FEEL THE GAME PROJECT

TitleFEEL THE GAME PROJECT
BrandELISA
Product/ServiceFEEL THE GAME PROJECT
Category A02. Creative Innovation
Entrant WÖRKS Helsinki, FINLAND
Idea Creation ELISA Helsinki, FINLAND
Idea Creation 2 GREAT APES Helsinki, FINLAND
Production COCOA MEDIAPRODUCTIONS Helsinki, FINLAND
Additional Company NEMO Helsinki, FINLAND
Credits
Name Company Position
Mikko Airas Wörks Oy Creative Director
Emma Autio Wörks Oy COO
Esa Peltonen Wörks Oy Creative Strategist
Tiina Kuusisto Elisa Oyj Vice President of Marketing Consumer Business
Merja Vane Tempest Elisa Oyj Development Director
Tommi Taponen Elisa Oyj Senior Marketing Manager
Tomi Wirtanen Elisa Oyj Vice president, Customer Marketing Communications
Ilkka Vanala Elisa Oyj Business Manager, Elisa Viihde Sport Users
Valtteri.santala Great Apes Ltd Producer
Teemu Huttunen Great Apes Ltd Developer
Constantin Freche Great Apes Ltd Art Director, Motion Designer
Niko Sipilä Great Apes Ltd Designer
Sami Blick Great Apes Ltd Developer
Katri Saarikivi The Nemo Project Cognitive Scientist
Valtteri Wikst The Nemo Project Researcher
Tommi Makkonen The NEMO project Lab Engineer
Jari Lehtinen Jari Lehtinen Wizard of electronics

The Campaign

Football is the world’s most popular sport. Its fans have access to every possible kind of background information, from the number of kilometres ran to passes completed and goals scored. The game evokes powerful emotions not only in the audience but on the pitch, too. The players’ real emotions, however, have remained a mystery to the fans. Until now. Elisa’s online TV streaming service broadcasts a wealth of matches from both domestic and international leagues. The company wanted to give its customers a glimpse into the future of sports entertainment and show how technology can make even a sport as familiar as football into a whole new experience.

Creative Execution

First, we created a wearable version of an ultra light EEG scanner, which was able to send data of the player’s brainwaves to a computer in real time from long distances.This was not easy. Using the latest studies in their field, the neuroscientists developed algorithms to translate the EEG signals into four different emotions or states of mind: Flow, Go, Stop and Effort. The signal was visualised with emoticons and video snippets. We created a HTML5 website which then allowed the audience to follow the live stream with the visualisations with their mobile phone or PC. We had only a handful of full setup training before the D-day, but everything worked perfectly.

The project received overwhelming media attention even before the game. The largest national newspapers had all featured the project, and heated discussion was taking place on online boards, too. On the match day the project was advertised both at the stadium and online. It was possible to follow the visualisation of emotions either live or as a version synchronized to the video stream. Thousands of people were able to watch the visualization on their phone or computer screen, seeing how the player’s state of mind changed from Flow to Stop or all the way to unwilling Effort. To Elisa the test was an important pilot project, which can potentially be expanded to a number of other sports. Elisa has their own VOD sports service, Fanseat, which seeing into possibilities of trying the technology on other sports.

Feel the Game project by Elisa Turning emotion data into sports entertainment http://feelthegame.squarespace.com/ Elisa, Finland’s largest telecom and digital service provider, wanted to offer sports fans something truly revolutionary. The result was the Feel the Game project, which enabled the audience to follow a football player’s emotions during an important match – measured with a brain scanner during the game, in real time, for the first time ever.