ThinkingAboutSports: Perfect is the enemy of… something I want to watch
by Brian Reich | 13 Feb 2010, 4:26pm
The first day of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver did not go as organizers planned.
First there was the tragic death of 21-year-old Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili, following a crash during a practice run just hours before the opening ceremonies. Within minutes of the accident, graphic images showing the unsuccessful attempts to revive the stricken athlete were available online. And almost immediately the media began focusing on the safety of the sliding center, with various conspiracy theories emerging. Then, a technical issue during the lighting of the Olympic flame caused some very tense, and somewhat awkward, moments during the big finale of the opening ceremonies, compounding criticism from fans who found the entire production underwhelming. The games hadn’t even officially begun and it seemed nothing could go quite right. Before the first medals have even been awarded Olympics organizers were on the defensive and NBC was scrambling.
Thank goodness.
The Olympics organizers have been planning for these games for years, and every painstaking detail about how the competition has been considered and carefully planned. NBC has written a very elaborate script for their Olympics coverage — they have stories they want to tell, athletes they want to highlight and results they expect to see. Both the Olympics organizers and NBC want everything to be perfect. They both want to be in control.
Well, perfect is boring. I don’t want to watch perfect.
I want to see what happens when you have to stray from the script. I want to see what happens when the plans need to change. I would never wish for an athlete to get hurt, or worse. And I don’t want to see anything bad happen. But I do want to see what creative solutions the people organizing the Olympic games can come up with when pressed. I want to see some underdogs win. I want the weather to continue to cause problems. I want to see what happens when the people NBC puts in front of the camera have to offer real-time analysis. I want to see the athletes have to answer tough questions. I want the detailed plans and pre-packaged stories to have to be scrapped.
That’s when it gets interesting. That is what I want to watch. That is what would make these games truly exciting.
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: NBC Olympics ThinkingAboutSports
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ThinkingAboutSports: The Olympics Experience I (Still) Want
by Brian Reich | 12 Feb 2010, 10:19am
The Winter Olympics have arrived!
Tonight’s opening ceremonies in Vancouver kick off a 17-days of intense competition among the world’s greatest athletes, in a variety of sports that test the physical and mental abilities of the competitors and the imagination of the spectators. You don’t even have to be a sports fan to find the Olympics engaging and inspiring. But for sports fans, myself included, the Olympics offers nothing short of a global sports orgy.
I am not able to attend the XXI Winter Games — for those keeping track that’s 16 consecutive Olympics since I was born that I haven’t managed to see in person. Some day I will go. In the meantime, I will have to rely on NBC — the official broadcast network of the OIympics here in the United States — and the media, mainstream and otherwise, to provide me with access to the pageantry and competition that the Olympics offers. Two years ago, when the Summer Olympics took place in China, I wasn’t able to attend, so I looked to the media to provide me with the most compelling Olympics experience possible (I wrote about the Olympics experience that I wanted to have at the time) — and while I certainly enjoyed the games, there were some missed opportunities.
Fast forward two years and there are many more options for accessing information about the games — thanks to the continuing growth of the internet and the reach of technology. And I have done everything I can think of to find those tools and channels and prepare my ultimate Olympics viewing experience: I have collected a half-dozen Olympics preview sections from newspapers and magazines — Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, Esquire, Time Magazine, etc. I have downloaded the broadcast schedule and programmed my TiVos to capture the key coverage that is available on TV. I have bookmarked several official Olympics-related websites, dropped the best sports and related blogs that I know of into my RSS reader, and set up news alerts for topics related to the games that I figure might not be covered through the normal channels (I’m hoping, for example, to get some good coverage from outside the United States as well). I am following a variety of people on Twitter who I think will offer compelling insights during the games and signed on as a fan of both the Olympics and NBC Olympics Facebook groups. I downloaded the official NBC Olympics iPhone app — as well as the NBC Olympics Cheer app (which allows you to simulate applause) and the Bauer Goal Light app (which allows you to set off the siren when your team scores a goal during the hockey competition). And I have signed up for a handful of different text message alerts, both official and unofficial.
