| Home > Games > Manchester United fans throughout Asia are ironically getting closer to the game than fans back in England. |
| Manchester United fans throughout Asia are ironically getting closer to the game than fans back in England. | | Date Created: Jun 28, 2005, 08:52 AM |
 Christopher Wilson from Matrix Partners has a special property to market: the Manchester United football team. Interactive SMS TV marketing is his expertise, but he has turned his talents to producing SMS TV based on A-branded content. A good example is how he has taken Manchester United football games and converted them into 30 minute interactive SMS "magazine" programs for mobile phones and other digital devices. These allow the viewing fan to interact with the program as if they were inside the game themselves.
In this interview, Wilson talks about how he builds interactivity into what he calls the "DNA" of the program so that the fans can play sophisticated competitions and interact with each other throughout their game watching. Prizewinners are themselves shown on the TV program, including fans who are actually physically present at the game. This creates a much more flexible and informal approach to the program, but one that is superbly magnetic for Manchester United fans worldwide.
Wilson says that even with 2.5G bandwidth it is possible to create a strong interplay between the TV program and with the mobile. But as bandwidth increases, his palette of interactive offerings exponentially widens. This is significant because, although Wilson has only so far created a prototype in Shanghai, he has found that if the interactivity is creative and linked by a charismatic show host who pushes the interactivity, then the take up rate is hugely powerful. Wilson believes he should get around 800,000 hits per program if he is able to transfer the same smarts he has put in the pilot, into the real thing when it starts.
Wilson says 80% of the program can be "blue printed" for use throughout Asia, but the remaining 20% is localised for the particular broadcast region. That means using the local language and a locally-based show host. If you don't localise a show, viewers reject the offering because they don't feel intimately connected to it, Wilson says.
Ensuring the video can clearly display the ball on a small mobile phone screen is also an issue and Wilson is investigating special video compression technologies to ensure that the widest possible group of cellphones throughout Asia are capable of reaching the visual standard necessary for a good viewing experience. He says the important thing though, is to keep the show's length down to a tolerable duration and keep the interactive elements continuously exciting and attractive.
Wilson says his main target, however, is initially a terrestrially broadcast interactive TV program with the mobile service being a secondary consideration (although this may change in future). Every month he intends to inject new concepts, better graphic quality and offerings that will interest an ever wider audience. An overall "360 degree" platform for TV, mobile and Web is the Holly Grail and Wilson says a globally loved brand such as Manchester United is a perfect lightning rod to achieve that.
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