AO ArtBall
A digital brand experience serving fans a piece of the action, quite literally.
With Australian Open
Creative Lead
Project concept.
Leading project creative and product development.
Community relations.
Innovative Use of Tech
& Platforms for Sport
Opportunity
Building a new way to experience sport
The Australian Open faced covid crowd restrictions and a large dip in international visitors, so to unite tennis fans globally, we launched a unique brand experience to build a new community, digitally.
Selling out in under three minutes, the campaign raised nearly $1 million dollars for the Australian Open, a non for profit organisation.
AO ArtBall Case Study
Technology
We created digital collectibles called “AO ArtBalls”.
Virtual tennis balls each with their own unique artwork and attributes.
Own the ball
Technology
By dividing the official Rod Laver arena into 6,776 individual squares, each AO ArtBall was assigned its own section of the court, allowing fans around the world to own a slice of the action, quite literally.
Own the court
Technology
Own the moment
Using the official Hawkeye line calling data in conjunction with blockchain technology, the “plot” of the final legal bounce was identified automatically.
When a player won a match point, so did the owner of the corresponding AO ArtBall.
ArtBall’ers could check the match-point site and play back their match-point moments in a 3D data-vis environment.
Accessibility
By building Melbourne Park as a virtual playground, we created the world's first metaverse experience for a global sporting event.
Here our community could interact with their favourite players, access exclusive content and participate in virtual tennis games and competitions.
No matter where you were in the world, you could experience Melbourne Park from the comfort of your own home.
A new era. A new arena.
Community
Thousands of active members socialised daily, discussing tennis, engaging with project announcements and sharing content. So prior to the release, we invited our community, along with a variety of well known artists, to submit their own ball designs to be included in the collection.
Be on the ball
Community
Designed to be shared
Hundreds of these designs were included in the AO ArtBall collection, and we encouraged our members and artists to share their designs with the world on their platforms.