How The Masters Changed the Game
12th April 10
Posted in culture, technology
Author: Steve Peck, Art Director, BBH New York
If you follow golf, then you know that the Masters and the word ‘innovation’ don’t usually belong in the same sentence. In many ways, that still holds true – The Masters certainly isn’t changing the game in how it’s played. But, in the way the Masters site functions, it is changing how it is experienced. Here’s how:
Multi-Camera Live Streaming Coverage - Choose one of five cameras to watch a live broadcast (full screen if you prefer). You can also view an additional camera with the picture-in-picture feature and swap back and forth between the two. Not a bad live viewing experience.
Time-Based Viewing - Watch tagged highlights throughout the day for each of the set cameras. If you’re watching the camera for holes 15 and 16 live at 4pm, you can scrub across the timeline to see thumbnails of previous highlights earlier in the day. So you can go check out that long birdie putt that Mickelson laid in at 11:30 am. You can return to live viewing at any time.
Scorecard-Based Viewing - The leaderboard offers another unique feature; not only does it provide updated scores in real time, but the score from each player on each hole, but a yellow outline around the score denotes a video. It allows you to track an individual player’s highlights throughout the round as it’s played.
User-directed Viewing Experience - Essentially you can view the tournament from a specific vantage point through a live camera; historically in a timeline throughout the day; or through any one individual player’s round. The Masters iPhone app further provides a multitude of features including: live mobile tv; video highlights; streaming radio; leaderboard; news; photos; and a course overview. The mobile app extends the Masters reach and is available for free. It is very useful for the audience since most people are at work during live coverage throughout the day Thursday and Friday. The web and mobile features allow the audience to stay current and decide what and how they want to experience the tournament.
Take a look at how the site felt to experience in this film:
So how did they make all of this happen?
The Masters has a limited media and sponsorship structure and is fully supported by only three (admittedly large) companies: AT&T, ExxonMobil, and IBM. The Masters doesn’t run many commercials and all of them come from those three companies. While AT&T and ExxonMobil operate like traditional sponsors, IBM’s participation is unique and extends further than pasting logos around the event and running television media during live broadcasts. In fact, IBM actually utilizes their technology and expertise to power the masters.com website. Rick Singer, VP of client executive marketing at IBM says, “We provide virtually all of their technology needs from beginning to end. That includes a wide range of tasks such as: core infrastructure and data center management; website design and interactive content development; networking and security; and golf scoring and player statistics, a.k.a. “data management.”
More information about the technical specifics are available here.
An important thing to note is that IBM is actually proving their product functionality through this sponsorship. They are demonstrating their technology management capabilities in providing an engaging experience online and in the mobile space. It’s about *doing it*, not just saying it.
The Masters is a great example of how the interactive space can change and enhance the viewing experience. It’s way more dynamic and personalized than broadcast and provides more useful tools and information. This would have been outstanding for the Winter Olympics earlier this year; you might have been able to see earlier ski races you might have missed, for example, or watched Shaun White in training. It will be exciting to see how implementing this technology will develop into the future. When watching football, you could go and view a video clip of each touchdown or scoring drive (let’s wait and see how the coming World Cup in June turns out – there’s surely innovation to come there). When watching baseball, you could click on your favorite player to see clips of all his hits for that game (or any game).
We say kudos to the Masters and to IBM for taking up the challenge and setting an exceptional benchmark in changing the game for live events.
What did you think? What might have been different or better? What did we miss?
[...] A explicação para o que vai acima está nesse post do BBH Labs. [...]
Hopefully next year they’ll have it set up so that I can choose who to follow and when. I would like to see cameras all over the course so that I can play director and choose who I want to see and when.
But this was a great step in the right direction.
