Supponor extends virtual advertising partnership with Sportfive

Sportfive, the global sports business agency, and Supponor, the provider of virtual advertising technology and solutions for live broadcast sports, have agreed to extend their cooperation that has been in place since 2017 by a further three years.

Sportfive and Supponor currently offer the only virtual advertising solution approved and licensed by the Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL) for commercial operations in the Bundesliga.

For Sportfive, virtual advertising creates new high impact, high value TV visible advertising inventory within Bundesliga matches. Sponsors and advertisers benefit from the reach and worldwide attention of one of the top leagues worldwide.

The reach of the Bundesliga has recently been boosted once again by being the first and only European top league to have a successful restart. The possibilities of digital overlay of advertising boards is of decisive importance especially for global and regional sponsoring partnerships outside the German-speaking market.

Fans in the stadiums and domestic TV audiences see no change from the physical, in-stadium messages while messages shown to TV audiences in other markets can be individually targeted by virtually overlaying the existing animated perimeter LED boards from within the live broadcast signal.

For the past two seasons, Supponor’s proprietary technology platform has been proven to reliably and authentically modify the regular transmission delivering virtual multiplication of the perimeter advertising space to multiple international markets. This gives advertising partners a wide range of options such as the individual approach to target groups in different regions and the possibility of acquiring different partners per region for the rights-holders.

The focus markets for addressing target groups and playing out individualised feeds are the US, China, Thailand, Japan and EMEA. Within the TV signal for DACH, the LED boards can be seen as they are in the stadium, while the advertising spaces outside DACH are overlayed with individual content. A total of five TV feeds are currently being produced with individual advertising messages adapted to each feed and region: feed DACH region without digital overlay; feed Americas with digital overlay of the advertising board; feed EMEA with digital overlay of the advertising board; feed South Asia with digital overlay of the advertising board; feed South East Asia with digital overlay of the advertising board

Thanks to the virtual advertising technology exclusively licensed by the DFL, Sportfive customers can book one, several or all feeds and thus play out their advertising offers to a global TV audience (depending on the virtual advertising feeds booked).

Supponor virtual advertising will also once again be present in the production of all home Bundesliga matches of Borussia Dortmund, delivering five different feeds as well as selected home matches of other cooperation clubs by Sportfive from the German Bundesliga, such as Hertha BSC, FC Augsburg and Borussia Mönchengladbach. The worldwide fan community of the German Bundesliga can thus follow unique moments in sport on TV while relevant and region-specific advertising messages are displayed on the relevant advertising spaces.

In the future, it is also planned to implement static or animated virtual 3D cam carpets and to individualise the popular 3D tool for international markets.

Philipp Hasenbein, COO at Sportfive, said: “We are proud that together with our partners we have been able to pave the way for further innovations in the industry. This technology enables brands and rights-holders to create real, additional value. The novel use of the cam carpets underlines our role as an innovation driver in this field. We thus support our partners in further positioning themselves in the respective target markets and in reaching their target groups with country-specific advertising messages.”

James B Gambrell, CEO of Supponor, added: “We are thrilled to extend our partnership with Sportfive as a testament to the powerful collaborative relationship we have built. The announcement of our extended cooperation comes at a time where engaging with audiences is more important than ever and virtual advertising technology can be the key to this improved fan engagement and interaction with sponsors, leagues and clubs. We look forward to working with Sportfive as we continue to grow our partnership beyond Germany by expanding virtual solutions in live sport across the globe.”

In the last two seasons, the virtual perimeter advertising was implemented at 60 matches in 10 different stadiums. More than 50 brands have then taken the opportunity for targeted communication in international markets and sponsoring revenues have been generated in the eight digit range. In the medium term, the aim is to implement the technology in additional markets, such as France or England.