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International Champions Cup partners with Grabyo to meet the demands of its global audience

The International Champions Cup (ICC) has partnered with Grabyo to provide its global media teams with the tools to share in-play video highlights, whilst activating campaigns for sponsors and brand partners during this summer’s Tournament.

Now in its sixth edition, the ICC, owned and operated by Relevent, is a key event in the global soccer calendar. The ICC has teamed up with Grabyo to increase the amount of content shared through its social and digital channels, including the creation of new, digital-first live programming using Grabyo Producer.

ICC’s digital teams in the United States, Singapore, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain and Austria will use Grabyo to amplify distribution of live streams and real-time highlights across social platforms.

The partnership will allow the ICC to work with sponsors and brand partners during the competition to provide new revenue streams and engagement through social video distribution. Grabyo provides a streamlined workflow for sharing branded content to Facebook, monetizing clips with in-stream Twitter ads and through YouTube Content ID. The ICC will be able to monetize clips in seconds from anywhere in the world.

Using Grabyo we can leverage each social platform to create new live experiences for our global audience, while also integrating sponsorship in a meaningful way. – Max McGongile

This year, the ICC will also be creating exclusive live content in and around the matches. This will include pre and post-game shows broadcast live on social channels to further drive engagement around the competition. With engagement peaking during live games, these ancillary broadcasts will be another chance to distribute ICC content globally, further expanding its audience.

“We are excited to be partnering with Grabyo for the ICC this year, it’s important for 18 of the best clubs in the world playing 27 matches across the United States, Europe and Singapore, to have the best available tools for publishing video content in real-time,” stated Max McGonigle, Manager of Marketing Solutions at Relevent. “This year the ICC is looking to drive more engaging, fan-first content, in and around each match. Using Grabyo we can leverage each social platform to create new live experiences for our global audience, while also integrating sponsorship in a meaningful way.”

The ICC will also using Grabyo to automatically clip highlights from the matches using sports data feeds. The ICC can trigger automated video clips from key events such as a goal, save, penalty decision or red card. Grabyo uses Opta Sports data to find these moments and then automatically clips the content, in real-time, for distribution to a range of digital platforms.

In support of this growing partnership, Grabyo has added new features to its platform, bringing the best possible experience to its audience. Recent updates include the addition of live social comment moderation, GIFs, image capture and live graphics authoring for digital broadcasts. For more information on Grabyo or to get access to a demo account, please contact us here. 

Turner Sports amplifies real-time video highlights and sponsor activation with Grabyo

Ahead of the 2017/18 NBA season, Turner Sports joined forces with Grabyo to amplify the amount of real-time video highlights shared to its social platforms and to generate new revenue streams through branded content and sponsored posts.

Using Grabyo’s live clipping and editing tools the Turner Sports social team was able to maximize the amount of real-time content shared to Facebook, Twitter, Periscope and Instagram for the @NBATV and @NBAonTNT handles. During the Playoffs, more than 2,000 clips were shared from Grabyo to these social pages by the Turner Sports social team.

The NBA is one of the most popular sports on social media. Millions of fans engage with more real-time clips and highlights every day. With Grabyo, Turner delivered every big moment from the NBA Playoffs as they happened, resulting in increased distribution, engagement and views.

Grabyo has increased the speed at which the social team can publish content and the potential to activate commercial partnerships through branded video content and sponsorships. Grabyo’s browser-based video editor enables the digital teams to quickly edit the NBA feed into square and vertical highlights, which are optimized for distribution and viewing on social platforms including Twitter and Instagram.

Clips can have approved sponsor branding, attribution and post-roll bumpers added seamlessly for multiple sponsors. Turner has leveraged this capability by creating sponsorship campaigns on Twitter and Instagram for global partners including Cisco, EA Sports, Gatorade, Mountain Dew, Jordan, Boost Mobile and Verizon go90. By using Grabyo and the social platforms, Turner can deliver an engaging branded content experience for its sponsors.

Turner also worked with Grabyo to expand its live social video and branded content offering around the 2018 NBA All-Star. Throughout the weekend, Turner delivered 15 live broadcasts, directly to its social pages on Facebook, YouTube, Periscope.

Using Grabyo, Turner created numerous new live experiences for fans across NBA All-Star weekend including an exclusive YouTube stream directly after the Taco Bell Skills Competition. The stream featured Grammy- winning artist Kendrick Lamar and was sponsored by American Express to create an exclusive social first partnership between the two.