The question remains, however, will the coverage of the Olympics that I am able to access through these channels — the stuff that gets pushed through the pipe if you will — meet my expectations? The early evidence would suggest the answer to that question is no — I won’t find all the coverage, or types of coverage, that I would hope to see from the Olympics. There are some obvious reasons for this:
- The ‘proven’ method of telling the story about something like the Olympics is to focus on the stories that are likely to have mass appeal. In the case of the Olympics, and US-based coverage of the Olympics for that matter, the focus tends to be on three things: the athletes who are most likely to bring home gold medals, the sexiest athletes or those who have the most interesting back-story, and the sports that garner the broadest interest. NBC, the US Olympic Committee, and much of the mainstream media have decided that the primary reasons to watch the Olympics are, in order of priority: Lindsay Vonn, Shaun White, Shani Davis, anything having to do with Figure Skating — and maybe superstars like Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin (who, of course, aren’t Americans, but do play professional hockey in the United States when not representing their home country during the Olympics). There is some coverage of the Nordic Combined and Biathalon events (because Americans may medal, which is very uncommon), Bobsled (because the US Men’s teams enters the Olympics as the top-ranked team in the world), and even luge (where Erin Hamlin, the defending World Champion, has an above-average chance of winning a medal, and because the man carrying the flag for the United States during the opening ceremonies is luger and five-time Olympian Mark Grimmette).
- Ratings and readers are the goal. NBC will make thousands of hours of Olympics coverage available - between their various network and cable channels, and the NBCOlympics.com site — but only a fraction of that will be available live, and what the majority of audiences will see is just a snapshot of the competition that is taking place. Much of the newspaper and online coverage will focus on the results of the competition. NBC wants the largest possible audience to tune in for their nightly broadcasts, which makes sense given the billions of dollars they have invested in purchasing the rights and preparing their coverage of the games. Everyone else wants to be seen as the source for the most up-to-date information about medal counts and athlete performances. Of course, lost in the effort to control the information experience of those who are interested in the games — or those curious enough to go looking for information about a particular sport or athlete — is the opportunity to deliver something that sparks an even greater interest that wasn’t anticipated. In many ways, it doesn’t matter whether the various media covering the games offer an experience that people really enjoy — it just matters that they tune in, or log on.
- I have different interests than everyone else. I like the Olympics. Period. I like the sports - the diversity of the skills on display, the high level of competition, and the powerful emotions behind every event. I am intrigued by the global political element of the Games - so many different languages and cultures on display, the pride and the patriotism athletes show as they represent their entire nation, and the ability to use sport to raise awareness and understanding of our global connectedness. I am also fascinated by the logistics - the schedule, the geography, the details of the construction of the venues (and the manufacturing of snow), the protocols for playing of all the national anthems — all the things that makes the games uniquely complex to conduct yet seemingly effortless when presented for the world to enjoy. I want to see the American team win, but I also want to see records broken, amazing tricks attempted, and spectacular performances - good and bad - unfold before my eyes. A limited number of storylines, particularly predictable ones, just aren’t enough for me.
Instead of trying to control every aspect of the information experience around the Olympics, NBC and the various media organizations who are there to report on the happenings, should focus on creating the best possible information experience for their audience, with the confidence that we will tune in, log on, seek out, or pay for the coverage wherever that experience is available. What might that look like? NBC should be syndicating its coverage to all the US networks (at least) who want to purchase a feed, offer online sites willing to embed NBC-driven players the offer to share their favorite highlights, and inviting individuals to pay a small fee to be able to access and customize extra coverage, on their terms. The media should divide and conquer, so that every sport is covered, in full and with equal intensity and insight, and the stories shared across all online channels and platforms where users might find them. Access to the athletes, the venues, and the behind-the-scenes aspects of the games, should be available to those who are interested — and from those athletes who are willing of course. And the coverage, and those doing the work to tell the stories, should be able to change, and improve, as the games proceed over the next two weeks, to make sure that the interests of the audience are met.
