Sydney ThundAR

Augmented Reality Digital Engagement for HomeWorld

The Brief

HomeWorld wanted to introduce a brand experiential activation

HomeWorld is one of Australia’s biggest and most established display home company and is also a key partner of both the W-BBL and BBL Sydney Thunder teams this season.

Digital Activation

Fan Experience

Augmented Reality

A way to engage Sydney Thunder fans

As part of their sponsorship, HomeWorld wanted to introduce a brand experiential activation that ensured they were not just doing the same kind of marketing they’ve done before. Instead, they wanted to create a way to engage Sydney Thunder fans by allowing them to capture their moments with family and friends as they watch their favourite team compete.

An interesting contest!

The men’s Big Bash League (BBL) has 8 teams competing in a short 20/20 over format and the games are played across different states and different venues. See the full fixture here.

The league sees each team made up of a maximum of two international players and local heroes who have represented their ‘A’ team in their home country. It really makes for an interesting contest! The league is also a great opportunity for young and emerging players to shine and increase their chances to represent their country. There is also a women’s cricket league (W-BBL) that is becoming increasingly popular.

The BBL attracts a ton of family audiences from all over the world who proudly wear their team colours to show their passion and support at the games.

The Solution

Delivering an Augmented reality powered fan experience.

Mobiddiction worked closely with HomeWorld to develop a simple but fun way to engage Sydney Thunder fans that also showcased some fun, new technology for users to experience.

We also wanted to use technology that was based on our platform so that we did not have to build it all from scratch. As our award-winning platform Mobiconnect has an inbuilt gallery feature and a moderating engine, we used that as a starting point to build an AR-powered activation that was especially developed and based on the HomeWorld / Sydney Thunder brand theme.

User Experience

Fans usually turn up to a game about an hour or so before it starts and are in a rush to get to their seats. This means there is a small window of opportunity in terms of attracting users to download the app and show their support for the Sydney Thunder team.

Sydney Thunder fans visited the HomeWorld marquee to select from one of the many filters to get their faces digitally painted with an augmented reality experience. Fans were then able to send that pic to either their mobiles or email and the giant screen both at Giants (ex Spotless) Stadium and iPTV screens was displaying the images on the big screen at the game in real-time!

Fan Engagement

Concept ideation, Design and Delivery

Team Mobiddiction monitored all big screens content for moderation, our tech team also kept an eye on the delivery of SMS’s/Emails and images to fans while they watch the games. We also assisted in the purchase and set up of the HomeWorld display at the marquee, which included secure iPad stands. Our excellent technical team were on the ground, assisting and working with the HomeWorld team for the activation including staff briefing, demo’s, PA scripts assistance and generally to ensure there was no disruption to the activation and more so to the Fan Engagement.

Augmented Reality powered by Mobiddiction platform for managing content

face detection and using AR by Mobiddiction

”Mike and the team at Mobiddiction were great to work with on the creation of the HomeWorld ThundAR activation. The concept put fans first and created a new, exciting and sustainable way to engage with attendees before, during and after the match day experience. As an agency partner, the team were always happy to collaborate with both the client at HomeWorld and ourselves as the rights holder. This led to a successful integration with our match day event presentation technology ensuring the activation was promoted to fans at every touch point.
Vicky TyasHead of Partnerships Cricket NSW

Technology

Built using an iOS AR-kit

The Sydney Thund-AR activation is a native iPad app that was built using an iOS AR-kit. The app includes face detection technology which recognised the shape, size, contour and painted various Sydney Thunder theme filters onto fans faces.

Our UI/UX team crafted a range of filters, using various shapes and contours, so that fans of all ages and sizes could get in on the action as well. They also added textures to make the final image look close to the filter being face-painted in real life. We also introduced a ‘Gif’ with a time limit, that way there was not an excessive use of bandwidth during peak time before the games.

Fans who are happy to share their image or Giffy on the big screen are able to enter their mobile or email details to get a copy of their image, which they can download or share with their mates, families and social media – all while at the game.

Final images and Gifs are then moderated on Mobiconnect™ and then displayed randomly on the large outdoor screens. Venues include Manuka Oval in Canberra and the Giants Stadium (previously known as Spotless Stadium) in Olympic Park.

BBL Sydney Thunder activation using Augmented Reality AR

Mike Vasavada with Chris Green Sydney Thunder at HomeWorld Marsden Park

Go Thunder!

Mobiddiction not only worked closely with HomeWorld we also worked with Cricket NSW, Sydney Thunder, players from both the BBL Mens and W-BBL teams, stadium production and media teams, marketing and promotional team members to ensure the activations go ahead without a glitch.

And of course not only does our team enjoyed watching the cricket we also rubbed shoulders with some of the game’s very best Sydney Thunder players.

Our sincere thanks to Cricket NSW and the Sydney Thunder team for their support.