Hockey-VM (Hockey World Championship App)
- Brand
- TV4
- Year
- 2013
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Quiz & Trivia
- Platform
- App
- Agency
- OTW
- With
- Mobiento
Objective
TV4 held broadcast rights to the 2013 Ice Hockey World Championship and wanted to turn passive viewing into something more active — keeping fans locked in for the full length of every match and forging a direct line between the studio and the audience at home. The brief was to raise the tension around the broadcast and build a community of viewers engaging with the coverage in real time.
Solution
Fans downloaded the free companion app and kept it open on their phone while watching the match on TV. As the game unfolded, TV4's live editors fired off questions tied to exactly what was happening on the ice — predictions like whether a goal would come during a power play, and trivia like which club a player made his debut for. Tapping the right answer scored points, tracked on a personal leaderboard against Facebook friends and a national one against every player in the country; fans could also send comments straight into the championship studio. Top scorers on a given match were invited to play a head-to-head round against TV4's own experts, live in the studio. The app ran this way through all 31 matches of the tournament.
Results
Over 130,000 downloads and 2.7 million questions answered over the 19-day championship, with more than 37,000 people playing simultaneously during a single match, across all 31 matches of the tournament.
- 1
Players find the app by searching “Hockey-VM TV4” in the App Store or Google Play and download it for free ahead of the World Championship.
- 2
The app requires Facebook login before anything else, using it to surface the player's friends for competition and to let the TV4 editorial team reach the winner; TV4 states it does not store or view the login credentials.
- 3
Play only happens while a World Championship match airs live on TV4, with the app kept open in sync with the broadcast.
- 4
Through the match, TV4's live editors push questions tied to what is happening on the ice at that moment, reaching thousands of players simultaneously without delay: some ask players to predict an upcoming event, such as whether a goal will come during a given power play, while others test hockey knowledge, such as which club a player debuted for.
- 5
Correct answers earn points that accumulate over the course of the match, with the goal of finishing with as high a score as possible before the final siren.
- 6
Two rankings run at once, showing the player's standing against Facebook friends and against every app user across Sweden.
- 7
Players can send comments directly to the TV4 studio from within the app and are also invited to discuss the match on Twitter under the hashtag #vmapp.
- 8
Whoever posts the best score in a given match earns a shot at playing against TV4's hockey experts on air, facing pundit Niklas Wikegård live in the studio.
- 9
The cycle repeats for each of the tournament's 31 matches over 19 days, with players returning match after match to keep building their score and leaderboard position.
