US Open 2020

2020/08/31

Introduction

Covid 19 had a devastating effect on sport.

Sport is vital to the mental wellbeing of millions of people across the globe. When sport is played behind closed doors as was the case with the 2020 US OPEN. The negative effect on players, viewers and fans is profound.

Challenge

‘Break the silence at the US OPEN and bring the tournament back to life.’

Breathe life back into the USOPEN, by bringing real fans, cheering for real players back into stadiums and making them feel part of the matchday experience.

Amplify the American Express sponsorship investment by connecting the tournament with remote fans all over the world.

Solution

We integrated Filmily into the US Open app, which is developed and managed by IBM.

An area inside the app was entitled 'Fan Cam' and sponsored by American Express, this was the white labelled delivery of Filmily.

Via social media Tennis Fans from all over the world were encouraged to download the app, select a game and record a cheer for their favourite player.

These individual cheers were turned into mosaics of celebrations and played out at the appropriate point during every match on 9 screens that were erected around the Arthur Ashe court.

Every fan that submitted a cheer, received a personalized mosaic back via email. With themselves at the centre, the star of the mosaic which was brought to them by American Express.

Fans could then share this cheer across social media.

Results

The app received over 30,000 fan reaction videos. It was a truly global experience with content coming in from 130 individual countries and more than 4,000 cities.

We estimate that nearly 15,000 personal mosaics were shared across social media. The content was played out during the breaks in the game and at the end when the winning player was interviewed. This means that in an average 5 set game, the screens will have come alive 16 times.

Working with PHD Media, we calculated that just the men’s final on ESPN alone, had an additional media value to American Express of $250,000.

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