The Economist Group & Siemens: reimagine the game

Siemens has partnered with German football club FC Bayern Munich since July 2017 and their digital technologies are at the forefront of the fan experience in the Allianz Arena. Siemens challenged The Economist Group to create an engaging piece of data-driven storytelling that celebrates this partnership and positions Siemens to football fans, tech communities and media as pioneers driving digitalisation.

Insight

The big data revolution is reshaping the world – and transforming football. Tracking and exploring datasets has changed how we measure player performance: every movement, pass, run is analysed to gain the slightest of advantages. But action on the pitch is only part of the experience. Never before has attention been turned to the fans and their performance. Passionate fan energy - the ‘12th man’ effect - can power a team forward and change the entire course of a game.

Idea

‘Reimagine the game’, a totally unique platform allowing football fans to view FC Bayern games by listening to thousands of data points captured within key moments during the match.

Working with Signal Noise, using incredibly precise audio detection technology, Siemens created a 3D soundscape that maps the noise of the entire Allianz Arena. We analysed the fan noise in combination with match data to identify interesting narratives and surface new perspectives on ‘fan energy’ and its interplay with on-pitch performance. From the fans calling out the team sheet to the game timeline, match highlights, most supported players and the social ripple of excitement, it’s through the voices of 75,000 fans that we can now judge and compare the quality of each game. By responding to every change of possession, questionable decision or missed chance, the fans give us the perfect lens through which Siemens reimagine the game.

Implementation

The data visualisation, analysis and commentary is hosted on a custom website on The Economist platform and promoted via The Economist Group, Siemens and FC Bayern social channels.

A content-led communications approach leveraged the platform to generate coverage across global Lifestyle, Trade and Technology media outlets. Using the world’s favourite sport as the premise, TVC Group crafted media assets tailored for key markets to showcase the story behind fan energy and highlight Siemens’ role.

Results

To date the site has received 61k unique visitors, 67k total visits and 145k page views, with 2 out of 5 games still to be recorded. The audience are highly engaged with the data, viewing an average of 2.1 pages per visit and having over 277k interactions with the data tool.

The campaign has also generated 275 items of coverage. These include 570 Siemens brand mentions associated with ‘innovation’ and ‘digitalisation’ and 270 views of the brand video. This campaign now has a combined daily audience reach of over 37 million people.