#BNZgamechat: Proudly (and nervously) bought to you by BNZ
BNZ gets amongst the digital sponsorship leverage game with their new #bnzgamechat twitter experiment. John Lai explains why he's excited to watch the drama unfold.
If I were to ask you to name a digitally-savvy Bank off the top of your head, many of you would say ASB right? And you'd be right, the proof is the pudding and ASB have done some great work with Virtual Branch and their recent Facebook Payment app update. They've set a high digital bar for other NZ Banks to try and hit.BNZ, on the other hand, are mainly known to me for their cute pigs and as the major sponsors for the NZ Super 15 Rugby franchises. When it comes to digital they've never been very close to the top of my mind. Until this morning, that is.With the 2012 Super 15 season coming down to a nail-biting close, BNZ decided to dap their toes in the digital water and launch an interesting "Social Commentary" experiment that will run as the final four teams battle it out to be named the best.The experiment embraces what Twitter is known for when sporting events are on, its 140 characters of commentary.The bnzgamechat.co.nz website will pull together tweets from a select group of commentators, who will tweet along with the game - providing their cheekiest banter and juiciest insider info. The team includes - Sara Tetro [NZ Top Model host], Craig Innes [Ex All Black]. Ric Salizzo [Former co-host of Sportscafe]. Hayley Holt [The Crowd Goes Wild Reporter] and the mouth, Mr Martin Devlin [Sports Broadcaster]BNZ national sponsorship manager Ross Halpin says, “This is definitely a bit of an experiment for us at BNZ. We basically have no idea what will happen, but we’re stoked to be bringing a new perspective to Super Rugby.”I can already see many seasoned digital practitioners cringing at the fact that Mr Halpin admits that he has no idea what will happen during the course of this experiment. But, in the spirit of the most exciting digital success stories coming from some pretty risky experiments, I give kudos to BNZ for testing the market validation waters. It should be an interesting one to watch.The #bnzgamechat team will be tweeting 30 minutes prior to kickoff, throughout the game and 10 minutes post-match too. So, make sure you check out bnzgamechat.co.nz to see all the tweets aggregated on one website, or tune in via #bnzgamechat on Twitter.What are your thoughts about the campign, is it the right direction for them in their Digital journey?Oh, and before I forget.. GO CHIEFS!