Sky to air 24 hour eSports channel

Sky is set to launch a 24 hour eSports channel as part of its service to capitalise on the skyrocketing popularity of the competitive computer game industry.

Called Ginx eSports TV, it is expected to do very well with both Sky and ITV taking minority stocks in the business. And with a new studio in Kings Cross where gaming competitions will be filmed live from, whether you’re a fan of eSports or not, it seems to be a great time to be a gamer.

Wimbledon partners with UEFA

More football fans will be exposed to tennis chat on social media after Wimbledon partnered with football governing body UEFA.

In an attempt to take advantage of the hype surrounding the EUROs, it will be Wimbledon’s technological partner IBM that orchestrates the crossover, using its Watson AI to predict when conversations about key moments in the competition in France will crossover with on-court action to help Wimbledon’s digital team prime content fans might be interested in.

AELTC head of communications, content and digital Alex Willis said that it was important the championships’ digital strategy adapted to what else was happening in the world.

“Our strategic vision is to be the pinnacle of the sport but in a way that celebrates our traditions and is true to the brand”, she said

“If we want to be a leader we need to make sure we innovate and make sure we offer the same experience to the millions of people around the world who can’t be at Wimbledon. Digital is our gateway to do that.”

Coke shows brands how improvisation is done

Despite falling out of the top 10 biggest brands in the world, Coca-Cola’s latest ad has shown that it should still be considered very much in the conversation. Ahead of the start of the USPGA Tour, the brand released a campaign featuring its golf ambassador, superstar Jordan Speith with it originally supposed to be taking place under the hot Texan sun on a golf course.

While the idea seemed great on paper, the elements turned it on and the outdoor ad idea was scuttled due to torrential rain, and lots of it. Instead of allowing it to cancel the video plans, Coke undertook a spectacular display of improvisation, filming the entire ad in the star’s caravan.

Coca-Cola North America vice president of connections activation Peggy Loos said that the weather didn’t play ball but they decided to use their back-up plan

“It was a very high stress environment. We literally walked in on that shoot day not sure which concept we were shooting. Everyone was monitoring the weather hour-by-hour. Since it was very dark and gloomy we decided to go with the second concept that had just been created within the last 36 hours.”

Take a look at the ad below;

https://youtu.be/RU1Hw-ItmMg

Twitter kicks off Race to Rio

As the Olympics fast approach, social media platform Twitter has kicked off a tweet race and pitted six of the most digitally popular countries against each other.

Measuring the popularity of each team by counting the mentions of each country, the initiative seems to be a great way to draw support and engagement from fans of the respective countries, getting people excited for the Olympics which start August 5.

Twitter #RoadToRio 48 hour race: Check out our partial result. @AUSOlympicTeam is leading! pic.twitter.com/41jt826THs

— Twitter Sports (@TwitterSports) June 17, 2016

Sacramento Kings release new shirt via 360 degree video

Teams have quickly adopted the use of Facebook Live to release their new shirt, however, NBA’s Sacramento Kings have gone one step further, using 360 degree video to release its new shirt for next season.

As teams start to branch out in how they connect with fans, you can expect to see this kind of feature being rolled out a lot more often, particularly if it proves to be as successful as this one. Fans can essentially take a digital ‘walk’ around the video and look at both the home and away shirts.