During the COVID-19 pandemic, many sectors experienced severe disruption or complete shutdowns. However, elite sports were among the first non-essential activities to resume, shortly after people began returning to limited outdoor activities. This occurred without public attendance, but with the use of technology to ensure that sports and, importantly, the associated advertising continued to reach viewers at home.
During the Euro 2021 (2020 for some), a video went viral on social media showing how different broadcasts displayed distinct advertising simultaneously during the same match, causing a significant impact among viewers. While the use of this technology as a promotional element has been present in the football world for at least two or three years, this occasion provided many with the opportunity to learn about it.
Source: YouTube
The key benefit of this type of advertising and the contribution of augmented reality is that it allows for different advertising to be displayed within a single event, depending on the channel, service, or country from which the user is viewing the event.
This type of advertising is known as Virtual Advertising or Parallel Ads, and its application is currently almost exclusively limited to the sports world, although we will likely see its use expand to any large-scale broadcast in the coming years, from Oscar photocalls to live concerts.
Older generations will remember that in the 1970s and 80s, advertising on football fields was limited to printed advertisements on metal fences, which could be changed occasionally. In the 1990s, analog billboards appeared, allowing for manual changes of advertising every few hours. By the early 2000s, these billboards transitioned to digital. More recently, LED technology has enabled the creation of dynamic and creative advertisements on these spaces. However, all these billboards share a common characteristic: their content is the same for all viewers.
In businesses like football, rugby, or basketball, where the number of viewers and advertising spend are constantly growing, advertisers recognized an untapped opportunity within billboards. This was particularly evident with the rise of international broadcasts of European leagues, which are now watched in countries around the world.
Conversely, advertising effectiveness could vary significantly depending on the country where the match was being played. It makes no sense for a Spanish fan watching an English league match to see an advertisement for a telecommunications company that only operates in the United Kingdom. Similarly, advertisements in languages like Chinese or Japanese, which are unintelligible to Western audiences, would be ineffective.
In 2018, a significant shift occurred, driven by the implementation of Parallel Ads technology – a real-time augmented reality solution designed to optimize space utilization. This format, which has been utilized in leagues like La Liga for at least two years, leverages real-time video capture to overlay parallel advertisements onto the broadcast, dynamically adapting to the specific game transmission based on geographic segmentation. While viewers in the stadium will see a blank advertising board, the camera feed enables this targeted advertising approach, a critical element in the advertising industry.
The technical foundation of this advertising system involves creating a three-dimensional model of the sports field, incorporating tracking cameras to monitor player movement and establishing a distinct layer for advertising placement. The differentiated advertisement is then projected onto this layer with remarkable speed – achieving a seamless overlay in just 3 milliseconds, imperceptible to the human eye.
This technology represents a substantial advancement in maximizing audience reach for sporting events. It allows for the tailored delivery of advertising content, adapting to both national territories and distribution channels, including pay-TV networks and streaming services.