The NBL, Australia and New Zealand’s professional men’s basketball league is keeping fans connected with a suite of new (and old) digital content.

Video editors at League Headquarters have been busy cutting tape, putting together a host of online content to engage fans each week. From Monday to Friday, fans can get their daily fix of basketball classics.

With the help of ECAL, fans can relive the excitement of the 2020 NBL Competition and seasons past with ‘NBL Top 10’ and ‘NBL Rewind’, catch the latest off-season news with ‘NBL Overtime’ and listen to Adam Gibson’s ‘One on One’ podcast, all from the comfort of their couch.

ECAL subscribers receive notifications when the broadcast begins, with ‘Watch Now’ links providing one-click access to watch or listen on their preferred platform.

ECAL’s state-of-the-art digital calendar service delivers the NBL with a tremendous platform to ‘connect’, ‘engage’ and ‘activate’ its audience around the sport they love, during this unfortunate time of lockdown and social distancing.

Choose your NBL team here and keep up-to-date thanks to ECAL.

The Australian Ballet has launched a special ‘At Home with Ballet TV’ digital season to engage ballet lovers, during these unprecedented times of COVID-19 lockdown and social distancing.

With performances cancelled across the country, this internationally acclaimed ballet company will stream its most beloved and inspiring ballet productions to fans at home.

With the help of ECAL, fans can experience the magic of seasons past with cinema-quality recordings of full-length performances, such as ‘The Sleeping Beauty’, ‘Cinderella’, ‘Romeo & Juliet’ and more, beamed right to the comfort of their couch.

The Australian Ballet launched their new ‘digital season’ across various channels, including web, email, social and via owned and partner networks. With a strong drive to ‘Sync to Calendar’ and “be the first to know” fans were instantly connected, and receive advance warning of the latest performance releases – straight to their digital calendar.

ECAL subscribers receive notifications when new ballets are released on the platform with ‘Stream Now’ links providing one-click access to watch. With each performance available for a limited period of 2 weeks, timely ‘Last Chance to Watch’ events and reminders in calendar ensure fans never miss the opportiunity to view the performance!

On launch, the ‘digital season’ campaign saw a 25% increase in their ECAL subscriber audience alone. In addition, The Australian Ballet were able to leverage it’s large existing connected calendar audience to drive engagement and tune-in.

The Australian Ballet’s Digital Specialist, Maeve Ashby, was thrilled with the ‘digital season’ launch and with the engagement across all platforms, saying “It’s been a fantastic success – smashing our engagement stats out of the water – across email, web, social and calendar!”

The Australian Ballet are building on the initial success of their ‘digital season’ with other interesting video content pieces, and special collaborations designed to recreate a luxe cinematic experience at home – they have collaborated with Piccoliina Gelateria to create a bespoke ‘Sleeping Beauty’ inspired ice-cream flavour available for delivery via Uber Eats, complete with all the trimmings!

You can subscribe to The Australian Ballet’s 2020 Digital Calendar here and don’t forget the gelato!

ECAL event-based clients are on the front foot in keeping fans engaged with event disruptions, and creating new ways to engage.

ECAL’s dynamic ‘Sync to Calendar’ technology is a hugely beneficial tool for keeping fans engaged during this period of great uncertainty.

Major sports, ticketing and entertainment clients who have been forced to postpone or cancel their events have quickly updated entries in calendar, with the relevant status changes.

As the situation develops, and decisions are made about further delays or the recommencement of events, ECAL will be a quick and effective tool for publishers to reschedule their events in the daily lives of fans.

Opportunity knocks 
Given the uncertainty, and the rapidly changing situation, publishers are now encouraging fans to connect to their ECAL feature, to be the first to know when updates to their event scheduling is made.

Major conference clients are also recommending ECAL to their clients, to use ECAL ‘Sync to Calendar’ to help take their conferences and exhibitions online. By subscribing to the show agenda, keynote addresses and even your preferred conference ‘tracks’, virtual attendees know exactly when to tune-in, with a direct link to the web stream.

Above: Tottenham Hotspur FC splash page on site entry provides a solution for fans to stay up-to-date with the changing schedule of events.

At ECAL, we’re working closely with major sports around the world, to help manage important communications around event postponements, cancellations and announcements due to Coronavirus Disease.

Given ECAL’s rich and dynamic capabilities, and ease of management, event owners and publishers are able to deliver important announcements, and event status updates to their audience, at the right time with access to the right information.

What’s the best way to manage these event disruptions? We make the following suggestions and recommendations, to help our publishers manage these important communications in the right way.

