Network, National Geographic Channel, The Weather Channel, [V], Nickelodeon, TV1, Discovery Channel Mobile, Channel [V], MAX, Eurosportnews, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Nick Jr., SCI FI, E!, FOX8, The Comedy Channel, [V] HITS, Nat Geo Adventure, Arena, The LifeStyle Channel, LifeStyle YOU, and the Crime & Investigation Network, ABC and SBS
Ultimate Pack & Plus Sport
35 Channels $5 per week (Prepaid) or $20 per month (Postpaid)
AFL FOOTY.TV, NRL LEAGUE.TV, Sports Play powered by FOX SPORTS, EuroSport, BigPond Sport, SKY NEWS NATIONAL, SKY NEWS Business, BBC World News, CNN, FOX SPORTS News, Cartoon Network, National Geographic Channel, The Weather Channel, [V], Nickelodeon, TV1, Discovery Channel Mobile, Channel [V], MAX, Eurosportnews, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Nick Jr., SCI FI, E!, FOX8, The Comedy Channel, [V] HITS, Nat Geo Adventure, Arena, The LifeStyle Channel, LifeStyle YOU, and the Crime & Investigation Network, ABC and SBS
Living in Australia, it is hard not to be tempted by the sheer volume of great restaurants to go to and eat at.
That said, there is nothing more disheartening than deciding on a place where you can go and grab a dinner with friends only to find out that the idea on whim of eating out is dashed by the restaurant not having a table available.
Even the hassle of having to wait for a restaurant to answer the phone, only to find out they don’t have a table available could also well be the thing of the past.
One of my favourite mobile apps living and working in San Francisco is OpenTable. It offers subscribers online real-time restaurant-reservation service. Reservations are free to end users and the company charges restaurants monthly and per-reservation fees for their use of the system. It has since expanded to cover 25,000 restaurants in most U.S. states as well as in several major international cities.
With no Open Table service in Australia it was not going to be long before a local innovative company started a restaurant booking service.
Introducing Dimmi, designed to bring diners and restaurants together.
Dimmi, has been up and running since September 2009 and already has partnerships with more than 2,500 Australian restaurants, and has seated more than 2.5 million diners since starting. While it trails OpenTable’s 325 million diners since 1998, it is off to a very strong start and currently has 30 employees.
With this type of up take and growth it was no surprise that the venture capital arm of Telstra has decided to make an investment in the Australian company. While the financial terms of the deal can not be undisclosed, it’s a cornerstone shareholding in the business along side Village Roadshow as a foundation investor.
Dimmi CEO and founder Stevan Premutico said the Telstra-Village deal is as much about strategic expertise and distribution as it is about capital, but insists Dimmi will continue to operate as a separate entity.
“It’s really important for us to continue to operate as a small, fast, nimble business, and we continue to operate as Dimmi,” he says.
“We will just have additional ammunition supplied through new distribution channels and new partnership opportunities powered by Telstra and Village.
Dimmi’s chairman is Macquarie Group division director Glen Butler while nonexecutive directors include Google’s Asia Pacific Director of Mobile William Easton, LinkedIn Managing Director of Australia and New Zealand Cliff Rosenberg and now Group Managing Director of Telstra Applications and Ventures Deena Shiff.
Dimmi is real-time using a state-of-the art Electronic Reservation System which allows users to conveniently make instant reservations 24/7. When booking with Dimmi a user connects directly into the restaurants Electronic Reservation System to check real-time availability.
In the event that the restaurant is full, the appication automatically offer you the next best available time. The booking is immediately recorded in the restaurants Reservation System and you receive an instant Booking Confirmation by e-mail. And because Dimmi knows you live a busy life, 24 hours prior to the meal the service will send users a reminder by e-mail. Its that simple, just like booking a hotel or an airline.
Dimmi works off a performance-based revenue model – restaurants pay between $1 and $3 per customer, or $6.60 a table, in exchange for using the Dimmi platform.
From today, Australians can now access more than 16 million music tracks, discover new music with ease, access a massive catalogue of Australian music and never listen to an ad, with the launch of MOG music streaming service from Telstra.
MOG Inc. is a next-generation music media company founded in June 2005 by David Hyman, former CEO for Gracenote, former SVP of Marketing at MTV Interactive, and former Director of Ad Sales for Addicted to Noise.
David Hyman and myself at the MOG office in Berkeley, San Francisco
MOG began as a music-themed social network and blog network. Users could create profiles with information about their music tastes, and the now-discontinued MOG-O-MATIC client application assisted in the process by scanning users’ music libraries and populating their profiles with information about their music collection and listening activities.
MOG’s all-you-can-eat, on-demand listening service provides access to a vast library of over 16 million songs through its mobile apps on iPhone, iPad, iTouch and Android, online, on compatible streaming entertainment devices, Internet connected TVs and Blu-ray players and in the car.
MOG Inc. is also the provider of The MOG Music Network (MMN), a premier destination for music content online and largest music focused advertising network consisting of over 1000 music sites, reaching more than 60 million people each month (comScore 2012).
