Establishing a multi-tenant digital media ecosystem
In November 2019, the award-winning partnership between PT SportSuite, UK sporting group Bristol Sport and their three brands – Bristol City, Bears and Flyers – commenced, with the objective of transforming the sporting group’s digital processes around the collection, management, publishing, streaming and monetisation of digital content.
Award Winning Partnership
In May 2021, PT SportSuite and Bristol Sport were announced winners at the Sport Technology Awards – for Sports Technology Partnership of the Year
The PT SportSuite team’s mission was to provide Bristol Sport with the digital tools and platforms to operate like a modern media house with a digital media infrastructure in place that would allow them to grow and sustain their digital community of fans in an integrated, end-to-end content network.
PT SportSuite worked closely with the various media production and technical teams across the business to implement a phased rollout of PT SportSuite’s AWS-powered media ecosystem.
Protecting Bristol Sport’s Digital Media Assets
PT SportSuite implemented an AWS-cloud media library to safeguard Bristol Sport’s digital media IP, provide authorised users across multiple brands with real-time access, and allow them to rediscover value in historical assets by increasing accessibility through intelligent media services.
Simplifying Digital Media Workflow
A digital media collaboration and workflow platform standardised the collection of digital content contributions from organisational members – fans, players, brand ambassadors, internal staff – to the organisation, increasing the amount of digital media content coming into the ecosystem.
A web-based cloud dashboard and mobile app, allows for the commissioning, collection and sharing of digital content all in one infinitely scalable access-controlled platform.
Digitally Engaged Community
We launched new fan-facing digital identities for City, Bears and Flyers, allowing fans to seamlessly access content on web and app and engage with the various Bristol brands via In-app UGC Fan Challenges and Augmented Reality campaigns, with plans to include more sponsor-driven competitions
The Bristol Sport suite of apps allows fans of Bristol City FC, Bristol Bears and Bristol Flyers to get closer to their clubs than ever before, with up-to-date news, live and on-demand streaming, fixtures and results, and match and player statistics.
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A unique Fan Zone module asks fans to submit their behind-the-scenes fan media by taking on Fan Media Challenges, with the best responses published to a dedicated Fan Feed.
Challenges can have associated rewards attached to incentivise fan submissions, creating a consistent source of user generated content.
Bristol Sport tasked PT SportSuite with finding a technology solution that would re-invent the matchday programme experience for fans across their three brands in a way that would increase fan engagement and allow brand partners to connect to their fanbase in a new and unique way.
So far, Bristol Sport have created over 50+ AR campaigns on the simple-to-use Augmenta web campaign portal to bring matchday covers, promotional posters, logos and more to life.
Campaigns include links to Bristol’s social media platforms and ecommerce stores, driving further fan engagement and monetisation.
Live and On-Demand Video Streaming
Like all professional sports teams in Europe, Bristol City and Bristol Flyers were left with the huge dilemma of fans not being able to attend matches during the Covid-19 pandemic.
PT SportSuite collaborated with Bristol Sport’s football and basketball clubs to ensure fans would never miss a moment of the action during home games. Two branded video OTT microsites were developed with pay-per-view and season pass facilities. Bristol City season-ticket holders were given the opportunity to watch every remaining game for free, via a simple voucher code.
Live match streams were made available via web, mobile and the official Bristol City and Flyers mobile apps.
What Bristol Sport said
“Two years ago we set out on a journey with PT SportSuite to deliver a digital ecosystem for the whole of our sporting group. To break down our silos of content gathering and storage, combine our video assets and use the power of our sporting group to communicate with our fans in a way that we hadn’t been able to previously.
“When Covid struck, and forced our fixtures to be played behind closed doors, the work that we’d undertaken accelerated and enabled us to broadcast directly to our fans – even when they couldn’t be with us in person. As we emerge from this pandemic we look forward to developing our fan offering and engagement, even further alongside PT SportSuite.”
– Lisa Knights, Bristol Sport Group Head of Communications