Postponing events 
If you are postponing events, we recommend updating (not deleting!) the event as follows:

• Edit the event name to insert “(Postponed)” prominently at the beginning of the event name;
• Insert an emoji ⚠️ in the event name, bringing attention to the changed status of the event;
• Update the event details with your official statement regarding the postponement;
• Add a link in the event details, where users can go to read the complete official statement, and another link to view the latest updates and announcements as they happen;
• Add / retain other useful links to keep users engaged, such as ‘Latest News’, ‘Latest Video’, ‘Facebook’, ‘Twitter’, ‘Online Store’ and so on.

Cancelling events
If you are cancelling events, we recommend updating (not deleting!) the event as follows:

• Edit the event name to insert “(Cancelled)” prominently at the beginning of the event name;
• Insert an emoji ❗️in the event name, bringing attention to the changed status of the event;
• Update the event details with your official statement regarding the cancellation;
• Add a link in the event details, where users can go to read the complete official statement, and another link to view the latest updates and announcements as they happen;
• Add / retain other useful links to keep users engaged, such as ‘Latest News’, ‘Latest Video’, ‘Facebook’, ‘Twitter’, ‘Online Store’ and so on.

Official Announcement as a new event
If you have made the decision to postpone or cancel events, we recommend the following:

• Create a new event in the user calendar, specifically for the “Official Announcement” itself. This is an important event, and your audience needs to know;
• Insert an emoji ⚠️or ❗️in the event name, that mirrors the one you will use for the postponed or cancelled events;
• Add a short term alert, such as 15 mins prior, to bring this event front of screen on the user’s mobile or desktop;
• In the event details, include a brief summary of your official statement;
• Add a link in the event details, where users can go to read the complete official statement, and another link to view the latest updates and announcements as they happen;
• Add other useful links to keep users engaged, such as ‘Latest News’, ‘Latest Video’, ‘Facebook’, ‘Twitter’ and so on.

The ECB’s much anticipated Hundred competition is clearly viewed as an unmissable summer event, with initial sales for the Hundred having ‘surpassed expectations’.

Part of the ECB’s ticketing strategy was to build strong early interest and trigger advanced sales via a Priority Ticket Release window. Fans could register their interest in the tournament via the website, and received access to the priority ticket window.

The ECB also used the official fixture release as a major promotional event, and using ECAL’s dynamic ‘Sync to Calendar’ service, fans were instantly connected – they would receive the fixture straight to calendar, along with important ticket release dates.

Levering it’s large connected calendar audience, as part of a truly integrated marketing approach, the ECB were able to deliver advance notice to fans of the upcoming Priority Ticket Release window, with details on pricing and direct access to purchase. This was a wonderful way to stimulate consumer demand and early sales amongst a high value, qualified, passionate fan base.

Within the first 24 hours of availability, ECB sales had surpassed the six-figure barrier.

ECAL’s state-of-the-art digital calendar service delivers the ECB with a tremendous platform to ‘connect’, ‘engage’ and ‘activate’ its audience around the events they love.

ECAL is proud to be the official calendar marketing service provider of The ECB. Choose your team in The Hundred, and follow your favourite international and domestic cricket here, proudly powered by ECAL.

Home of the world’s fastest electric cars, Formula E has kicked into the new season with ECAL’s world-leading ‘Sync to Calendar’ service, to help engage racing fans across the globe.

The Formula E Championship commenced in 2014, and is currently contested by eleven teams across fourteen rounds on exciting city circuits from London and New York to Diriyah, Berlin, Paris, Rome & Marrakech.

With a complex network of broadcast arrangements across the world and online, the Formula E’s official ‘digital calendar’ solution is designed to engage fans to the right events, in the right place, at the right time. Fans will never miss a moment of their favourite E-Prix, plus Qualifying, Practice, and Post-race highlights, with all the various updates dynamically delivered to the users’ calendar of choice. Event details include localised TV broadcast and streaming details, handy alerts, and direct access to Follow LIve, FANBOOST, News, Store and more, straight from the user calendar.

Formula E is the only event in the world that lets fans play an active role in the race with FANBOOST. FANBOOST lets fans vote for their favourite driver and award them an extra boost of power during the race. ECAL helps drive FANBOOST, delivering timely reminders to fans with one-click access to vote for their favourite driver.

With the season’s first and second rounds completed in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia, digital engagement was at an all-time high since the first ever Championship in 2014, thanks to a range of new digital initiatives and the entry of exciting new teams including Porsche and Mercedes-Benz.