As I wrote in my post two years ago:
There is nothing new about the Olympic Games being broadcast on television, written about by tens-of-thousands of reporters, or even having scores and highlights posted online in real-time. In fact, as sporting events go, the Olympics offers so many storylines (the Olympics isn’t really one event - every athlete, in every event, is being covered by someone, and watched with interest by people in their home country) that no single organization or medium would suffice. But, as technology evolves, the internet expands, and the silos and borders that represent our traditional media environment break down, the challenges are many, new, and intriguing for sure.
So, what is the Olympics experience that I (still) want?
- The Long Tail of Olympics Coverage. I want to see the spirit of the games, the complexity of the events, the diversity of the athletes, and the excitement of the competition on full display. There should be media, bloggers reporting out on event event and happening taking place over the next 17-days in Vancouver — and not just what happens inside the venues, but on the streets and throughout the world where people are watching and talking about what they see. There should be real-time coverage of every sport, every event, every heat and every athlete streamed live. Every athlete should have a video camera and an open portal to share their perspective with the world. There should be explanations of each sport, the rules and technology, the training requirements and analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors. The Olympics organizers, and the individual nations, should become media organizations themselves and ensure that access to, and coverage of, all the athletes and sports are given the attention they deserve - and the opportunity to attract an audience. Fans should be invited, and encouraged, to share their insights. Some of this is happening, but not enough.
- A truly Social Olympics Experience. The Olympics is the ultimate shared experience. It is a sport-centric reflection of what is happening more and more in our society. But while the Olympics reflects the diversity that exists around the world, the Olympics doesn’t truly reflect the social nature of our society. The athletes live together in a village, make connections and form friendships. Fans have a shared experience, watching the competition unfold and sharing their stories. In some cases people on the outside are now able to to connect with athletes, but mostly just as fans, as onlookers. But for the most part the worlds remain separate. The Olympics aren’t truly social yet. The Olympics don’t fully reflect the connections that exist - and the potential those connections offer - in today’s technology-enabled world. A truly social Olympics would invite conversation and collaboration, among athletes, fans and organizers. Stories would travel in both directions, to and from Vancouver. Questions would be answered. Ideas would be shared. Fans would have greater understanding of what is required for the athletes to perform at the top level, and athletes might gain insight from the experiences that the rest of the world can offer.
- A single global focus. The National Hockey League takes a break during the Olympics — because 140 players from the league will be competing — and will offer fans an “all-access” service to help keep up with what is happening. But other major sporting events are taking place. The NBA is still operating — in fact, the All-Star game will take place this weekend in Dallas. NASCAR kicks off its season with the Daytona 500 on Sunday. College basketball games are being played. The PGA will hold two big tournaments while the Games are taking place. Soccer leagues in Europe have scheduled matches. The Olympics is a big deal - one of the world’s great sporting events, an unprecedented gathering of global leaders and meshing of cultures and personalities from all over the world. The Olympics deserve our full attention. We should, as a sports community — if not as a world community as well — be able to pause, focus, and enjoy the games. We should be able to schedule around the Olympics so that we can appreciate the competition and entertainment they create, and the message they send.
The Olympics experience I want is probably unrealistic - in today’s media culture, with the competition for dollars and eyeballs more fierce than ever. It may even a little naive — with the political, religious, and cultural differences that exist around the world — to expect that people want to come together and have a shared experience around sports. But that’s a big reason I want that kind of Olympics experience. The Olympics are more than just a great sporting event. Sports has the power to entertain and inspire people, to bring us together, to teach us about ourselves, and others. Sports has a powerful impact on me every time I tune in, turn out, log on, or get out there and play myself. The Olympics experience that I want isn’t just for me - it would give anyone, or everyone — sports fan or not, athlete or not — the chance to see the excitement, importance, and inspiration that the Olympics provides. And I just think that would be pretty cool.
Let the Games begin!
Media and the 2016 Olympics
by Brian Reich | 21 Jan 2009, 10:18pm
I was asked to share some thoughts about how media and technology will change before the 2016 Olympics - and what that should mean to the bid process, the preparations whoever is selected as host City need to make, and the sporting world in general. They were compiled on StadiTech, and interesting blog about stadium technology and innovation.
