As VR continues to grow roots in how audiences experience sports, longtime collegiate sports staple Learfield is looking to up the ante, locking in a a deal with STRIVR Labs in a “first-of-its-kind partnership” designed to provide multi-platform virtual reality distribution within the collegiate sports landscape. The deal, which makes STRIVR Learfield’s Official VR Partner, is eyeballing the technology in a move to offer VR solutions not only for their sports properties, but also for general university marketing, classroom tech and campus development. Cynopsis Sports asked Scott Carlis, Learfield SVP, Digital Media, about how VR will open new doors for his company as well as its partners.
Carliss on the growth of VR: At Learfield, we want to create the best fan experiences that provide maximum value for our university and corporate partners, and virtual reality is uniquely designed to meet that core objective. Virtual Reality allows us to bridge the physical and digital worlds and create cool, fun, sharable and extremely immersive experiences around college sports that benefit the universities, sponsors, and of course, the fans. Sports-culture is about pride, passion and the ability to share ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ experiences with your community of friends, family, and peers. As sports fans we always want to be as close to the action as possible.
On university needs: Our university partners are continually looking for ways to drive deeper, more impactful, and more personalized experiences for sports fans and the school community. We want to make the collegiate sports fan experience even more special and unique. And VR technology is the perfect platform to enrich that experience by bringing fans closer to the action. Ultimately, the goals are: How can VR add more value to the collegiate-sports experience? How can VR help deepen engagement among a community of arguably the most passionate consumers in the market – collegiate sports fans – and fuel their passion, and propel fans to share these experiences?
On its impact on sports and its sponsors: Ultimately, we want to architect VR experiences that result in a ‘win-win’ for all the main stakeholders – for our university partners, for our corporate partners, and of course, the fans. The key is to deliver a maximum level of authenticity that allow brands to play the hero of these awesome experiences. We want to help brands make the unforgettable experiences witnessed by collegiate-sports fans even more memorable. Our collective goal is to bring sponsors closer to the fans, and vice versa, in the most authentic, interactive, and engaging ways. Create these amazing interactive 360 experiences that are powered by sponsors, which inspire ‘brand-love,’ and allow sponsors to build deeper emotional connections with fans and consumers. And, when you are wearing the headsets you’ll have 100% engagement with brand sponsors.
On new ways to leverage the technology: We want to create elegant and innovative 360 recruiting videos and fan content that can amaze people both on campus and abroad. STRIVR is already partnering with renowned publishers, even building out distribution that could touch the education side of the university with projects focused on diversity and inclusivity. Career-counselors can create ‘role-play’ job-training VR experiences – empowering students to train and be better prepared for life-after college and applying for jobs. For example, if you are studying art history, theology, or ancient civilizations – using VR – you can be transported to Vatican City and you’re inside the Sistine Chapel or Athens and you’re at the Acropolis or climbing the Mayan ruins in Tulum.
