Make The Team
- Brand
- IBM
- Year
- 2015
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Tech & Telecom
- Mechanic
- Simulation & Strategy
- Platform
- Installation
- Agency
- OgilvyOne London
- With
- Monks
Objective
IBM had spent 25 years feeding real-time stats to Wimbledon's commentators, players, coaches and fans, but the team behind that data — its courtside data capturers — stayed invisible to the public. Timed to The Championships 2015, the campaign set out to put fans in that role, humanizing IBM's backend work and building a bridge to its wider business services.
Solution
Players open Make the Team on their computer, then visit a short URL on their phone and enter a code that turns the phone into a controller — the same input pad IBM's real data capturers use courtside. Archival Wimbledon match footage plays on the big screen while the player calls the action live on their phone: forehand, backhand, ace, double fault, or let, plus whether the winning shot went cross-court or down the line. Four rounds ramp up in difficulty, scoring both speed and accuracy. Signing in with Facebook posts the result to a leaderboard and lets players challenge friends directly, with tickets to Wimbledon's Centre Court in 2016 on offer for the fastest, most accurate players across the tournament's two weeks.
Results
The campaign drew 1.3 million engagements across the game, videos, articles and infographics.
- 1
The player opens the site on a desktop computer and is invited to find out whether they have what it takes to join IBM's team at Wimbledon as a data capturer, the role that manually logs every shot of a match.
- 2
To play, the player pairs a phone or tablet to the desktop by entering a code shown on screen, then signs in with Facebook, which enters their result into the campaign's shared leaderboard.
- 3
Once paired, the phone becomes a controller modeled on the real device IBM's data capturers use, with buttons for shot types and a court diagram, while the desktop screen plays the video.
- 4
The desktop shows footage of an actual Wimbledon rally, and the player logs each shot on the phone in real time as it happens, choosing among shot types such as forehand, backhand, ace, service fault, and let.
- 5
For each rally the player also records which shot won the point and whether the ball was played cross-court or down the line.
- 6
The player works through four mini-games of this kind, each one harder than the last.
- 7
Performance is scored on speed and accuracy, mirroring the real-time demands placed on IBM's actual data capturers.
- 8
At the end of a session the score posts to the leaderboard, and the player can challenge friends to a head-to-head via Facebook.
- 9
The fastest and most accurate players over the tournament's two weeks win tickets to Centre Court at Wimbledon 2016.