The new partnership between the award-winning MOG, and Australia’s leading telecommunications and digital content provider, Telstra, will deliver the highest quality streaming music service available in Australia (320kbps), via compatible PC’s, digital music players, Apple and Android smartphones, tablets and wireless HiFi systems such as Logitech Squeezebox and Sonos Music Systems. Other devices including Telstra home devices such as T-Box will be launched in the future.
MOG is available to all Australians, starting with a two-week free trial and regardless of their ISP or phone provider, with Telstra customers receiving the extra benefit of no data charges and the unmatched coverage of the Next G network.
At $6.99 per month for the PC-based service, or $11.99 per month for mobile devices, MOGdelivers 24/7 ad-free music listening.
To launch MOG in Australia Telstra Media teamed up with SBS show RocKwiz at Sydney’s Metro Theatre on Tuesday night to launch Telstra’s new MOG music streaming service.
We gathered the two most powerful players in the music business, Michael Gudinski and Michael Chugg to go head to head as team captains on the legendary SBS show with RocKwiz doing a private show, the first ever.
ARIA Award winner, Clare Bowditch, sees music subscription as an important part of the future landscape for Australian music lovers.
“The way we listen to music has changed enormously over the course of my life. From single CD’s on the CD Walkman – remember how frustrating it was trying to actually walk with them? – to online music subscription services like MOG. I am always on the hunt not only for new artists but also for hard-to-come-by rarities. MOG lets me do both of those things really easily, right from my smart phone” Clare said.
“One feature of MOG that I am especially enjoying is MOG Radio. It allows me to look up an old time artist like Lil Armstrong, whose music I’ve struggled to find elsewhere, and then, get suggestions about similar artists that other listeners have discovered, based on their own musical tastes.
“So a Lil Armstrong fan may lead me to Lanie Lane, C.W. Stoneking or some other brilliant music-makers who you would not necessarily have heard if you were just listening to commercial radio. It’s a really simple, rather ingenious way to discover new music, and to give old songs a new life,” she said.
Clare also said she will be watching the growth of subscription music services with interest as an artist.
“There are still many questions to be answered and much to learn about the way online music subscription will affect and change how we listen to and appreciate music. At this stage, the early signs for music-makers themselves look generally positive because music subscription offers an attractive alternative to music-piracy and a new way of exposure for artists.
“What we know without doubt from a music-lovers point of view is that we live in extremely fortunate times indeed,” she said.
An email to my friends at BBDO and Proximity Worldwide,
After five years in the BBDO and Proximity networks, and thirteen years in total in the Omnicom Group I leave today the advertising agency world for a new role at Telstra Corporation.
I have accepted a newly created position, Director of Digital Media and Content in a newly established division called Telstra Media based in Sydney. Telstra Media has been established to manage Telstra’s end-to-end media capabilities led by newly apppointed Group Managing Director Rick Ellis former CEO of TVNZ. The new division will consist of over 4,000 staff and over $4 billion in combined annual revenues.
Telstra Media has the operating responsibilities of FOXTEL pay TV business, Telstra IPTV business including the global award winning set-top box the T-Box. The BigPond Movies app that has already accumulated over 3,000 film titles with over 2.4 million movies downloaded by customers to date.
The BigPond news, lifestyle and entertainment portal and mobile feature phone properties that reach over four million unique users a month.
Also in the media portfolio is the marketing services division Sensis which includes Yellow and White directory digital media products.
Besides Telstra’s eclectic mix of media businesses, the deciding factor to take on this new opportunity was the company’s involvement in the Australian federal government’s National Broadband Network agenda. Telstra has recently announced a major commitment to media flagging new upgrades in its media delivery infrastructure, namely in video distribution capabilities for broadcast-quality video streaming services to any device connected to the internet.
As a proud Australian, the opportunity to return home to Sydney and shape the overall strategic direction of Telstra’s digital content services and advertising sales portfolios was just too exciting an opportunity to pass up.
Sometimes change may not be what we want. Sometimes change is exactly what we need.
I thank you all for a truly wonderful BBDO network experience. I have met and worked with many talented people in the markets of Australia, New Zealand, China and United States and as such I hope to keep in contact and continue to collaborate with you all in my new role.
The Go World TV campaign idea was developed at TBWAChiatDay in 2008 by worldwide creative director Lee Clow, executive creative director Rob Schwartz, creative director Patrick O’Neill, art director Becca Morton, copywriter Gage Clegg, agency producers Richard O’Neill and Rob Saxon.
“Go World” idea is to evoke the emotion and memories of unforgettable moments in Olympic history. The TV campaign features heroic tales of Olympic legends and showcases amazing feats of human spirit.
Go World campaign debuted in the United States leading up to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
Since 2008 Go World has become Visa’s global Olympic-themed marketing campaign idea and in 2009 ahead of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games further extensions were developed. More than 300 financial institution clients and merchant partners in 20 markets have participated in Visa’s two past Go World Olympic marketing campaigns to generate business and excitement among their customers.