Media For 2016 Olympics Interview with ‘Media Rules!’ Author - Brian Reich
StadiaTech.com takes a look ahead at the 2016 Olympic Games and interviews Brian Reich, author of Media Rules!, on his views of media activity and technological advances for the 2016 Games.Q: What will be the three most popular personalized marketing methods by 2016?
A: I’m not sure I would describe it as a method, but I think high quality content will be the most important element of marketing in the future. The process that someone goes through when deciding whether to buy a product or make any other decision is a personal one — they are looking to satisfy their personal interests or needs. They are looking to be a part of a community or to know that their investment, whether its time or money or something else, was worthwhile. The more than marketers can adapt the messaging of their campaigns to meet individual interests, the more effective those efforts will be. In the context of sports and the Olympics, marketers should be looking at the Olympics as the ultimate experience, the chance to represent your country or live vicariously through an athlete — stories and details that make the Games accessible (through the product experience you are selling) will resonate. Second, marketers should be looking at how to create conversation about their product, especially among a friend or family member of their target. The community that surrounds a consumer has the greatest influence on their decision making, so facilitating peer-to-peer marketing is critical. Not surprisingly, people talk about the Olympics, the achievements of the athletes, the triumphs and tragedies that only the Olympics can create. They don’t talk about the soda they drink or the car they drive. So in terms of creating conversation, find ways to thoughtfully and credibly integrate your product into the Olympic experience, so that people discuss it naturally. Finally, marketers need to be transparent about their activities and responsive to the audience. Consumers have questions, and they want those questions answered before they make a decision to buy (or to buy again - since you can, in most cases, trick someone once into buying something they don’t want). The transparency helps demonstrate to an audience that you have nothing to hide, and good, responsive customer service shows you value your relationship with the customer. That is true no matter what you are marketing, and all the more true when you are aligning with someone as heavily watched and scrutinized as the Olympics.
Important - I didn’t mention technology, because if you can embrace these methods for marketing, you’ll be successful not matter what set of tools you use to communicate.
Q: What affect will stadium usage as broadcast points have if Chicago is selected as Olympic host?
A: Stadiums present an opportunity for a large audience to have a shared experience. Everyone remembers being at the big game, and the people they were sitting with at the time (even if they didn’t know them beforehand). The more information and opportunity you arm that community of people gathered at the stadium with, the better. The stadiums are also marketing experiences themselves — rather than try to interrupt or co-opt the viewing experience of the fan, find ways to enhance the whole event through the stadium. If the line for food is too long, or the event is interrupted by too many announcements, that is what the fan will remember. If every piece of information delivered, and the methods for delivering that information, enhance the whole experience, you are doing something right. And marketers can and should take on some of that responsibility, as a way of showing their interest in supporting the fan experience. An example would be how the Seattle Mariners are working with Nintendo to use mobile/video game devices to provide statistics and replays to fans attending the game. In the case of baseball, statistics are important to understanding and appreciating the game being played on the field… so making that information available to fans, in real time and in context, only creates a better baseball experience. That is true for every Olympic sport and should be integrated into every venue.Q: How important is a nations media infrastructure in the selection process or is this irrelevant?
A: Its very important, but its more than just media infrastructure that is important. In my mind, media is about information, experiences, and stuff. Its not limited to the quality of your broadband or cell network, how many news stations you have. There are places with less technological capacity that can create incredible media. And there are countries with great wealth and technology that place unnecessary and unacceptable limitations on how media works. As a host nation you have to be able to provide timely, relevant and compelling information, create meaningful experiences, and sell/offer/support stuff that people want and need. If you can’t do that, especially when the eyes of the world are on you, you shouldn’t be hosting the games. Countries where the flow of information is limited for technological reasons, or political reasons, should not be hosting the games in my mind — because full transparency, flow of information, freedoms and similar are central to the spirit of the games and the function of hosting them. China, to its credit, was willing/able to relax some of its normal controls because they understood the potential of the games to highlight their evolution over time (and recruit partners to help them get the rest of the way). But even they placed too many controls on the media — and knowing that, we shouldn’t be doing to countries that adopt such rules. There are plenty of potential host countries that have free and open media and the ability to create the kind of meaningful experience fans and athletes deserve.Q: Should stadiums and the media be concerned by live cell phone video streaming or should it be encouraged?
