OVERVIEW
In their innovative approach to the 2023 seasons, both the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United undertook a groundbreaking initiative by introducing a series of dynamic, data-driven in-app experiences. These offerings not only elevated the overall fan engagement but also challenged the conventional notion of second-screen user experiences within professional sports apps. By incorporating a range of personalized attributes, custom API endpoints, and dynamic auto-refresh features, the teams aimed to redefine the way fans interact with their favorite sports franchises. The personalized attributes cater to individual preferences, ensuring a unique and tailored experience for each user, while the custom API endpoints enable seamless integration of real-time data, delivering up-to-the-second updates and insights.
This innovative strategy not only reflects the commitment of the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United to stay at the forefront of technological advancements but also signifies a broader shift in the landscape of sports app development. The dynamic auto-refresh functionality ensures that users receive timely and relevant information without the need for manual updates, creating a fluid and immersive digital environment for fans. By embracing these cutting-edge technologies, the teams demonstrated a dedication to enhancing the overall fan experience and setting a new standard for in-app interactions within the realm of professional sports.
THE PROCESS
In planning for the 2023 season, we reimagined how fans engage with the Schedule Release, Draft, Training Camp, Gameday, Pro Bowl, and other primary touchpoints throughout the season. This research laid the foundation for a comprehensive strategy aimed at redefining the user experience. The subsequent steps involved wireframing, prototyping, and development.
ATLANTA FALCONS FREE AGENCY
The Atlanta Falcons Free Agency app experience acted as a homepage takeover during the free agency signing period. This experience automatically pulled dynamic content from the NFL API based on relative tags and categories. As new players were signed, the execution would also consequently load in these new players as part of a showcase carousel — including their profile photo, position, name, and a call-to-action to review the player's custom profile. All in all, this experience allowed fans to stay in-the-know on all things Free Agency, while also displaying other relative brand content in realtime.
- 458k total views
ATLANTA FALCONS DRAFT
During the 2023 NFL Draft, the mobile app experience included up-to-the-second data on new draft picks. It also included a realtime draft counter at the top of the experience during rounds, as well as newly drafted player stats, highlight reels, and editorial pieces. This execution, sponsored by Zaxby's, placed the NFL draft at the fans fingertips, allowing them to gain insider information on the Atlanta Falcons draft picks.
- 245k total views
ATLANTA UNITED MATCHDAY
The Atlanta United Matchday experience reigned as the new home for United mobile app users before, during, and after matchday. This experience included realtime APIs that reported match data, such as score, current minute, team stats, and more. Additionally, the execution also included a fully customized dynamic match tracker that reported featured match actions — including penalties, goals, and substitutions. This tracker would constantly update as the game progressed and would also denote haftime and other key moments throughout the game. Moreover, the experience acted as a hub for ticketed fans, dynamically displaying ticket information, weather reports, and key-match details if the fan had a ticket to the corresponding match on their account. This matchday guide included parking, ticketing, food and beverage, and much more.
- 1.36M total views
ATLANTA FALCONS GAMEDAY
Similarly, the Atlanta Falcons Gameday homepage takeover allowed fans to engage with realtime game data down to the second. This experience included a full-featured scoreboard, relative box scores, team stats, infographics, highlights, gameday photos, and much more. The execution also included a custom dynamic game tracker that denoted the ball position, ball direction, yardage and downs, and stadium location.
- 1.39M total views
ATLANTA FALCONS PROBOWL
As part of the Atlanta Falcons ProBowl voting period, this mobile app experience created a direct path for fans to vote for their favorite players and learn more about their current standings. Additionally, the experience included unique tracking metrics for each player, enabling an understanding of primary calls-to-action and after-action reporting.
- 85k total views
THE RESULTS
All in all, these primary in-app homepage takeovers created a new means with which both Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United fans can interact and engage with the sporting brands in realtime through custom API calls and second-by-second updates. These experiences consequently drove increased engagement with both the teams' brands and secondary editorial, photo, and video content. Moreover, in providing fans with a second-hand experience to enjoy during key brand moments, both teams experienced an avereage peak engagement time of 7.4 minutes per session and nearly 4 hours per user. Therefore, these experiences establish a new standard for how brands should engage users during both in-game and out-of-game moments.