Deloitte’s activation around the 2020 US Open involved designing an augmented reality app experience for golf fans unable to attend the event due to coronavirus restrictions.
The 2020 US Open was played between 14 and 20 September at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York.
Deloitte has been a sponsor of the USGA since 2014. The partnership is a close one, with the brand providing professional services work, field research and reports/studies to help the rights-holder owner ‘more effectively pursue its mission of deepening fan engagement in strategic and sustainable ways’, ‘empower people to connect with its properties in new ways’ and ‘bring fresh ideas and experiences to the modern golfer and the modern game of golf across the entire ecosystem’.
Territory: USA/Global
Agency: 368
Objectives
For the 120th US Open Championship, Deloitte continued its work on transforming how fans interact with the tournament and set out to link the competition to the fans despite the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Activation
This objective was spearheaded by Deloitte’s development and distribution of an augmented reality (AR) app experience.
The 2020 US Open Augmented Reality (AR) App, launched on 13 September, was available in both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. To activate the experience users simply needed to download the free app and scan a hard surface (ideally a textured or multi-coloured table, countertop, or desktop), where Winged Foot would then appear on their phone or tablet screen. Users could then ‘pinch’ the screen to choose any specific hole or player and zoom in and out across the entire course.
The app featured the following experiences:
Live Play: three-dimensional views of all 18 championship holes and near-real-time scores enabling users to watch player shots, see who was playing which hole, where their ball landed, the distance the ball was hit, the distance from the ball to the hole and scoring.
Pick Your Players: a feature enabling users to see how their favourite golfer was performing head-to-head against their rivals – even if they weren’t paired together on the course.
Find a Player: Users could find where their favourite players were playing in AR, track them and view a set of favourite players’ live status and AR play throughout the tournament.
The brand’s marketing campaign around the 2020 tournament began on August 17, with a joint Deloitte Digital and USGA immersive video commemorating top moments in championship history.
This was followed two weeks later by the campaign specifically promoting the AR Experience. It was led by a hero commercial (running across the brand’s social channels from September 2) highlighting the experience in action and aiming to drive app downloads at http://www.deloitte.com/usga.
This lead spot was supported by two further pieces of video content promoting the AR experience, both posted on September 18 across Deloitte’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube channels.
Outcome
Among the activation’s metrics were:
- Total Social Video Views: 11,773
- App Install: 10,000+ on Google Play (between 17 September and 09 October)
- Average App Rating: 2.6 out of 5 (from 211 ratings)