A: Encouraged. First of all, the results of a competition are not the only, or in many cases, most important element of the games. The television networks like to limit how much information leaks out so they can focus the audience on a particular broadcast, but that is antithetical to the way we get and share information today, so its a mistake to attempt. The mashing of cultures, the integration of language, the spectacle of the competition — those are all important as well. The perspectives and experiences that individuals fans, athletes, and others are having is important. Streaming a live feed of someone running a race or scoring a goal can’t fully capture that. so even if the results are known, people will still go seeking information, or highlights, so they can create their own good experience. In the future, the media experience around the Games will have to be multi-dimensional and multi-platform. You need to be able to get real-time results or watch live, as well as choose how and when to get more information about athletes and competitions. That information shouldn’t be limited to who owns the rights to the games either. Fans who are in attendance should have as much voice in the coverage of events and should be encouraged to use the tools to share their perspective and raise awareness about what is happening in the competition. That will only spur more interest and more media consumption (sort of a rising tides lifts all boats theory).
Q: Will celebrity sports personalites have less or more influence as the interests of consumers continue to grow thanks to the arrival of the Internet?
A: Celebrity sports personalities will also be important — particularly for those who are only passively interested or who have limited understanding of the complexity of the games. And as long as the television or other media partners related to the olympics try to limit how information about the games is distributed, they will grow in importance — because celebrities are one of the few ways of attracting mainstream awareness around a topic. But, if the controls are lifted and information flows freely, the emphasis won’t be on celebrity. Rather than unified interest in one or a small number of athletes or competitions, every athlete or competition will have the ability to host its own audience and build its own interest. The idea of celebrity will change - and hopefully be focused again on the athletic achievements, and not the personality or marketability. Someone like Michael Phelps is deserving of attention and celebrity because of his accomplishments, but that doesn’t diminish the face that hundreds of other athletes from the most recent games also have compelling stories and represent huge successes. People want to hear those stories, and learn more about their sports, and find topics that relate to their particular interests. So instead of a few celebrities which capture all our attention (because its our only option), we’ll see everyone capturing just a little bit of attention (and some getting more, for sure), but it should add up to more interest across the audience of prospective fans. Technology allows this, and of course it is how technology is used generally - to give people access to the information they care about most, regardless of the topic. Such an understanding will need to be in place for the 2016 games (and well before frankly) if the audience is going to continue to show its interest.
Here is the link to my comments: http://www.stadiatech.com/?p=298
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: 2016 media Olympics Stadiums Technology
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The Olympics Experience I want
by Brian Reich | 10 Aug 2008, 2:00am
I have been waiting for the Olympics to begin for a long time.
I am drawn to the sports - the diversity of the skills on display, the high level of competition, and the powerful emotions behind every run, throw, stroke, spike, vault, lunge, and lift hold my attention for the full two weeks, and inspire me to be active.
I am intrigued by the global political implications - so many different languages and cultures on display, the pride and the patriotism athletes show as they represent their entire nation, and the ability to use sport to bring war, famine, poverty, AIDS, human rights and the challenges of world diplomacy into clearer focus for so many people who have chosen to ignore them the rest of the time.
I am fascinated by the logistics - the schedule, the geography, the details of the construction, and all the things (like the playing of all the national anthems) that makes the games uniquely complex to conduct yet seemingly effortless to pull off.
And with the XXIX Olympic Games in Beijing, the first in the broadband area, I have something else to pay attention to - the media.
There is nothing new about the Olympic Games being broadcast on television, written about by tens-of-thousands of reporters, or even having scores and highlights posted online in real-time. In fact, as sporting events go, the Olympics offers so many storylines (the Olympics isn’t really one event - every athlete, in every event, is being covered by someone, and watched with interest by people in their home country) that no single organization or medium would suffice. But, as technology evolves, the internet expands, and the silos and borders that represent our traditional media environment break down, the challenges are many, new, and intriguing for sure.
