At the beginning of the football season I was determined to pay closer attention to the game and become a better fan. I wasn’t sure which team to root for though because there are so many to choose from, and truth be told, I didn’t know much about any of them.
But since I’m an equestrian and love horses, I decided I should cheer for the Indianapolis Colts. It just seemed logical to me.
It’s that same kind of off-the-cuff logic that the NFL and interactive agency Atmosphere BBDO have tapped into with the creation of the website nfl.com/bandwagon. Although ratings are great during the playoffs and momentum is strong, there are a lot of fans out there following the playoffs and their favorite team is not necessarily alive anymore.
So the NFL wanted to launch an immersive online experience that will allow people to latch onto–in a fun way–a playoff team that matches their personality or interests.
“What we wanted to do was get people to watch the playoffs and have a team to root for even if their team was eliminated. That way they will have as much to root for as the fan whose team is still alive,” explained Atmosphere’s creative director Patrick Clarke, who also helped NFL launch NFLrush.com in 2006. The interactive website, geared to fans in the 6-13 age range, has become the gateway to all things young and fun in the NFL.
The way nfl.com/bandwagon works is bandwagon participants are first asked who their favorite team is. Then they are whisked away to a virtual locker room where they have to answer five questions, some completely unrelated to football. For instance, during one of my visits. I was asked, Letterman or Leno, night or morning person, bling or no bling, on the edge or play it safe. It’s randomized so each time you visit you might get a different batch of questions and answers.
“That was important because we knew, and certainly from the data we’ve seen so far, a lot of people are going through again and again. You want it to be fresh and different, something they will pass along to their friends,” said Peter O’Reilly, director of marketing for the NFL.
The site then calculates a participants’ responses and assigns them a corresponding team and explains the logic behind the choice. For example, if you chose Letterman, it means you should root for a team that plays on the East Coast, if you are a night owl, you should support a team that plays late games. And if you like bling, you want a team with a Superbowl ring.
“What we think is so fun and why this appeals to mainstream fans is the questions aren’t so football related,” related Clarke. “The questions are kind of blind–there’s a logic to them but you don’t get the logic behind them until the end.
“When visitors are asked facial hair or no facial hair, they think, ‘What does this have to do with why I would root for a team?’ And then they’re like, the team has a coach with a mustache.”
Doing it the NFL way The questions are posed and answered by Harry Kalas, the voice of the NFL. Kalas is well known for narrating the highlight segments of Inside the NFL, the weekly sports show that focuses on the National Football League starting the first week of NFL season until the week after the Super Bowl. Getting Kalas on board was key to the success of this endeavor, according to O’Reilly.
“All of the games we developed with Atmosphere for NFLRush taught us the importance of doing things only the NFL can do–things like the My Highlights Game where you can upload your face onto an NFL highlight and see yourself in an NFL game are the types of things that are so authentic NFL and that are fun…and could only be pulled off by us. And that’s how we felt with this. It is the authentic and real voice of the NFL in Harry coupled with some pretty fun stuff.”
All aboard the bandwagon After visitors discover their bandwagon team, they find out when the game is for that team so they can tune in. They can also play again, check out the NFL shop or NFL Playoff News or share the bandwagon site with a friend. While the viral nature of the campaign is what drives it, it is also being promoted via banner ads and a spot.
With a few of these interactive initiatives under its belt, the NFL is happy with the results and is poised to continue to tackle the new medium.
“What we are starting to see is clearly the avid NFL fan that watches every game and is engaged by the NFL completely is into this and is passing it around,” explained O’Reilly.
“There’s lots of chatter and blogging going on. But it’s also drawing the more mainstream fan into it, people who have a favorite team but may not be engaged 24/7 with the NFL because this type of experience also brings in pop culture… it’s not only bound to football type of experiences. That is something we are pleased with.
“It will lead us to doing and developing more of these types of immersive experiences.”
He pointed out that in the past, especially for something like the playoffs, the NFL’s campaigns have been primarily centered around TV. “But we know fans are spending a lot of time online. So it’s become about how we can create an anchor experience that we can then support offline through TV and print. With Atmosphere it’s been great experimenting and having some real successes that we can build on for next season.”
While nothing is set in stone, he said a lot of things are on the drawing board. They are looking at building interactive experiences during offseason time periods. He sees opportunities in the NFL draft, which has grown into a huge, heavily followed event, and even training camp perhaps. There is also talk about doing a kid-friendly version of the bandwagon for NFLRush.
“They’re deciding in those elementary school years what team they should be rooting for. You can ask them similar questions and match a team to their personality and interests,” said O’Reilly.
In the meantime, he said that the NFL is thrilled overall with its interactive initiatives so far.
“We’ve come a long way in the last year in terms of building out some really rich, interactive experiences.”
