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Five things we learned at the Digital Sport Innovation Summit.


Jodie Cormack - 31st March 2017 - 0 comments

We made the trip to Manchester for the Digital Sport Innovation Conference in Hotel Football, right next to Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium – an event which brought together some expert speakers to talk about innovation in the sports industry.

And it didn’t disappoint. We were treated not just to an engaging and an eventful day, but also to a host of different and interesting points of view from talented people with different perspectives.

Here are the five most important things that Snack Media MD Niall Coen took away from the event:

Distorted Video

A distorted video, if done well, is a very good, low-cost entry into the world of video for publishers – it gets the point across without requiring rights or a lot of manpower. Ideally, though, there should be an “observational value” that goes beyond just the video club – it should be interesting and relevant to general audiences, not just avid fans.

Data publishers

Fiona Green reminded us that publishers have until May 2018 to take advantage of an opt-out of data forms. After this time, the law changes, placing a greater onus on companies, and any companies using data will need to be prepared for this.

New data coupled with innovative video is a winner

Mark Coyle and Velon showed us that combining new data and innovative video can create a new and valuable content perspective that fans and brands alike will be keen to associate with.

Technology allows people to engage with exercise

Combining VR and AR with exercising environments and gamifying the experience by adding tasks, levels, and rewards could create whole new businesses and ways of people engaging with exercise. As the exercise industry booms and the technology revolution continues, it’s time to merge the two and figure out how tech can augment the experience of sport.

Producers and Consumers

The event allowed for a free exchange of ideas, meaning that everyone could find something to discuss and to learn about – and no conference like that would be complete without a phase of the day!

Mine was ‘Prosumers’: people who are both producers and consumers at the same time. In an era where anyone can broadcast live on Facebook or Twitter, everyone is a consumer and a producer all at once.

The market will shift towards what the public wants to consume, but when everyone is a prosumer, then the demand will surely change. Our methods of consuming will depend on what’s popular, and our methods of producing will have to be dynamic. It’s something for the whole industry to think about.

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