To find out how Grabyo can assist in helping you distribute and share key moments from live events, contact us today.

Grabyo adds Snap as a publishing platform for premium video content

Grabyo is delighted to announce support for direct publishing to Snapchat using the Grabyo Studio video tools and Grabyo Mobile. This new feature allows users to publish real-time clips and highlights from live feeds or VOD uploads, directly to native Snapchat accounts in seconds.

Mobile video consumption continues to rise at a staggering rate. Now responsible for more than 85% of all web traffic, mobile video is the most effective way to reach and engage audiences at scale. Snapchat led the vertical video revolution that has led to the increase in consumption on platforms such as Instagram and the recent release of IGTV.

Grabyo provides tools that enable rights holders and publishers to quickly change the aspect ratio of live content to share in real-time across digital platforms. This means that content shot for horizontal viewing can be quickly converted to vertical video format – whilst focusing on the key action within the shot. Content is not wasted and digital production teams can dramatically reduce the time spent repurposing content for mobile feeds.

Once videos are shared from the Grabyo Mobile app to Snap, users will be able to make use of all the native Snapchat functionality and features such as filters, lenses and stickers, creating a unique version of broadcast quality clips for mobile audiences.

With an estimated 300+ million users globally and over 100+ million daily active users, Snap still remains an important channel for reaching, interacting and communicating with audiences. At the Hashtag Sports conference in June 2018, Blake Stuchin from the NFL said that Snap was the most popular publishing platform for the 2018 Super Bowl. Snap is particularly attractive for younger, more socially savvy audiences who continue to turn to Snap, Instagram and ‘dark social’ platforms such as WhatsApp and Messenger to communicate and share content.

With direct publishing to snapchat and multiple social and digital platforms, multi-aspect ratio video editing, GIFs and image capture, Grabyo continues to innovate digital video production for a live, mobile and social audience. Get in touch now to find out more.

The 2018 Grabyo Sport & Social Summit – What we learned?

Over 80 guests from the sports, broadcast and media industries joined Grabyo and Little Dot Studios for our 2018 Sport & Social Summit.

Hosted at the beautiful Kia Oval, the event looked at the growing need to create new broadcast types and content formats that reach and engage more connected and mobile audiences – especially across social and OTT platforms.

Joining us for the day were senior representatives from FC Barcelona, Manchester United, ITV, BT Sport, WWE, The FA, Facebook, Twitter, Premiership Rugby, Formula E, MotoGP, Eurosport, Southampton FC, IMG and many more.

Making the most of the fine weather, the afternoon started with a networking lunch overlooking the Kia Oval before delegates headed to their seats for the first of five insightful discussions.

The first session was a spirited discussion between Eric Serra (FC Barcelona), Damien Cullen (The English FA) and Neil Smythe (Hashtag United) about producing ‘social first’ broadcasts for sports audiences.

Much of the conversation centered around live content. The FA has been working with Grabyo to create a daily live show exclusively for fans across social platforms from the World Cup. ‘The Lions Den‘ is a digital-first broadcast that is filmed in Russia but remotely produced by a team in London. The 30-minute show is hosted by TV presenter Craig Mitch, who interviews players, management staff and fans. Fans are encouraged to send in questions during the broadcast and vote in live polls, run through Grabyo Producer.

“It’s about an authentic connection between the team and fans” – D Cullen

This was followed by a presentation by Grabyo partner ABB Formula E, who explained the strategy behind growing its social viewing numbers from 50m to 500m in just 12 months. This provided a fantastic insight delivered by Adam Kemp (ABB Formula E) and Rich Payne (Little Dot Studios) into how each social platform works, where the audience is and maximizing the life of specific content types and formats. Formula E delivers specific content to each platform, notably using Instagram Stories to bring an authentic race weekend experience to fans who cannot attend the race.

“Our Instagram Stories are the next best thing for fans who cannot be at the race” – R Payne

As new buyers for media and rights packages appear, Dave Gibbs (Sky Sports & News), Tracey Keenan (WWE), Phil Lynch (Manchester United) and Alex Gough (PSA/Squash) discussed how social video and OTT viewing is going to impact future business models for media rights and TV. For the panel, it was about working to understand what the customer wants and where they want to consume media. There is a balance between pushing out content to social platforms and providing exclusivity and offering premium content on their owned and operated channels. For Manchester United this means super-serving fans across each region with the content they want to watch on the platforms they want to watch it.

