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ESPN scores with Google Now-supported cricket updates on mobile

ESPNcricinfo is teaming up with Google to launch Now cards, a real-time updating feature that speeds up delivery of cricket-specific information to fans while letting them take even greater control of their consumption of the sport.

With the service, fans can receive on their handsets Google app-supported up-to-the-minute news, scores and other information about their favorite cricket teams, players and events as set in the ESPNcricinfo mobile application. The feature points to mobile?s suitability for delivering real-time content to highly engaged fans in the fast-changing world of sports.

?We want to serve fans wherever they?re consuming content, and by launching Now cards, we are able to reach them on an additional platform with scale,? said Adam Deutsch, senior director of digital product management with ESPN, Bristol, CT.

Setting preferences 
The feature is available in the Google app for Android devices. To obtain the service, the user downloads the latest versions of the ESPNcricinfo and Google apps on the same device.

He or she then sets preferences pertaining to teams, players and events in the ESPNcricinfo app to automatically populate Now cards within the Google app.  

Driving brand engagement through cricket fandom.

ESPN has spent the past few years ramping up its mobile offerings for fans and using the medium to drive user engagement.

Its projects have included updating its March Madness ESPN Bracket Bound app for iPhone and Android devices, establishing its ESPN Alerts SMS program to receive real-time information on game standings and breaking news and launching an ESPN Fantasy Football iPad app.

In November, ESPN put a standard name on its top mobile properties while reducing the number of apps in its portfolio by renaming its SportsCenter mobile application as ?ESPN.?

The move showed how after years of experimentation with other formats, media organizations now put a higher priority on allowing users to personally select content over providing numerous specialized apps.

Sports marketers in general are ramping up efforts to meet raised consumer expectations because of mobile?s prominence. They realize that sports is the genre that is tailor-made for usage on the mobile platform.

Mobile facilitates an urgency and an immediacy to sports news and information.

A priority is leveraging the symbiotic relationship between technology and sports content to build deeper fan and viewer brand engagement.

In October, MSN leveraged real-time sports video to expand its audience, a month after Fox Sports Regional Networks tapped social media and a mobile-video platform to produce original video content and connect with local sports fans and viewers.

World Cup
ESPNcricinfo?s provision of newer and convenient ways for fans to find cricket content comes ahead of the start of the World Cup season and other upcoming cricketing tournaments.
 
Getting personal on mobile.

Across online, mobile and tablet devices, fans log up to 2 billion minutes spent each month with ESPNcricinfo globally and log millions of video views.

?Mobile devices are uniquely personal? Mr. Deutsch said. ?They are the first screen users look at in the morning, and the last screen checked at night.  

?As a result, in many cases, we program and design content with a mobile-first approach,? he said.

Final Take
Michael Barris is staff reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York