We set out to elevate Thursday Night Football (TNF) by developing “TNF XTRA presented by State Farm," a co-viewing experience housed within the NFL’s official mobile app (NFL’12). TNF XTRA serves game-relevant information to users instantly on their mobile phone or tablet via an on-site Preditor (producer/editor at the game) while enabling social chatter and stats gamification. Periodically, a dedicated Sidelines Live report, featuring former NFL player Solomon Wilcots, delivers live video updates from the sidelines based on user submitted questions via Twitter. The program was promoted via a cross-channel, cobranded media schedule. Ad placements and key editorial positioning across NFL.com, NFL Mobile properties and NFL Network drove initial and repeat usage. Over 60MM online and mobile units along with key on-air promotion on NFL Network’s prime programming provided awareness and a strong call to action to participate.Today’s highly connected sports fans want more of the action and TV alone doesn’t satisfy this hunger. While watching games, 25% of them are on their phone or tablet checking sports scores craving more info and almost 60% are on social media sites talking smack with friends about the score. NFL fans especially want to get deeper into the game given on average, there’s only 10-11 minutes of actual football game play. They want something better. State Farm had the opportunity to get its Relationship Seeker’s target To a Better State on one of their most passionate platforms. We set out to elevate Thursday Night Football (TNF) by providing fans with real-time game info/trivia, ability to predict plays, and sidelines access like they’ve never had before. It’s hard to keep people’s attention and engagement with brands in a meaningful way. We successfully got our target to a Better State with them spending as much time with TNF XTRA as all of NFL.com earning Co-viewing a chance to amplify all of State Farm’s key sponsorships in 2013. The program saw high downloads and engagement rates over the course of the season. Over 450,000 users engaged with State Farm’s TNF XTRA averaging 4.9 minutes per game which rivals 5.9 minutes spent per visit on all of NFL.com (comScore Dec 2012). Social chatter via the platform was high with close to 160,000 tweets being logged over the 12 game period. The extended reach of messages on Twitter alone is an estimated 409 million. Overall, this marks a first in live sports and a leap forward in our target’s second screen experiences.