London 2012 Olympics will mark Visa’s 25th anniversary as a sponsor of the Olympic Games and member of the IOC’s TOP (The Olympic Partner) Program and once again Go World will be used as the sponsorship platform for Visa to introduce new and innovative ways to engage with cardholders, drive usage of Visa-branded products and increase brand equity.
The London Olympics in 2012 will be very different as a sponsor as it will be the most digital consumed Olympics ever. London’s global event will feature the most amount of digital platforms and channels used and the most amount of social media excitement ever created. Showing a television campaign will not be enough.
Mobile channels are growing in time spent and application consumer use. The Visa brand in mobile channels has the opportunity to be focussed on being useful first to users and conversational and social next.
What was interesting in February 2012 Visa and Samsung got together and revealed their official useful mobile payments application for the London Olympics. What was unique about this partnership was it got two Olympic sponsors together to focus on developing a digital consumer experience for the Olympics rather than just shouting out Olympics sponsorship messages in digital channels.
The Visa Olympic mobile application is structured on Visa’s payWave technology that enables contactless payments at the Point of Sale. Backed by the multi-layered security and reliability of Visa’s processing platform, mobile contactless payments are protected by the same standard terms and conditions that apply to the Visa cards.
Olympics in London offers a wonderful business-building opportunity for Visa to extend the Go World platform and build out a digital platform to allow the world to stand up and cheer as one global community.
When thinking about using social media for Go World in 2012, Visa Inc were unsure how the TV centric idea could be translated into digital channels so they went to pitch in April 2011 asking their current digital agencies in North America TBWA, OMD, AKQA plus the addition of Proximity Worldwide to pitch for the digital account.
I was lucky enough to be chosen to lead the global pitch for Proximity and over a six month engagement we attempted to push the boundaries of the Go World idea using our talented network of creative thinkers.
One killer idea we conceived was called ‘Go Together’. It was an idea of creating a digital community using a relay baton that linked to the Internet. Our created device was to be deployed in every country around the world. Some 175 of these batons were to be created using exciting new features from the up an coming Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
When this interactive enabled Visa baton was found at Visa merchant outlets and promoted Athlete sponsored events it could be interacted with by the public using either voice, photos, and video.
The call to action or value exchange of the Visa baton was to cheer on their country athletes and pass their personal message along both physically and digitally.
There efforts were rewards in a social media race to the Olympics as entries gave people a chance to win a trip to London for their participation. The network enabled baton device had an in built microphone and camera to capture cheers and sent to a Visa cloud that could be stored as video and pictures that would be later broadcasted in London during special Visa outdoor events.
People had this exciting chance through their captured digital footprint to be in London delivering their very own country six second cheer stored as digital currency by Visa.
It was a big idea powered by two Olympics powerhouse brands in Visa and Samsung. I was excited.
While it was great that Visa Inc awarded Proximity Worldwide the global digital and social media agency of record for our pitch efforts and our thinking.
After winning the digital agency of record pitch the idea started to lose momentum as we collaborated with the large group of agency on the roster. Don’t you just love modern integration.
In the end what disappointing the ‘Go together’ idea fell away. Proximity was instead to park this innovation lead and work to a TV centric idea from TBWA and media partner OMD. Digital was to just extend a TVC idea and support this via a Facebook page.
I could say a lot at this point but the only thing you can say is the ability to be brave and innovative is not for every client. Visa was not going to be famous at this Olympics at any event.
So the digital implementation of the Facebook page to extend the TVC was handed to our Atmosphere Proximity New York office to implement and work along side the technology social media enterprise software from Buddy Media.
The Go World social media Facebook platform’s plan was to connect the Visa Olympic sponsored athletes with global fans using embedded video served from YouTube and linked into Facebook walls.
Yawn.
The social media campaign attempts to create a campaign framework that regions can customize Go World content for their local markets. The Go World digital program also integrates local relevant merchant offers in both the physical and virtual environments with a business objective to connect with consumers at the point of transaction.
The London 2012 Go World campaign will launch in April 2012 and gradually extend over 35 countries following the Olympic coverage till October 2012.
The Go World 2012 ‘Cheer as one’ campaign will be led via television spots and have some supporting digital and out-of-home advertising, usage promotions and various other local market extensions. The stories of Team Visa athletes and Olympic legends will also be featured prominently throughout the Olympics coverage celebrating athleticism and human triumph.
While I can’t say I think the Go World cheer Facebook idea is anything special, it has been the longest running pitch and process I have ever been involved in to create I thought it deserved a blog post to remember the time.
So good luck cheering as one everyone and to Visa Inc/TBWA/Proximity/OMD in maintaining a Facebook like page throughout the Olympics. Maybe a little easier.
As for me I will be looking for something much more innovative and exciting in building brands and creating customer experiences. The management of a Facebook brand page is very 2011.
While I am having a wonderful festive time in San Francisco right now I really would love to be on the Sydney foreshore for the New Year’s Eve celebration tonight.
Living in Australia, it is hard not to be tempted by the sheer volume of great restaurants to go to and eat at.
David Hyman and myself at the MOG office in Berkeley, San Francisco 
A journal by Adam Good 