AT&T uses mobile to activate stadium sponsorship

Stephen Whiteside
Warc

Fans of the Dallas Cowboys only need a few things to hand when settling into their seats at the AT&T Stadium: a beer, a hotdog and – perhaps most importantly – their cellphone.

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"Your phone … is about as endemic to the activity these days as it gets," Mark Wright, AT&T's vp/media and sponsorships, told delegates at IEG's 2015 Sponsorship conference in Chicago. "Everyone seems like they have their phone out, and they're looking for that next piece of juice in terms of content or a picture that they send to their friends.

"The live sport experience is changing the way people interact with one another. There's this expectation level now with fans. It seems like, five years ago, they didn't even have a device that worked in a professional sports setting or even college. Now, if it doesn't work fast enough or download fast enough, they are disappointed."

As one of America's top-two wireless carriers, AT&T – which is headquartered in Dallas and acquired multi-year naming rights for the Cowboys' stadium in late 2013, at an estimated cost of between $17 million and $19 million per annum – is well placed not only to help fans avoid this disappointment, but to actually exceed their digital expectations.

"That, in our minds, makes us a different kind of sponsor," Wright said. "It's a real ally with the property … and we're doing the best we can to expand that and give that extra insight and extra piece of content that makes the event even that much more special.

"We're doing what we can to make sure that they get what they want in order of sharing memories with people after they get out of the venue, [plus] texting and sending pictures back and forth to their friends and family during the event itself. They want the ability to connect with them team as well in terms of content. In the end, they want some special access now at events."

The "remote control" underpinning this process is an AT&T Stadium app, released shortly before the Cowboys' opening home game of the 2014 season. "These kind of propositions have been around," Wright admitted. "We like to think ours is a bit more special, and it's got a lot of room for additional assets to go in it."

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At present, this offering includes features such as a navigation tool that helps visitors find the stadium, mark their parking spot, locate their seats, identify appealing food and beverage vendor, and even purchase tickets for upcoming events. A virtual tour lets attendees become acquainted with their surroundings, too.

Beyond its utilitarian functions, the app provides lean-in experiences that turn fans from passive observers of AT&T's sponsorship into active participants. "The one thing that we've added this year that makes it a different proposition, I think, than any facility in the world is its ability now to start interacting with other pieces of technology in the building," said Wright.

That is exemplified by an AT&T LiveFX Board – a 130-foot long, high-resolution LED display with strobe lights, and installed behind one of the end zones.

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In explaining how this massive gizmo fuels engagement from handheld devices, Wright explained that fans can take pictures of each other on their cellphones and upload them using the app. These images – after being vetted – are then broadcast on the huge screen for all to see.

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"People love to see themselves on the big screen, but now they do it in real time," he continued. "It's really changed the game in terms of a fan interactive proposition inside the stadium … We're going to continue to add functionality to the FX Board. It is an entertainment piece, make no mistake. But it is going to serve as a Cowboy and AT&T interactive proposition through this app."

If AT&T's LiveFX Board gives fans their own personal 15-minutes of sports-related fame, another brand initiative aims to get the pro-Cowboys faction working as one. The result is "Unite This House", which uses the 130-foot display and push notifications distributed via the app to encourage fans to cheer on the home team – and simultaneously lights up their phones to add a visual flourish.

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"At times, [the crowd was] criticized for not being a hostile enough environment in Dallas. And so we're trying to get … [them] to at least bond together to make this thing a tough building to play in. So we're using this. It's really about cheering on the Cowboys, and we run it in the first quarter to get things started," said Wright.

"The piece that is interactive is on your phone: you're prompted form the LiveFX Board to actually activate a strobing light during this cheer. Imagine … 80,000 phones in the air with a white strobing light in unison with a video that we put together that plays on all the screens in the building."

Although "Unite This House" is a recent idea, Wright reported that it is already improving the atmosphere… and providing the desired hostility. "Like anything, this is going to take some time to catch on. It is – and we're going to continue to enhance that. But it is another example of through technology, through your phone, you actually join in with the cheer and people see this in a very immersive way."

Furthering that digitization program are four double-sided interactive columns installed on the stadium's east concourse. Large touchscreens on each of these pillars allow visitors to view on-demand content about the Cowboys' players and cheerleaders, as well as details concerning the art and architecture at the AT&T-sponsored arena.

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"They … serve as homes of content – and they're swipe technology like an iPad screen. So consumers – and this area gets a lot of traffic, a lot of people milling around, especially before and after the game that just play with it, essentially," said Wright.

"We're going to continue to build on this, not only for Cowboys games but for other events at the facility that are significant. We have content that we're going to work on that, again, fans can play around with and educate themselves on the team."

Behind all these efforts – and, indeed, AT&T's core brand proposition – is providing the best possible communications infrastructure. "None of this works without a network that drives it. And at AT&T, we've invested – with our friends in Dallas with the Cowboys – a significant amount of resources to make sure that we've up the game here," Wright said.

That includes boosting the cellular network capacity at the AT&T Stadium by over 50% between the summer of 2013 and the commencement of the NFL season in 2014. The company has also increased the available WiFi access points to more than 1,500, ensuring guests can get online and share information without interruption.

"Our WiFi capacity now, and our cell capacity, is about 150,000 people. Again, this didn't just happen at the beginning of the season. It's been a slow upgrade throughout, and it's been obviously amped up when we put our name on the facility," said Wright.

"Why are we doing that? It needs to work, obviously, because we have our name on the building and we want to make sure the brand is in the right place. But fans … are just demanding it. They want this interaction and they want the ability. And if they don't get it, it's almost now an irritation point.

"The network infrastructure that the Cowboys partner with us on has got to be there to support that: not only just the demand for what consumers without our interactive pieces, but now, especially that we're actually asking them to be more interactive."


About the author

Stephen WhitesideStephen Whiteside is Warc's Reports Editor.