NBC Sports

Reaching brand targets with immersive video

Dig Down Media's 360 video coverage of the 2018 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic for NBC Sports reached over 800K viewers and beat nearly every target metric

Summary

NBC Sports wanted to provide brand partner Dunkin' Donuts with an immersive and engaging second-screen experience during the live broadcast of the 2018 NHL Winter Classic.

To that end, they challenged Dig Down Media to help them produce branded 4K 360 video of the game and publish it during live gameplay without interfering with the broadcast production.

Challenge

NBC Sports not only wanted inspiring content under challenging conditions, but to reach a huge audience and engage them in a meaningful way.

Producing 4K 360 video in bitter cold temperatures from multiple angles and distributing it during a live game provides its own technical challenges, but could we reach the target audience and provide the client the results they were looking for?

Insights

Immersive video can be an extremely powerful tool for brands looking to engage a specific market or community. NHL fans sought out and engaged with Dunkin' Donuts' exclusive content and beat nearly every other brand activation metric that weekend.

When used appropriately, 360 video can enhance viewing of small screen content and provide viewers with unique content they want to engage with, share and talk about

Putting Strategy Into Action

Due to the time-sensitive nature of this project we created a plan of action centered on the logistics of shooting 360 video during a nationally televised outdoor hockey game in fourteen degree weather, and publishing it during live gameplay. Live video was ruled out due to network constraints, and equipment and cabling was required to be minimally intrusive to broadcast sight lines and NHL officials. Additionally, we needed to navigate the complex and cavernous monolith that is CitiField to edit, encode, upload and publish the content in a timely fashion.

By focusing on keeping a small footprint and an efficient workflow we were able to achieve our goals and deliver the desired results to the client.

Walkthrough

During a walkthrough leading up to the event Dig Down Media identified key positions, developed a workflow to capture the most captivating footage possible, and transport it to our mobile editing suite without interfering with the broadcast production, officials, or fans. The video pipeline developed in the walkthough was key to being able to provide a constant flow of footage to our editors throughout the game to produce a running edit.

Game Day

On game day our team captured footage from nearly every vantage point - on the ice, atop the stadium, inside the locker rooms, and around the Fan Zone. From all around CitiField our 360 cameras shot the morning skate, the national anthem flyover, player introductions, fan interactions, and of course, the game.

Distribution

Results

Working in partnership with NBC Sports, Dig Down Media was able to reach a huge audience in a short amount of time and keep them engaged with branded content on the second screen during a nationally televised event.

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