Virtual perimeter advertising has been around for a considerable amount of time now in the professional sport business. However, the idea, functionality and commercial potential of virtual advertising remains still a mystery to some or at least has not fully reached the ‘mainstream’ in sports advertising yet. For example during this year’s European Championship in football, Chinese characters were seen on the LED perimeter boards on german television as well as some products, which are not even available to purchase in Europe. By using Virtual Advertising, the involved partner brand would have been able to avoid this and advertise region-, country- and target group-specific in a cost-effective manner.
How does virtual advertising actually work?
Using this state-of-the-art technology, it is possible to digitally overlay the LED perimeter board advertisements. The fans in the stadium and TV viewers in the home market will see the actual advertisements that appear on the TV perimeter board on the side-lines, while the TV audience in China or other countries like Japan and the USA will see advertisements customized for local target groups in these respective markets. Fans in the stadiums and domestic TV audiences see no change from the physical, in-stadium messages while messages shown to TV audiences in other markets can be individually targeted by virtually overlaying the existing animated perimeter LED boards from within the live broadcast signal.
This technology provides a wide range of advantages for different stakeholders of the sport business, including the fans, who are the recipients of the more relevant and effective advertising efforts. Virtual Advertising is being successfully utilized with the proper licensing and implementation structure for a few years now in football, in Germany for example since 2017 by Borussia Dortmund and its partners. However, the technology around virtual advertising keeps evolving, keeps getting better and provides even more opportunities now than a few years back, which is reason enough to go into a deep dive showcasing this enormous potential and evolution from a rights-holder, brand, agency and technology perspective.
THE BENEFITS
per each stakeholder
FOR RIGHTS-HOLDERS
- A new stream of revenue: Ad-time is monetarized several times in a different geographical location or channel or device.
- Partnership approach: shared participation & shared benefits
- Reaching out to the target group much more focused, finally in a future scenario by 1-to-1 communication
- Rights-holders are competing not only with football teams, but with various entertainment platforms in the world, so targeted fan/brand communication becomes more and more important.
FOR BRANDS
- Increases visibility: brands can choose to book one, or all feeds and thus play out their advert to a targeted TV audience.
- The brand is displayed relatively more exclusive in the target market / to the target audience.
- More accessible: small, local brands can also take advantage of this technology. For example, the customer can choose to broadcast their ad in a specific geographic location, and at a more reasonable price.
- Content flexibility: brands using language, color codes, logo, layouts dedicated to the different market areas
FOR AGENCIES
- Internationalization: collaborate with brands all over the globe, more international exposure.
- A technological milestone for marketing.
- Use and mobilize the global role and sales network of a suitable agency to generate additional values for rights holders, a network that unique right holder is generally not able to utilize
- Leverage risk and share know-how to create trust and reliability between stakeholders
- Help to leverage Bundesliga (-clubs) to participate in global developments, e.g. increasing number of broadcast exposure, networks, sports interested audiences
THE EVOLTUION
per each stakeholder
Virtual advertising essentially had its first breakthrough with the transmission from static to LED advertising boards, because it initially paved the way for the subsequent technological development. Virtual Advertising was not officially permitted or approved in any European football leauge but in 2017 the DFL, the governing body of the German Bundesliga, approved and licensed the technological platform solution by Supponor and SPORTFIVE. Suppnor is a company who is the clear market leader in delivering virtual replacement technology of TV-visible signage for real-time broadcast and streaming of in-venue sports advertising. This “seal of approval” since then is being viewed as a quality benchmark in the industry. In a close partnership with international sport business agency SPORTFIVE and its partner club Borussia Dortmund, this trio then went on to deliver a successful production of different virtual advertising feeds for various home games of Borussia Dortmund and continues to do so until today.
Over the course of the past years, virtual advertising as of today is available in the Bundesliga via 4 to 5 different feeds and in the Spanish LaLiga even 8 to 10 feeds are produced and distributed. At the same time, there has been an increase in the amount of devices that can be fed with the suitable VA signal: Virtual advertising now can delivered towards a TV, laptop or mobile broadcast and even the ways of broadcasting it is adaptable: linear TV, Pay-TV, OTT, Video-on-Demand, etc.
The introduction of AIR
AIR is short for “Artificial Intelligence Replacements” and marks a groundbreaking technological development in the field of virtual advertising. SPORTFIVE and Supponor are the first to bring this hardware-independent virtual advertising to the Bundesliga. In this context, AIR uses machine learning trained AI models to key multi-color static or animated physical surfaces such as LED signage systems. This means: The system does not require any venue-based hardware and operates directly on video signals from each camera.
“New generations’ Virtual Products provide rights holders with cost effective, high quality, flexible and scalable new marketing tools. Supponor AIR is completely neutral to external conditions: regardless if it’s night or day, under floodlights, bright sun or shade, rain, or fog, the output is always realistic and reliable. The 100% remote production allows rights holders to create more inventory and more targeted brand messages. A win-win for everyone!”
Massimo Margrì, EU Managing Director at Supponor, describes the reliability and benefit of the AIR innovation.
THE BEST CASE
per each stakeholder
SPORTFIVE has recognized the wide range of opportunities offered by virtual advertising early on and are now utilizing this technology since 2017 and have played a key role in its introduction in the Bundesliga as previously described. In this context, a by now long-standing and intensive partnership with Supponor, the leading technology provider in the field of virtual advertising, was initiated and the unique combination of Supponor’s expertise and innovative mindset in technology and SPORTFIVE’s international sales power and contacts to rights-holders makes for a powerful cooperation. And this combination for example proves to be especially beneficiary for Borussia Dortmund, a long-term partner club of SPORTFIVE for almost 30 years. BVB is since 2017 capitalizing on the international broadcasting situation of its home games with the help of virtual advertising.
“Virtual advertising allows us as a club to have a targeted and individual conversation with our audiences. The ads can for example be tailored to something that is happening locally, like an event, festival, trend or else. And it enables local brands to engage with fans and those brands are more likely to resonate with the local viewer, which in the end leads to a higher probability of a strong connection between the fan, the brand and the club.”
| Benedikt Scholz, Head of International / Commercial & New Business bei Borussia Dortmund, on how BVB utilizes virtual advertising.
per each stakeholder
If you want to learn more on how your club or your company can specifically benefit from this innovative and aspiring form of advertising in the football context, fill in your data below and download the free virtual advertising brochure!