ECAL’s ‘Sync to Calendar’ feature is integrated across the Formula E website, with high impact display ads on the home page, along with the Race Calendar and individual Race pages. It is also promoted across other digital channels including Facebook and Twitter pages. The racing teams and Formula E’s major corporate partners also promote the service via their digital channels.

You can sync individual races or the entire Formula E season here, and stay up-to-date and connected thanks to ECAL.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has partnered with ECAL, to launch it’s new ‘Sync to Calendar’ service for all international and domestic cricket competitions including the exciting new The Hundred!

The Hundred summer competition kicks off on 17th July 2020, featuring the world’s very best players. This action packed 100 ball competition consists of eight city-based franchise teams, each of which will field both a men’s and women’s team.

ECB’s official ‘Sync to Calendar’ service, powered by ECAL, allows cricket fans to sync their favourite teams and competitions directly to their personal digital calendar. Select from England Men’s and Women’s National Teams, Vitality Blast, County Championship, Royal London Cup and of course The Hundred. The widget category drop-down allows subscribers to select multiple teams across various competitions in one easy process.

Fans will enjoy a live and dynamic feed of games to suit their profile, with TV broadcast details, and direct access to Tickets, Live Scores, Stats, Latest Video, News, Social Media and more, all from the convenience of the calendar.

ECAL’s ‘Sync to Calendar’ feature is integrated across the ECB website, with high impact display ads on the home page, and buttons on the Fixture pages. It’s also promoted across various other digital channels including the ECB mobile app, official facebook and twitter pages.

Choose your team in The Hundred, and follow your favourite international and domestic cricket here, proudly powered by ECAL.

FC Barcelona, one of the world’s most popular sports organisations, has chosen ECAL to provide its official ‘sync to calendar’ service to it’s many millions of fans across the globe.

More than just a champion Football team, Barça’s 144,000 strong membership base supports multiple professional teams across five sports, including Football, Futsal, Hockey, Basketball and Handball. All competing in the famous blue and garnet colours.

As part of Barça’s official ‘digital calendar’ solution, fans will enjoy a live and dynamic feed of games, across all teams and competitions delivered straight to their digital calendar of choice, rich with game information and direct access to tickets, merchandise, match centre, latest videos, social media and more.

ECAL’s ‘Sync to Calendar’ feature is integrated across the Barça website, with high impact display ads on the home page, and promoted across various channels including the Club’s official facebook and twitter pages.

Fans across the globe can follow their favourite Barça team, with multiple language options including Spanish, Catalan and over 30 other languages available.

You can follow your favourite Barça team here, and stay up-to-date and connected thanks to ECAL.

The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), Russia’s famed international ice hockey league, has chosen ECAL to provide its official ‘sync to calendar’ communications and marketing service.

This feature is sponsored by the league’s major ‘Championship Partner’, Russian mobile phone operator MegaFon. With the entire user journey produced in Russian, including all game information and feature links, the feature is designed to drive tune-in to live KHL games on MegaFon TV – a popular high-speed TV streaming subscription service.

Fans can choose to receive all games across the league, or just games of their favourite teams. ECAL’s ‘Sync to Calendar’ feature is integrated across the official KHL website, with high impact banner ‘mastheads’ on the schedule page, and promoted across various channels including the League’s official facebook and twitter pages.

KHL, an International professional ice hockey league based in Russia, comprises of 24 teams from Belarus, China, Finland, Latvia, Kazakhstan. The competition is widely considered to be the premier professional ice hockey league across Europe and Asia, and second in stature behind the National Hockey League (NHL).

You can follow your favourite KHL team throughout the 2019/20 season here, and stay up-to-date and connected thanks to ECAL.

The Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional (Spanish Football League) has chosen ECAL to provide its official ‘sync to calendar’ service to football fans across the globe.

LaLiga, Spanish Football’s premier division is Europe’s number one league, a competition producing the continent’s top-rated clubs, the most Champions League, Europa League and FIFA World Cup titles, and highest number of Ballon d’Or winners.

As part of LaLiga’s official ‘digital calendar’ solution,  fans will enjoy a live and dynamic feed of games, delivered straight to their digital calendar of choice, rich with features to drive sales, tune-in and engagement.

Fans can choose to sync match schedules for their favourite team(s) across the League’s three divisions.

ECAL’s ‘Sync to Calendar’ feature is integrated across the LaLiga website, with high impact display ads on the home page, and promoted across various channels including the League’s official facebook and twitter pages.

You can follow your favourite LaLiga team throughout the 2019/20 season here, and stay up-to-date and connected thanks to ECAL.