Useful innovation in sport.

Editor's Notes

• #2: Really warm welcome to our first Byte event... we’ve designed the event to equip and empower senior decision makers, you guys... to bring about disruptive change within your own organisations through innovation... something that in our opinion, larger organisations aren’t doing enough of.... we’re delighted at the turn out and this should be a fantastic morning of learning, coffee and pastry I’m going to hand over to our great speakers shortly, these include our Co-Founder, John Newbold, Head of Labs at 383, Tom Martin and Jules Robinson from the NBA who we’re super grateful to to helping us out today... First I just wanted to touch on 383, what we do and what we believe in
• #3: What do we do? Well, we’re not a digital agency, we’re not really a creative shop or management consultancy. We maybe sit in between all three... This is what we do... I guess you could call us an outsourced digital research and development team.
• #4: We’re working with these guys at the moment, specifically Zoopla, Heinz, Prudential and Polar in the sports space.
• #5: What is it that we do with them? There’s tonnes of disruption out there, business is changing and the old guard and being disrupted by start ups, leaner organisations and those with a greater focus on innovation. We know it’s hard for established organsisations to innovate from the inside because of a.) structure, b.) resource, c.) culture we help them to do it better. We introduce them to innovation, work in collaboration with them to build disruptive new products and then bring them to market.
• #6: Digital products and services that help organisations to create more reasons for consumers to hire them - we’re working on a platform for LV that will give everyone in the UK access to free independent financial advice we’ve invented a service for universal music that will ship a custom pressed vinyl to you every month based on your most listened to songs on spotify, last.fm and iTunes. The former example gives LV a compelling reason to be chosen over their competitors and the latter could open up a completely new revenue stream for a record label.
• #7: We think that sport is an area that’s ripe for disruption and innovation in terms of the experience that clubs and brands can provide to fans.
• #8: We have clubs and brands in the room, and I guess all of us are fans of sport so I’ll hand over to John
• #9: So, as a company we have a strong point of view that ‘usefulness’ or ‘utility’ are key drivers to creating meaningful experiences. Utility value is the ability of something, any experience, to satisfy the needs and wants of the people using it. We believe that satisfying users matters, because ultimately that’s what’s drives brand preference and loyalty.
• #10: And within sport, as with most sectors, it’s actually sometimes surprisingly easy to make things which end up being bad experiences for our end users, the fans. Whether that’s content provided by sponsors, services provided by clubs, or on screen experiences provided by media owners, it’s often easy to forget about the utility of the things that are being made. Conveniently there’s a tumblr called sadfacesinsport.tumblr which I was able to pull all this from.
• #11: We also think utility value matters, because in some areas meeting user needs in better ways is fundamentally changing how established business operate. A lot of new and emergent startups are highly focused on looking at what the status quo is around a specific industry, then figuring out how those user needs could be met in new ways.
• #12: So, dipping out of sport for a second, Uber is a great example of utility in action. Uber, for those who don’t know is a taxi service where some people can become accredited Uber drivers, using their own vehicles, and others can then book these cars. It’s an inherently useful service as it provides more cars for those that needs rides, and a more useful way of using you car for those that want to drive and earn some money. It’s also massively disrupting for established taxi services when people look at Uber as something more useful.
• #13: Simiarly airbnb has disrupted the travel industry with a similar thought process. People traveling need more places to stay and people in interesting places may want to earn money by renting out rooms in their own homes. Air bnb builds that useful connection between user needs, places to stay and user wants, to earn more money.
• #14: And we’re also seeing some very well known brands adapting the things that they do with heavy skew towards utility
• #15: Virgin are a great example of an established brand looking at the overall user journey around their products and then figuring out how they can build more useful services around them. With flights for example, it’s hard to differentiate the in-air experience, it all looks broadly the same, but what about when people leave the airport? This is Taxi 2; a taxi sharing service being trialled on the London to New York flight routes by Virgin. Virgin have identified a clear user need, that if I’m flying solo cabs in to New York are expensive. And then designed a service to solve that problem. So Taxi2 allows solo passengers to book together, share taxis to their final destination and then split the fare.
• #16: Similarly Virgin saving customers who bank with them now have access to Virgin money lounges in cities like London and Edinburgh. By being a customer you’re able to access these lounges which provide free wi-fi, tea and coffee and places to work. Users might not need more high street branches, but they might need more places to work on the high street. Again, a clear way of a brand operating with user needs in mind.
• #17: Also, media and entertainment services are building useful things too. This is a really smart twitter card integration being trialled by Sky which allows people to record programmes from within twitter. This is a great example of increasing utility value around a user journey with some inherent friction. Instead of going in to your lounge, finding the remote, browsing the guide and hitting record, this reduces all those steps in to one action you can take within the social networking app your probably already using.
• #18: We also think that usefulness is a key issue for clubs and venue owners too. This quote from the 49ers about their new stadium plans reveals a lot about their emphasis on utility. Utility helps provide differentiation for clubs.