“You need to know where your audiences are and how ready they are to consume your content” – T Keenan

After a brief coffee and networking break, the topic of ‘meaningful social interactions’ was tackled by Leigh Walsh (AELTC Wimbledon), Jaine Sykes (ITV) and Nick Pearce (BT Sport). For AELTC Wimbledon and BT Sport, social platforms provide a medium to engage audiences outside of the live content. This year BT Sport rolled out a ‘no filter’ content series which is based around the stories and events that sit outside the live action; the series has been incredibly successful at finding ways to engage and reach fans whilst making the most of the available rights packages that BT Sport has.

“We measure our success based on reach, revenue and reputation” – J Sykes

Before a final wrap-up from Grabyo CEO Gareth Capon and networking drinks on the KIA Oval terrace, Wayne Davison (Little Dot Studios) broke down the best strategy for ensuring optimal content discovery on YouTube and how to use the platform to push traffic to your website, apps and OTT platforms.

A huge thank you to everyone who participated and to all who attended. Grabyo was delighted to be able to bring together so many industry experts and put on an event to showcase the very best and latest innovations across social and digital video.

Grabyo delivered more than 200,000 clips and 17,000 live events across the Facebook platform in 2017. If you are looking for strategic support and ideas to enhance your social video production output and maximize engagement, please get in touch with our team at hello@grabyo.com.

Live from the U.S. Open: Grabyo, Singular.Live power Fox Sports Go

Grabyo is hugely excited to announce our first partnership for OTT services with FOX Sports in the US.

For the 2018 US Open Golf Championship, FOX Sports teamed up with Grabyo and live graphics platform Singular.Live to deliver an entire web-based production and digital viewing experience for golf fans watching through the FOX Sports Go and the FOX Sports App.

Controlled via a web-browser, the FOX Sports digital team made use of both products to deliver Featured Tees, a live broadcast to FOX Sports GO and the FOX Sports App from five holes across the course. The broadcast featured live graphics and scores from the Championship and incorporated live data and stats. The combined platform automates the on-screen graphics and is delivered by Grabyo Producer, to viewers on the FOX Sports OTT platform.

With an increased need to offer audiences more flexibility and choice for live sports, FOX Sports’ digital team use its OTT platform to extend the broadcast experience to fans across digital and mobile devices – providing choice and viewing options not available on linear TV. Viewers on FOX Sports GO and the FOX Sports App had complete control over which hole and players they can viewed throughout the Championships, held at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club.

Using Grabyo, FOX Sports created a digital broadcast that was independent of the linear TV stream, significantly reducing the reliance on traditional broadcast infrastructure. The demand for more content and enhanced experiences for fans is driving the growth in cloud-based production, giving the FOX Sports digital team more flexibility to produce content for it’s OTT products.

We are delighted to be collaborating with both Grabyo and Singular.Live to deliver ‘Featured Tees.’ Providing our viewers with a flexible way to view the Championships online is something that is very important to FOX Sports. Using Grabyo and Singular.Live to simplify our production and distribution enables us to create a true, digital-first experience for fans across all screens.” Clark Pierce, SVP, TV Everywhere at FOX Sports.

FOX Sports also made use of Grabyo’s live clipping product, Grabyo Studio, to bring audiences key moments, highlights, storylines and reaction across multiple platforms throughout the Championships. With mobile video consumption continuing to rise, engaging fans on social and digital platforms in real-time is vital to meet the needs of modern golf fans.

Singular.Live, a browser-based live graphics authoring platform, was one of the first third party applications integrated with Grabyo Producer – developed with an open architecture to support services built outside of Grabyo.

Singular.Live, working with Grabyo design partner Reality Check Systems, has developed a bespoke control application for the US Open, making it easy for the FOX Sports digital teams to incorporate live, data-driven graphics on the broadcast. The custom graphics are designed to be viewed on mobile – following the trend of maximising viewing space on smaller screens, allowing for playlisting, player graphics, headshots and sponsor idents.

By creating a separate viewing experience for fans online FOX Sports was able to activate both new and existing golf fans by providing fans with the flexibility to choose when, how and where they watch the 2018 US Open Championship.

The future of TV is the internet and cloud production is here…and offers incredible opportunities for new types of production for OTT, social video and digital video. We are excited about what’s coming next, please get in touch at hello@grabyo.com if you want to find out more.

You can download the Grabyo white paper on cloud production here.