What are some Live Activation ideas for sports?

Here's some quick inspiration for your next live activation for sports.

Live Activation Ideas for Sports Teams

Brought to you by Jordan, Tiernan and Sam - over coffees on a Monday.

Read this inspiration guide if you want to:

1. Crush your in-stadium fan engagement (and meet fan expectations post-pandemic)
2. Multiply your inventory of high-value sponsorship assets
3. Start collecting more information about who is in your stadium.

As we write this, we’re staring at a stat. Most fans within Tradable Bits buy more than 2 seats/fan. So it’s possible that 50% of your stadium is filled with +1s - the fans that are everpresent, but hidden from you.

Enter Live Activations - one of the easiest ways to kickstart a consistent in-arena engagement strategy that aims to uncover who’s in your arena. All while crushing engagement, and making it easy for your sponsorship team to close more deals. It’s the Vick’s Vaporub of fan engagement.

Anytime Activations:

1. Be the DJ

Sound is a powerful tool to immerse an audience, especially on game day. It’s probably the reason why so many 8-year-olds still know Thunderstruck 🌩 in 2023. A “Be the DJ” lets your fans control their experience at your game to an extent. You give them 3 or 4 song options, and the majority wins out. Very simple, very effective.

Execution

Campaign Types

• Tug of War
• Survey
• Poll
• Vote

Resources Required:

•  Engaging auxiliary content to promote the campaign in the arena
•  A QR code for delivery
•  A responsive DJ

2. Memory Match 🧠

Memory Match is an intergenerational gem. Anyone from 5 years old to 98 can participate in the action. Introduce a stadium-wide interactive Memory Match segment during crucial breaks in your gameday run-of-show.

Execution

1. Target One Lucky Fan

→ Houston Astros: Fan Moment Match

The Houston Astros transformed Memory Match to serve as their “giveaway” segment. Selected fans from the field were put to the test for the chance to win an Astros x Securian Financial Swag Bag.

Resources Required:

•  MC’s to lead the activation, excite the crowd and keep it engaging
•  Prizing from sponsor
•  Live leaderboard + campaign view
•  Excited fans from the crowd.
•  Custom CSS on Memory Match that places numbers on each card. That way the entire stadium can feel part of the action as the fan chooses cards out loud based on their numbers
•  An operator - someone on your gameday team to flip the cards over from the back end when they’re called.

2. Involve the Entire Stadium

The BC Lions chose to involve the entire stadium in their Memory Match game.

As an introduction to the game, the BC Lions first pre-produced a video of a player getting into the game, and how long it took them to match all of the cards. Fans were then challenged to “beat their time” and presented with a large QR code on the Jumbotron to participate.

Resources Required:

•  MC’s to excite the crowd
•  A pre-produced video to introduce instructions to the stadium
•  A well-designed QR code/promo asset to put on the Jumbotron
•  Good stadium connectivity.

TBits Tips > Introduce an engaging video element/interactivity
Don’t sleep on the incredible work your Gameday team already does.

These live activations reach more people when they are paired with additional engaging content - whether that is introducing a pre-produced element or having your MCs on stage (or both)! These digital activations are meant to take engagements that were originally 1 to many, and make them more 1:1 so more fans walk away with a valuable interaction.

Pre-Game Activations:

1. Predict the Play

Game-day bets are already a part of most sports fans' habits (or, at the very least they’re thinking about who might win). A quick stadium-wide pre-game trivia is a perfect way to set the stage.

Execution

Campaign Type: Trivia

Resources Required:

•  Engaging auxiliary content to promote the campaign in the arena
•  A QR code for delivery
•  A well-designed Live Results Page

2. This or That

Similar to “Predict the Play,” this or that lets you choose from 2 options when it comes to pre-game thoughts. Is the team going to score over/under? Which athlete has the better style? Who talks more trash?

This or That is a great way to combine some betting elements with more light and fun questions for the crowd. Rile them up, and bring them in before the puck drops.

Execution

Campaign Type: Survey

Resources Required:

•  Engaging auxiliary content to promote the campaign in the arena
•  A QR code for delivery
•  A well-designed Live Results Page

Post-Game Activations:

1. MVP/Player of the Match

Supplement your social push of this campaign with a live component for fans in the arena! As the game comes to a close, let your fans choose their player of the match, so they end on an optimistic note (and so that they have something to do as the stadium clears out).

Execution

Campaign Types:

• Survey
• Vote
• Poll
• Tug of War

Resources Required:

•  Engaging auxiliary content to promote the campaign in the arena
•  A QR code for delivery
•  A well-designed Live Results Page

Milestone Moments:

1. UGC

UGC is a great pre-game activation to set the atmosphere around milestone events (diversity and inclusion nights, retiree moments, etc.). Fans who see themselves as part of your event (literally) are naturally inclined to feel more connected and engaged.

Use UGC to gather images, videos, well-wishes and more from fans around milestone events.

Execution

Campaign Types:

• For collecting social posts: UGC Stream campaign
• For collecting images, videos and posts: UGC Stream Campaign in addition to Photo Contest or Video Contest.

Resources Required:

•  A well-designed campaign (with a clear UGC ask)
•  Moderator (one person to approve or disapprove posts that will appear on the jumbotron)
•  Engaging auxiliary content to promote the campaign in the arena/fan-zone
•  Additional QR codes to let fans participate live

Stand-out Events:

1. Tower

“Meet me at the Tower”

The TBits Tower is the tentpole activation to offer to sponsors because it’s huge, it’s highly visible, and it’s also useful. It’s basically a wayfinding beacon. And it’s also customizable to your specific requirements. While we often work off a 4-sided tower, the number of screens is totally up to you.

Here’s what we recommend feature-wise for a sporting event:

Sponsorship Takeovers: These can take the form of “card takeovers,” video trailers etc., and are programmable to occur over a specific time period. At the end of your event, you can easily share “minutes live” with your sponsors, depending on their tier of sponsorship with you

Live Event Streams: The Tower is often a meeting place that’s used by fans as they’re transitioning from one side of the event to the other. A live video feed of the major action is a great way to keep them tied to the magic of the event.

Event Info: Maps, schedules, major event announcements. A 3D map is a tentpole of the Tower to help with directions throughout the event, and we can pre-program specific announcements to display in the event of severe weather, or other anticipated announcements.

Interactive AR: Fans love this. We also love this. Let fans get silly in front of the Tower with different AR effects. You can also set this up to be a “photo-booth” experience depending on who your major sponsor is.

2. Arcade

New to Tradable Bits circa 2023 is Arcade - an engagement platform that lets you skin easy-to-play mobile games.

So far we’ve seen return plays averaging 6X game plays per fan and an average of 3+ mins on focused playtime. Stats that really point home the value for Sponsors.

While these games can live as an “always on” mobile game on your apps, we have also seen them tied to wider pre-game initiatives. For example, launching specific games at a window right before game time. Or tied into bigger sponsor-team campaigns (like the Raptors x Maple Leaf Foods “Plant 50 trees for every block” campaign).

Are you still itching for more inspiration? Reach out to your Customer Success Manager or contact support@tradablebits.com