There’s an increasing need to convert traditional, horizontal broadcast footage into vertical videos to capture the attention of younger audiences. We covered all that and more in a recent article, The Rise of Vertical Video in Sports Content. So, while platforms like TikTok and Instagram are excellent resources for serving content to current fans and attracting new ones, there’s a growing need for organizations to publish content directly on their owned and operated (O&O) channels.
Unlike social media platforms, apps give rights holders the ability to collect first-party data from their users. The data can be used to develop personalized content based on a user’s behavior, thus tailoring the experience for each person. This level of personalization is proven to increase the amount of time users spend in apps, while also bolstering downloads and subscriptions.
Automatically Integrate Vertical Videos Into Your App
In-App Stories gives rights holders the technical capability to create and insert vertical videos into their apps, and other digital platforms, to create the type of entertaining experiences that users are familiar with from social media.
WSC Sports’ platform uses advanced AI technology to analyze sports competitions from live or non-live footage. The technology recognizes every player and key play that happens during a game, tags them with rich metadata, and then saves the video to the platform’s library. The videos can be converted to a variety of formats and orientations depending on the final destination—that could be vertical for TikTok or YouTube shorts, four by five for Instagram, or a traditional, horizontal format for Facebook or YouTube. Editors can also add things like polls, quizzes, custom text, and links to direct users to other platforms—like proprietary apps, live broadcasts, or websites.
Transforming Fan Data into Revenue: The In-App Stories Advantage
By combining an understanding of fan preferences with data-driven knowledge about prior purchases, geo-locations, and more, rights holders can create personalized experiences for their fans, presenting them with tickets, merch, and third-party offers that serve a dual goal: enhancing user satisfaction and experience, while driving revenue growth.
For advertisers, In-App Stories opens a door to connect with fans on some of the most popular sports videos in the world, and deliver messages to a highly targeted audience made up exclusively of sports fans. The experience is further enhanced by the real-time production and delivery of relevant content, which ensures attention is captured during peak moments of engagement. As a result, the likelihood of an interaction and conversion is significantly increased. Moreover, with In-App Stories, advertisers get the precision to target specific fan demographics, ensuring that the right message reaches the right audience at the right time.
In-App Stories in Action
The impact of In-App Stories is backed up by real-world success stories from some of the biggest names in sports.
LALIGA is a prime example. After recognizing younger audiences have a preference for bite-sized vertical video highlights, the league partnered with WSC Sports to enhance the fan experience on their relaunched app. With the solution in place, LALIGA achieved a remarkable 70% increase in app sessions and over a 30% increase in average time spent in the app. The surge in engagement solidified LALIGA’s position as the most followed European football league on social media, and one of the most influential leagues in the entire world with over 200 million followers across 16 social media accounts.
In 2024, another major sports league, NASCAR, implemented WSC Sports’ technology to deliver live highlights and driver-focused stories that have proved to be a fan favorite.
NASCAR’s unique style of close, side-by-side racing delivers plenty of highlight-reel moments each week and In-App Stories are an ideal way for us to deliver the type of compelling content fans crave on mobile.”
In addition to using stories to enhance the content on their app, NASCAR also uses WSC Sports’ platform to populate race highlights into their race timeline feature. The result has been a remarkable spike in efficiency. Videos are now delivered to the timeline 80% faster, which allowed them to more than double the number of videos on the feed to a total of 13,000 videos—a remarkable 65% growth year over year.
Belgian Pro League Implements In-App Stories
The league recently extended its five-year partnership to include WSC’s In-App Stories product and will use it to deliver more content to fans on their owned and operated platforms. The Pro League will also use stories as real estate to create new monetization inventory and advertising opportunities.
Over the course of the partnership, they achieved tremendous growth across digital channels and AI-powered video played key role. In 2023, the league shared almost 20,000 videos with its clubs—a 107% increase year-over-year, providing teams with more content to engage fans and amplify noise around the league.
WSC Sports’ technology played a major role in the record growth of the league in recent seasons, as we’ve doubled-down on content production across all platforms and formats in multiple languages.”
“Now, we’re thrilled to add the capabilities of In-App Stories to help us meet our fans’ expectations and deliver more of the content they want, where they want to consume it,” he added.
In-App Stories offers a dynamic solution for sports organizations, enabling them to consistently engage audiences and deliver meaningful value. With ongoing enhancements and innovations, our platform ensures you have the cutting-edge tools needed to captivate fans and maximize advertising potential.
So far in 2024 more than 45 clients have already adopted WSC Sports’ In-App Stories solution. If you’d like to learn more or book a demo, let’s talk.