To leverage IBM's partnership with the Masters and to create greater awareness and appreciation for IBM's technology leadership and innovation with a focus on its' Artificial Intelligence solutions. Position IBM as a thought leader and storyteller, using technology solutions to create memorable sports and entertainment experiences, built to share on social. Drive overall engagement, video views and awareness on social for IBM at the Masters, centered around the app they create with the 'My Moments' feature that allows fans to favorite and follow players, and in turn receive custom highlights of their favorite players (highlights are identified by AI).
| IBM is one of the partners of the Masters. They develop the Masters app and their other digital platforms, so we took to social listening to see if there were ways we could insert IBM into conversations that were already happening on social. Through a social listening exercise, it is evident that many fans on social speak in high praise of the Masters app noting its great functionality, ability to follow certain players as well as its endless coverage of the event. It is essentially an appointment viewing affair. When the app updates prior to the tournament, we also see a spike in conversation of fans beginning to hype the Tournament. Out of thousands of social conversations related to IBM in context of the Masters, over 75% were about the Masters app in 2017. This informed our strategy for 2018. In order to stimulate awareness and conversation about IBM's role in developing the Masters app (and more specifically the 'My Moments' feature) IBM partnered with former NFL MVP and scratch golfer, Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons, and tech expert Brian Tong of CNET. The 'My Moments' feature allowed for fans to be sent custom highlights of their favorite players for additional coverage or for those who aren't able to tune in to consume all of the Masters broadcast. Given Matt leads a busy lifestyle, he was the perfect fit to fill the role of a highlight consumer as well as the golf enthusiast. And since Brian is a tech expert and reviewer (on top of being a sports fan), his role was the inside expert behind the app as he brings credibility to the subject matter. The content thematic of an expert known for on camera talent explaining the features and AI included in the Masters app to a celebrity influencer (with natural associations to IBM and the Masters) proved to be a positive strategy by creating contextual content for viewers on social. Through a production shoot we were able to capture content in the form of snackable videos and stills to support the campaign. From there, the content was sent live through @IBMSports social channels and most importantly Matt and Brian's social channels leading up to and throughout the 2018 Masters. Pieces that we captured included a 'download day' piece to hype the Masters app update, a high-level overview of the app features, 'sweet tweets' or the reading of real fan UGC about the Masters app, 'Matt's busy life' which leads him to be a My Moments highlight consumer, 'The track feature' showcasing the shot tracking tech in the app, and 'Deconstructing AI Highlights' which simplified the abstract nature of how AI Highlights are sourced during the Masters. |
All in all, this campaign achieved 4.5MM impressions, 1.9MM video views and over 185k engagements on Twitter and Instagram which helped IBM's overall Masters campaign to triple in YOY growth within each KPI category. Additionally, through social listening, the Masters app conversation increased by 6% (to 74%), up from 2017. Brand sentiment rose as well to 17% positivity.
