| Title | THE NUMBERS GAME |
| Brand | TELSTRA |
| Product / Service | TELSTRA |
| Category | C04. Real-time Response |
| Entrant | R/GA SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA |
| Idea Creation | R/GA SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Bob Mackintosh | R/GA Sydney | VP ECD |
| Hamish Stewart | R/GA Sydney | ECD |
| Craig Brooks | R/GA Sydney | ECD |
| Long Truong | R/GA Sydney | Art Director |
| Long Truong | R/GA Sydney | Art Director |
| Jonathon Shannon | R/GA Sydney | Copywriter |
| Kate Goddard | R/GA Sydney | Executive Producer |
| Michael Debach | R/GA Sydney | Producer |
| Craig Page | R/GA Sydney | Executive Strategy Director |
| Justine Cusack | R/GA Sydney | Senior Social Strategist |
| Jessie Dang | R/GA Sydney | Designer |
| Beau Thein | R/GA Sydney | DESIGNER |
| Paris Lawrence | R/GA Sydney | Creative Director |
| Mike Yee | R/GA Sydney | Design Director |
| Richard Birkett | R/GA Sydney | Account Director |
| Candice Lombard | R/GA Sydney | Group Account Director |
For Australian sports fans, the only thing more important than their team is their data coverage. Because without a reliable mobile network to stream the match, it’s game over. To prove the quality of Telstra’s live-stream apps for the Australian Football League, National Rugby League and Super Netball, we used data from tracking devices on the backs of players’ jerseys to track every run, kick, pass, try and goal…in every game. Each week we brought this to life as snackable data stories on social media, giving fans the insights that they couldn’t get anywhere else.
Each week of the 2017 Finals and 2018 regular season, we combined tracker data with league metadata and mined it to uncover the surprising statistical trends as they emerged, then brought these data stories to life as animated infographics on Facebook and Twitter. Whether it was a defensive deficiency for the Raiders in the NRL, a dependency on opposition errors for the Tigers in the AFL, or a straight shootout for accuracy between the Firebirds and the Swifts in the Netball, we gave fans real-time insights into their team that they couldn’t get from anywhere else. Each data story was geo-targeted to the teams’ fans and rivals alike, sparking conversation (and often fierce debate) in social media in the lead up to the next game.
The results were so strong that we shut it down...until fans demanded it back: over 1M app downloads (+24% year-on-year), +59% tickets sold year-on-year, and 38M impressions.
The Numbers Game targeted fans in social media, driving them to download the Telstra Live app for their favourite sporting codes and to then purchase a Live Pass streaming option.
Social listening told us that sporting fans across all three codes relentlessly dissected and discussed each week’s games with fellow fans (and rivals) on Facebook and Twitter. To target these fans, driving Telstra Live app downloads and converting to Live Pass sales, we looked at what the apps offered that other ways of watching (i.e. TV broadcast) didn’t. The answer? Data. The Telstra Live apps offered access to player data (via wearable LPS technology embedded in their jerseys) and game metadata that fans couldn’t get from anywhere else: giving them all of the numbers that mattered, and plenty of ammo for their armchair analysis and social banter. Our approach was to turn this data into snackable social stories that revealed the deeper, hidden “numbers game” behind the games themselves - making each matchup a must-watch and driving fans to see it “live, fast and data-free” via the Telstra Live app.