In the United States, the exclusive broadcast rights for the Games were purchased by NBC. Over the course of the next two weeks, they’ll share over 2000 hours of coverage - live and tape-delayed - across all their stations (NBC, CNBC, MSNC, USA, Telemundo, etc.) and online. Much of their prime time coverage, of course, will be tape delayed because Beijing is some 12 hours ahead of the United States (meaning 8pm EST in the United States is 8am in China, the beginning of a new day of competition). Meanwhile, the broadcast rights for every other country in the world has been sold to local and regional providers, like the BBC, Terra (the largest internet company in Latin America) and Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana, the African Union of Broadcasting (AUB) and the South African Broadcasting Corporation Limited (SABC), CCTV in China and so on.
And that is where it gets interesting.
As the New York Times reported on the first day of the Games:
“NBC’s decision to delay broadcasting the opening ceremonies by 12 hours sent people across the country to their computers to poke holes in NBC’s technological wall — by finding newsfeeds on foreign broadcasters’ Web sites and by watching clips of the ceremonies on YouTube and other sites.”
I admit, I was one of those people. I spent much of Friday morning refreshing my Twitter feed hoping to get live updates of the opening ceremonies from friends in attendance at the Birds Nest (and then using my insights to enhance the commentary I provided to my wife, and our two dinner guests, while watching the ceremonies on Friday night). And, though I am consuming as much live coverage through NBC’s TV and Internet coverage as possible, I am also looking at the BBC and other foreign sites for video highlights and context from the preliminary rounds of competition in soccer, swimming, team handball, weightlifting, air pistol, fencing (which, interestingly, was dominated by the United States but still received very little coverage on this continent) and other sports where the US-centric coverage offered by the American media isn’t complete or sufficient.
Even with all the coverage on TV and online from NBC (which thus far, I have to say is better than expected - the notable exception being any appearance by Chris Collinsworth, who I never see as adding value to a broadcast, even when the subject is football, his expertise), the peacock folks doing everything they can, it seems to make it more difficult for me to get my full Olympics fix.
Again, from the New York Times:
In response, NBC sent frantic requests to Web sites, asking them to take down the illicit clips and restrict authorized video to host countries. As the four-hour ceremony progressed, a game of digital whack-a-mole took place. Network executives tried to regulate leaks on the Web and shut down unauthorized video, while viewers deftly traded new links on blogs and on the Twitter site, redirecting one another to coverage from, say, Germany, or a site with a grainy Spanish-language video stream.”
I am not an expert in television rights, and I am certainly not on the hook for the billions of dollars that NBC has invested in this venture (roughly $900 million alone for the rights to broadcast Beijing, not counting the actual costs for pulling it off). I spend my time exploring how people get and share information in today’s information age and what that means for organizations - of all types and sizes - in terms of communications, engagement, and mobilization. And even without that knowledge, I could have told you that NBC’s plan presented some serious challenges.
Instead of trying to control every aspect of the information experience around the Olympics, with an iron fist no less, NBC should have focused on creating a better information experience for their audience, with the confidence that we would tune in to see the coverage wherever that experience was available. What does that look like? NBC should be syndicating its coverage to all the US networks who want to purchase a feed, offer online sites willing to embed NBC-driven players the offer to share their favorite highlights, and inviting individuals to pay a small fee to be able to access and customize extra coverage, on their terms.
There are hints that NBC understand this, and is trying to adjust their model. And certainly, NBC deserves a lot of credit for how it has planned its programming (I watched Michael Phelps win his first gold medal last night, live on NBC at around 10pm EST - what a treat!) to deliver as much live programming as possible. But the New York Times article, and other comments on blogs, from conversations I have had with friends in the media business, and my personal observations suggest that NBC is still operating with too much of a finger-in-the-dyke mentality. There is still so much more they can do.
I will keep watching, these games and all those that follow. And the early ratings from the opening ceremonies (34.2 million people in the US, and over a billion people worldwide tuned in) suggest I am far from alone in my commitment as a viewer/consumer. I just hope that NBC and all the broadcast groups around the world will continue to evolve their offering, and work together, to recognize what fans want from their Olympic experience, and try to deliver it. I know I am not alone in that.
(This is cross-posted on my Fast Company experts blog)
