When Taylor Swift played Murrayfield last weekend, Scottish football was the furthest thing from the minds of the 73,000-strong crowd who comprised the highest-attended stadium concert in Scottish history. Tonight, Scottish fans will be in fine voice as the Tartan Army open UEFA Euro 2024 in Munich against hosts Germany in what is set to … Read More
Football fandom is a funny old game. When I asked ChatGPT to calculate the most likely desired outcome for English Premier League [EPL] football club Spurs’ chances of beating Manchester City tomorrow night – AI had an intelligence bypass, with a response as bland and asinine as a Microsoft Windows Update, Spurs fans would likely … Read More
Advertising agencies, production companies and rights holders agree on at least one thing – AI is the train you cannot afford to miss – but as with every mindbending new piece of technology there are a few false starts out of the station. It is surely no revelation that the Gen Z tribe use AI … Read More
The final stages of the UEFA Champions League are in train with both English clubs despatched by Real Madrid and Bayern Munich who will meet tomorrow in the first leg of the semi final. Traditional TV coverage will reach at least 96 countries, by 110 commercial broadcasters, with impressive, estimated audiences across Connected TV, Social, … Read More
Unilever has kicked off a multi-brand partnership for UEFA Euro 2024 with a press release announcing that they will attract a cumulative audience of more than 5 billion people across the tournament. At first glance the mega claim seems far-fetched until you break down the elements of the ‘cume’ – the estimated total number of … Read More
When Mediacells consults with a new football club client the first question we ask is, who are you trying to engage with and how big is the audience you are going after? Football clubs know their fans as intimately as local newspapers know their readership. They know their interests, which buttons to press in order … Read More
The Grudge Match has been the punchy storyline for boxing audiences since Muhammad Ali’s famous pre-fight tussle with Ernie Terrell in 1967 when the ‘Octopus’ called Ali by his forsaken name, Cassius Clay. The spat set the scene for Ali outpointing Terrell comprehensively over 15 rounds in what was arguably the most outstanding performance in … Read More
It is International Women’s Day and the Accelerate Progress campaign theme is passionately framed in the arena of sports audiences. Earlier this year, USA Today reported on a study claiming Gen Z audiences don’t care about sports, with only 23% of them describing themselves as passionate sports fans compared to 42% of millennials. These digital … Read More
The creative world is on a precipice if we are to believe entertainment and media commentators on the effect text-to-video AI modelling tool Sora will have on the creative visual world. Gary Lineker-owned All the Rest is Entertainment podcast hosts considered the disastrous macro impact of AI on media and entertainment industries, “Really tough times … Read More
Audiences are returning to live award shows like the BAFTAs and Golden Globes after several slump years – does the mainstream audience enthusiasm for these star-studded, peacocking extravaganzas convert to sport? Latest Sports Fan edition explores new Audience Engineering growth data to find out. We are now deep into the awards season with the Golden … Read More
The latest audience engineering trend is ‘Swift-ization’, the boosting of the Super Bowl audience by sport-adjacent love story between Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and pop superstar Taylor Swift. It was no massive surprise that the Super Bowl 2024 was the most-watched telecast of all time, hitting 123.4 million viewers (Nielsen and Adobe … Read More
Football managers just don’t matter that much, according to Soccernomics co-author Simon Kuper. On the BBC flagship news show, Today, err today (February 7) the Financial Times journalist and economist said, “Most managers add so little value that it is tempting to think they could be replaced by their secretaries or by stuffed teddy bears … Read More
Last week the undisputed Streaming Wars victor Netflix got Wall Street in a Full Nelson when it announced a $5 billion rights deal with World Wrestling Entertainment’s (WWE) Raw. The deal has given Netflix the fireman’s carry it needs to launch an ad-funded smackdown of live, top-of-the-bill WWE shows and specials. Professional wrestling terms aside, … Read More
Forty years ago today Steve Jobs unveiled the very first Mackintosh computer, he took to the stage carrying a beige box, stuck a floppy disk into it and as the theme from Chariots of Fire played the word ‘Mackintosh’ appeared on the computer’s screen. It was the most inspirational product launch the world had ever … Read More
The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ continues to excite global audiences on and off the pitch, despite the Down-Under time differences. The tournament in Australia and New Zealand has been a moment for Women’s football. There are only a few more sleeps until the World Cup final between Spain and England at the Stadium Australia … Read More
The new Wimbledon service will be separate to the BBC’s coverage for the 3 July-16 July tournament and IBM’s AI team claim the technology has been trained in the “unique language of tennis” with the help of the All England Club. IBM said the first set of AI commentary will be available after the first day … Read More
In the latest Black Mirror Netflix Original, Joan is Awful, we are shown an AI nightmare where people’s lives are turned into content, with or without their permission. “It’s designed to keep the viewer in a state of mesmerized horror,” says the mythical Streamberry CEO, “it’s great for engagement.” This burnished technology vision of Black … Read More
After five years R&D development Mediacells has been awarded the trademark for Audience Engineering (AE), a business insights system to inform performance decisions for rights owners and sponsors. To mark the occasion the Mediacells team wanted to use AE to produce a unique, creative identity. We decided to embark on a new creative path for … Read More
Mediacells advises football club clients to think outside of the ground in the context of their fanbase. If a club looks at their fortunes in terms of takings at the stadium, purchases in store, online and physical, plus TV deals – the sponsorship revenue will reflect the club’s mindset. Take Wrexham AFC as an example … Read More
Events in the first three months of 2023 shattered a lot of agency crystal balls about what lies ahead for big tech and sports. The mothernode intersecting the various media agency about-turns and flip-flops can be attributed to the rapid roll-out of fresh generative AI tools, like Microsoft-backed ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. It was the … Read More