UFC is taking live sports advertising to another level, leveraging 4D Sight’s technology to showcase different types of ads during livestreamed matches.
4D Sight, a live video monetization platform built for sports and gaming, will digitally insert sponsor branding onto the canvas of UFC’s Octagon arena. Essentially, the brand names will be replaced as the camera pans around the match, providing more visibility to advertisers.
UFC and 4D Sight will debut this pilot program during “UFC 278: Usman vs Edwards 2” on August 20. Throughout the match, the companies will digitally insert the logo of Stake.com – an online casino and UFC’s official betting partner in Latin America and Asia.
This will mark the first time 4D Sight has used its tech in a major sports setting.
“4D Sight’s technology will now allow us to localize the brand exposure to meet the needs of our partners, while creating greater relevance and engagement locally with our viewers,” stated Paul Asencio, SVP of global partnerships at UFC.
Live sporting events are a popular streaming choice as of late, so it makes sense companies want to enhance that viewing experience. Synamedia in April, for instance, helped BT Sport deliver the first live 8K home broadcast of a major sporting event in the U.K.
4D Sight boasts it can seamlessly display static and dynamic brand images on the screen, without limitations on specific camera angles or placement location. That type of technology benefits fast-moving environments like UFC events.
Erhan Ciris, founder and CEO at 4D Sight, noted in a statement that brands can leverage a lot of available technology to insert their logos during live events, but they can run into inconsistencies.
“The issue is, the quality control isn’t there with constant things like glitching and screen-tear when anyone on screen happens to be in the vicinity of a logo,” he continued. “What we’ve really done is create a way to improve the viewer experience, by presenting branding opportunities that are native but non-intrusive for the viewer.”
Non-disruptive ads are key in an increasingly ad-focused streaming landscape. Hub Entertainment Research recently found around half of consumers think 30 seconds or fewer for an ad break was reasonable, depending on how often the ads appeared in a single time period.
Minimizing ad disruption is something to consider for companies like Disney and Netflix, both of which are set to release ad-supported tiers over the course of next year.