As humans, we are always capturing moments where emotions are at their peak and storing them as memories. What if there was a way to immortalize and cherish some of our favourite sporting moments?
With the transition to an increasingly interconnected world, the lines between the online and offline ecosystems are blurring. Every day, more sports stars, their teams, leagues, and different brands are pioneering into virtual reality in an attempt to get closer to fans. Last week, Paris Saint-Germain forward and Argentinian star, Lionel Messi joined the French NFT trading card game, Sorare, as an investor and brand ambassador. French star Kylian Mbappe and American tennis legend Serena Williams are some of the other notable collaborators in the Sorare NFT project.
With big names and high barriers to entry, how can brands enter, position themselves and level the playing field in this highly competitive Web3 environment?
The Game Plan
In our mission to bridge the gap, we collaborated with Erste Bank Open for their first swing at the Metaverse. First, we focused on what brings sports fans together in the real world: the emotions triggered by key moments in a match. We then captured and minted NFTs of unique sporting moments LIVE as they happen, preserving the memory and emotion. These were then made available in the MO:ME:NT marketplace, bringing fans into the virtual world where they can hold on to these special moments and collect NFTs of their favorite player’s victory.
In our mission to bridge the gap, we collaborated with Erste Bank Open for their first swing at the Metaverse. First, we focused on what brings sports fans together in the real world: the emotions triggered by key moments in a match. We then captured and minted NFTs of unique sporting moments LIVE as they happen, preserving the memory and emotion. These were then made available in the MO:ME:NT marketplace, bringing fans into the virtual world where they can hold on to these special moments and collect NFTs of their favorite player’s victory.
Erste Bank Open’s first ever MO:ME:NTs don’t stop there. We also created for them their own Metaverse space bringing the tennis community together during the tournament. Fans could hop in, create their avatar and hang out in the different lounges. Our media partner, LAOLA1 stepped in to host the first virtual interviews with sporting legends like Toni Polster, Jürgen Melzer and other members of the Austrian tennis ecosystem.
Toni Polster and Barbara Muhr join us at the Erste Bank Open Metaverse
Metaverse MO:ME:NTs with Jürgen Melzer for Erste Bank Open 2022
To further create engagement, fans had the opportunity to really immerse themselves virtually by participating in games to win real world prizes from Erste Bank Open and partners LAOLA1 and Better Tennis. Robert Almer stopped by to announce the grand prize — two final tickets to the Erste Bank Open. Robert Almer visits us in the Erste Bank Open Metaverse
Final whistle
We garnered over 1,000 people passing by the Metaverse and the Platform organically with $0 media investment while the interviews and social content reached over 30,000 people across our own and partners’ social channels.
Tom Berger, Head of LAOLA1, had some kind words to share. ‘The concept of MO:ME:NT and the concrete project with Erste bank open are an important step into the web3 future that is inevitably coming. As Austria’s number one digital sports portal, we want to play an active role here and take the lead in using the opportunities that this new world offers to sports.’
Dominik Beier, Managing Director, E|motion was thrilled with the experience, ‘With Erste Bank Open, we’re constantly pursuing innovative projects and integrating them into our events as pioneers. Sport is emotion and MO:ME:NT captures this in a new way. We are very excited about our first steps with MO:ME:NT in the Metaverse.’
And for us at MO:ME:NT, the Erste Bank Open partnership leaves us more committed than ever in exploring web3 opportunities with brands that push boundaries and lead the change. We’re getting the rosters ready, the season has just begun!