• #19: And utility is an issue for brands and sponsorships too. Price Waterhouse Cooper’s changing the game report cited that brand motivation for getting in to sport is no longer just about visibility and awareness but about deep fan engagement. Utility is a key way to achieve this.
• #20: So this morning we wanted to talk about two specific areas where we think you can build more useful experiences. How people watch sport, and what useful experiences for wearables might look like.
• #21: So, firstly how people watch sport, and specifically second screening. I wanted to talk for a bit about second screening because I think it’s become a huge area of interest in sports, but I also think that the utility goals of second screening are shifting away from tablets and mobile.
• #22: To begin to see what I mean, I think it’s important to understand the context for why second screen apps came about in the first place. For at least the last few years this has been the status quo. Users adding new devices, clubs and brands having the ability to leverage new data points, and the most people having fairly dumb TVs. Second screen apps sit perfectly in the middle of this diagram.
• #23: And this is what you get. Experiences that are delivering these new data points on the screens and devices people have, primarily tablets and mobile.
• #24: These apps typically have two specific utility goals Augmenting information - what’s happening in the game or Social discovery - what might be happening elsewhere
• #25: And for those that remember ceefax I think there’s a strong parallel here. How it used to be is that you had your tv channel for your live experience Then a separate interface for everything else you needed to know about. Sports news, results, views. The stuff, that wasn’t on the main TV.
• #26: and here’s what we often ended up with second screen apps. A lot of apps delivering fairly bland, fragmented, digital versions of ceefax, which do provide information but in a fairly detached way from the ‘main event’. It offers little utility value beyond novelty.
• #27: And there’s some problems I have with these experiences. The apps are often heavy of data and data vis, but feel quite detatched from the main story.
• #28: Similarly lots of apps deliver a ton of great information, but the interfaces are pretty terrible. This board from Thuug feels more like driving a spaceship for me, than improving my experience of sports. It doesn’t feel massively useful in isolation and it’s definitely not entertaining.
• #29: Similarly apps which aim to build a social experience around sport haven’t really solved it for me either. This doesn’t feel like a cohesive experience. It feels like a distraction.
• #30: So, although I think the utility goals of second screen apps are correct, I think we’re starting to see a more useful way these goals are being delivered.
• #31: And here’s why. A few years back all the devices people were adding included screens. This might have been mobiles, or tablets. This year, a lot of the hardware focus is on connecting up the TV you already have. Things like Roku, Xbox media centre, Chrome Cast and NowTV which deliver TV like experiences.
• #32: So now TVs are smart. Fans aren’t adding more screens, their connecting up the best screen in the house to make it more useful.
• #33: And that’s evidenced by research on how people are consuming things like streaming video. This is research from the Wall Street Jornal showing that in 2014 the TV overtook handheld and computer devices as the screen of choice for streaming. Although we’re not specifically talking about just streaming, I think this gives a useful indication as to how the connectivity of TVs is increasing exponentially.
• #34: So here’s where it gets us, from this sort of snapshot a few years ago
• #35: to this; A converged experience where Smarter TV’s provide the opportunity for more utility.
• #36: So bearing that in mind, and revisiting the goals of second screen apps, here are some examples of how I think that same level of utility and experience is beginning to be merged in to one place.
• #37: Fan TV is one really interesting example. This is hardware backed by Time Warner which aims to merge the utility goals of social discovery with Live TV, all in one single screen experience. I don’t necessarily think this will end up being the ‘one thing that takes off’ but for me, the ideas here feel miles closer to what an intelligent and useful TV experience looks like. Blended social, data and live feeds, living together in one place. What’s really interesting though, is that most of the interface layer here began life as a web and ios fan companion app called Fanhattan. When it’s moved in to hardware, and piped in to one screen it feels like a more cohesive experience but with the same utility goals.
• #38: The NFL and Microsoft deal is a good example of convergence too. For NFL and gaming fans this link up provides a much more useful way to digest your NFL content alongside your gaming all in one place. For sports content such as games, fantasy football and the NFL draft this interface allows user to snap content either on top of, alongside of blended in to their gaming experience.
• #39: What’s interesting too, is that the interfaces for traditional broadcast are very similar to the new experiences we’re seeing. Here’s the familiar Sky Sports News interface for transfer deadline day. Lots of panels of data, plus live video. The only difference here is that everything is curated at the broadcast end, rather than the user end.
• #40: And here’s the NFL draft in Xbox. A very similar interface, but with full control from the user. You can follow the team or player you’re interested in and then snap different panels around the sides of the video you’re watching.
• #41: Quickly dipping out of sport again and looking at single program experiences, we see the model for multi-platform has shifted too. Embarassing bodies on Channel 4 began as a traditional pre-recorded broadcast show, with a companion second screen app. So the interactivity was fairly detached from the core TV experience. Now, with embarrassing bodies live the broadcast format is much more like a Google hangout, with social, live video and web video all integrated in to one piece of content.
• #42: So, in summary I think we’re moving from a period of many multi-screen fragmented experiences, to few converged single screen experiences.