Thanks Steve, excellent post.
great post, Steve! one somewhat similar thing (that you probably already know about) that’s emerged in the past couple years is that CBS’s NCAA March Madness has thankfully gone online with partners like Microsoft Silverlight and Coke Zero. The opening rounds are chaos, and in the past you’d always have to go to a sports bar and hope that they were playing your team’s game (or have an awesome cable/satellite package) and even then, it was inevitable that they’d “cut away” repeatedly to a “better” game (or you would get in a brawl at the bar and have to go to jail and hire a lawyer, and get stitches, etc) Plus, since many games are in the day time, you’d most likely have to leave work. But now every single game available in real time, online, YOU choose which one you want to watch (right at your desk if you like) when you want to watch it (they all get archived). No cutaways, etc. And they have a database of classic NCAA tournament games in an archive, going back for years, so you can watch it in its entirety if you’re really inspired by the tournament or you are a procrastinator.
Thanks Jeff, really nice build here. CBS is definitely emerging as a leader in this space. I’m excited to see what the World Cup will bring us this summer – huge opportunity there!
Steve, unfortunately for the Americans the World Cup will only bring elimination in the First Round. Sorry.
You’re forgetting that our SOCCER team has consistently beaten its way past the first round, including the 2002 World Cup, when the U.S. team reached the quarterfinals.
Oh, snap! My prediction for the world cup will be a more salty pints in Blighty.
Featured group on the 1st day was a bit of a disappointment, but other then that, well done to the Masters interactive team! I was especially impressed by the updates to the iPhone app. It kept me in the loop throughout the day – plus the Masters Radio coverage via the app was amazing, great job to Westwood One on their coverage!
Agreed. The iphone app was great. Nicely designed and executed. I was able to catch a glimpse of the live action while at a shoot on Friday!
“When watching football, you could go and view a video clip of each touchdown or scoring drive ” – since 2007 you’ve been able to do that with DIRECTV’s Supercast service for every NFL game you are watching. Near real time highlights were available about 10 minutes after the event occurs. Faster than what IBM was producing last weekend. I loved the timeline presentation of the Masters highlight!
World Cup could be a disappointment from a video viewing – interactive perspective. IBM should upgrade their Wimbledon effort based on their 2010 insights in Augusta. Thanks for highlighting this offering – it was top notch.
Thanks Alistair. I don’t have DirecTV so I wasn’t aware of that feature. Really cool that they provide that service. All of this is just going to keep getting better!
Wow, great article. Our agency talked about this right when we got to work this morning. Loved the Masters site.
Thanks for the note Ted!
For anyone who has watched the Masters for years, this is not a surprise. Their site has always been great, especially since their partnership with IBM, who I believes has powered PGA.com since the very beginning. That has also been a robust and useful site, perhaps because golf is so conducive to stats and individual records and offers so many ways to access information. Also, the Masters has always been respectful of its “patrons,” both those who attend in person and those who watch on TV. Look how few minutes of advertising interrupt each hour of viewing. The white men in green jackets may all be Republicans when it comes to race, women and money; but they’ve been pretty progressive when it comes to their community of fans.
Very true. It’s a key way they’ve been able to build their brand – by putting the best product on the course and the best experience for the fans.
Right on Edward. Migrating a TV-type experience onto the the web comes with huge pluses for all concerned with the almighty exceptions of the broadcast networks and cable providers. The single best feature of the Masters.com coverage was NO ADS. Specifically we were able to enjoy Phil walking all the way to the green on 18 enjoying his standing ovation instead of the ad pod CBS put its viewers through at the same time. If the web coverage had been just a little more comprehensive I for one would have been prepared to pay maybe $40-50 for the full four-day, well commentated, ad free, portable experience. More power to southern white elderly republicans
Now if they can only get the Masters Interactive experience up and running for the start of the 2012 London Olympics…! Then were finally talking. Dd
I can’t wait to see what the technology will allow for in two more years. Definitely excited.
I want to see Augusta use this for future, and convert it to a mobile app – http://www.virtualcaddy.co.uk
Great post. Justin
Here’s an interesting build on that, Steve.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/football/04/28/football.world.cup.3D/index.html
Very educational post. Your current Blog style rocks as well!