• #43: And looking at a lot of content produced by brands and clubs, that provides a new lens. So if you were going to create a new club streaming service today, you wouldn’t build that around a dumb TV model. How might web TV services like MUFC.TV look if they were reimagined as connected TV experiences. With data, social and on demand content blended in a more useful way.
• #44: Similarly, with traditional broadcast we are now able to deliver the utility goals of second screen apps by augmenting the broadcast interface with more useful information. Could social and game data be a part of the main TV narrative, rather than being sidelined in an application.
• #45: so in summary, here’s a couple of thoughts. Firstly, the hardware landscape for connected TV experiences, or single Smart TV or console experiences is pretty fragmented at the moment but we think that overall the utility on offer, and the overall user experience, is superior to multi-screen.
• #46: secondly, although the landscape is fragmented you can start to play around with building new things right now. Roku, chrome cast and samsung smart TVs all allow developers to build and distribute applications right now.
• #47: I’ll now hand over to Tom Martin to chat through some thoughts on how to build useful brand experiences for wearables.
• #48: We sort of think of wearables as being a modern invention, but the truth is research has been going on for the past 20 years. Largely pioneered by Steven Mann 1. Steve Mann. 1980s 2. Steve Mann. 1990s
• #49: Some of that research and work eventually fed into Glass Created by Google’s secret X lab, these are the same people working on Space Balloons and Self Driving Cars. Google see this as R&D. There’s a lot of expectation that wearables are going to be next big product category after Smartphones and Tablets.
• #50: Most of the wearable buzz is about the wrist. But the truth is, there’s not that many great devices at the moment. This is one of the best of the bunch, it’s the sony smartwatch. You can use it check email, look at weather, listen to music and of course install apps.
• #51: The thing were most excited about and which we think will be the big driver of wearable growth will be from Google and Android. Android Wear is a new open platform for wearables, will provide “contextual relevant information” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xQ3y902DEQ based on it’s Google Now which some of you might use on your phones already.
• #52: Why is this significant? Well Android is open. It’s the technology which allowed Tesco to build it’s own tablet without writing it’s own Software. In the last 5 years, Android has been installed on over 4,000 unique devices. With over 1 billion devices activated. Many of these are smartphones...
• #53: But also Cameras; this is Samsung Galaxy Camera, which runs also android. It’s a bit like an iPod Touch with a Camera fused to the back.
• #54: It’s also being used around the home on samsung smart devices like Fridges.
• #55: With so many smartphones, It’s fair to say that for some, the last 5 years have been a goldrush. But the problem with looking at the opportunity size in an ecosystem is that the carrot that gets dangled is adoption numbers. Brands rush to make something because there’s tons of eyeballs that might look at it, without thinking about the reason why someone might download it in the first place. We think that there’s going to be a similar size goldrush for wearables, but we urge you not to focus on opportunity size but to focus on utility value.
• #56: So, with things like Oculus Rift, these are the headlines that cause brands to become obsessed with opportunity size over utility. Oculus want to create a billlion users, which is great, but at the moment it’s little more than a PR headline. It’s going to take years for them to reach those adoption numbers so a decision to build something for Rift needs to be based on utility goals, rather than ecosystem size.
• #57: If we look back at smartphones and apps. Google’s did a study last year and found that on average we have just 29 apps installed and regularly use just 10. The ten we keep installed are likely the ten most useful. The problem is, brands aren't very good at creating useful apps
• #58: These are Crap Branded Apps, or as we like to say Crap Brapps
• #59: The creator of this “Category” if you can call it that, is really the Carling iBeer. When the app store came out that was pretty exciting and pretty novel. To be fair they had some imagination creating a simple thing and getting some press.
• #60: The problem is that 5yrs on the trend never went away, this is a much more recent example from Budweiser. Using nothing but a specially printed beer coaster, you too can re-create the feeling of holding the FA cup in your hand.
• #61: The FA cup thing isn’t even a game. These provide no utility for customers, they are entirely worthless.
• #62: So what does this mean for wearables. Next couple of years is going to be a growth area for wearables, once Android Wear has been release, we’ll see companies racing to create apps for wearables. Don’t let your brand develop crap apps for tiny devices.
• #63: We think that the opportunity is to make products and services for apps which are useful. We’ve got some quick examples of companies already trying to do this.
• #64: This is a concept based on Android Wear which I talked about earlier. Here we’ve got contextual information on transport for Taxis and Surfing. Apps which provide directions to stadiums, public transport could be provided by brands; this is useful stuff.
• #65: With ticketing, this is a real life example by Sony and veulling. Here you can push your boarding pass to your wrist. Pretty useful
• #66: But for players as well. Rebook created its own wearable hardware called the checklight which alerts players who play impact sports when they might have had a serious blow to the head.
• #67: So in summary, even though the tech is still emerging it’s a good time to play in this space if you can figure out how to add value to an experience.
• #68: Secondly, these devices can be played with now. These wearables have some interesting baked in functionality and the best way to understand their utility is to start to play with them.
• #69: Finally, there’s benefits to being early. The first mover advantage for brands who get the first useful app out there could mean a much more meaningful and long lasting shelf life with a fan.
• #70: Follow us @383project