ECAL enhances its customer experience with fast and frictionless payments from the calendar.

ECAL, the world’s leading direct to calendar marketing platform, are excited to announce a ground-breaking new addition to their sync-to-calendar technology, that allows users to make purchases directly from their calendar.

Introducing Hyper, a digital payments wallet and ID enrichment feature. It is designed to enable ECAL publishers and their merchants to deliver a hyper-personalised product offer to users at the right time, in their personal digital calendar, with a fast and frictionless checkout experience.

Consider a calendar entry for a football game of your favourite team, with a special offer presented five minutes prior to stream the game live on your mobile. Or a concert of your favourite artist, with a special offer for VIP tickets available 30 minutes prior to the general on-sale. All secured and paid for in just a few clicks directly from the calendar on your mobile. This is an exciting opportunity for ECAL and Hyper clients wanting to develop a better transactional experience for their customers.

Hyper delivers a personalised, timely and simplified purchase experience, empowering more customers to buy at the moments that matter. It is estimated that Hyper will work at up to double the normal purchase rate for clients currently using ECAL’s sync-to-calendar technology.

Hyper Payments

Hyper is underpinned by an advanced Level 1 PCI DSS payment orchestration system. It provides merchants with an intuitive and customisable checkout widget, integrates with over 30+ payment gateways, handles multiple currencies, and facilitates a variety of payment methods including single payments, recurring and ‘buy now pay later’ options.

CEO of ECAL, Patrick Barrett, explains the importance of Hyper to the overall customer experience: “ECAL is obsessed with optimising the calendar experience for both our clients and customers. Hyper lets us play a definitive role in the complete customer journey, from initial interest on a client website, right through to successful purchase via a merchant partner, to ultimately streamline the path to purchase – which we find really, really exciting.”

Whilst Hyper is a breakthrough for ECAL, Barrett hints at future opportunities beyond the calendar, saying “Hyper is a sophisticated digital payments wallet, and it provides a powerful solution for any enterprise business with the need to better orchestrate complex, multi-currency, multi-type payments.”

The announcement closely follows the recent appointment of Silicon Valley based technology entrepreneur, Karen Orford, as ECAL’s Global Head of Customer Success.

In what is yet another monumental achievement for parent company, HyperKu, the launch of Hyper wallet is indicative of HyperKu’s principle of investing in technologies that simplify the overall consumer experience for the modern world.

Learn more about Hyper here: https://hyperid.co/

About ECAL:
ECAL (ecal.com) is a world-leading direct to calendar marketing platform, used by 300+ major brands globally across sports, entertainment, media, ticketing and payments. Headquartered in Melbourne, with a presence in London, Los Angeles, Singapore, Delhi and Manila, ECAL’s smart ‘sync to calendar’ technology delivers important, hyper-personalised and actionable events direct to calendar, for better business outcomes.

About HyperKu:
HyperKu (HyperKu Holdings) is a Singapore based enterprise and majority owner of ECAL, co-founded by Patrick Barrett and Remon Gazal. HyperKu is actively building a portfolio of ready to scale, enterprise platform businesses across a range of sectors including marketing, payments, media and events.

After 61 years away from Formula One, Aston Martin is back on the World Championship grid. Thanks to ECAL, racing fans will never miss a moment of this iconic brand’s return to the racetrack.

ECAL’s ‘Sync to Calendar’ feature provides Aston Martin fans with the world’s best digital calendar service. Race details are updated dynamically throughout the season, complete with localised broadcast information, direct access to the Racetrack Information, Shop, Latest News, Latest Video, Social Media and lots more.

The inclusion of ECAL’s Sync to Calendar forms part of the brands wider strategy to engage and build a connected audience across the globe, where interests lie both on and off the racetrack. Not only can fans sync the full F1 schedule, including pre-race, practice and qualifying events, but the team’s ESports V10 R-League Season 2 schedule, AMF1 Events and Promotions & Offers. ‘Sync to Calendar’ buttons are integrated across the AMF1 website, including homepage and impact displays on individual race page countdown clock tiles.

ECAL’s solution for Aston Martin includes single-sign on registration. Fans must be logged in as a registered member of #IAMF1 in order to start the sync journey. When the sync button is clicked, a pop up will prompt users to login or register as a member.

Single-sign on registration was a key consideration for Aston Martin when choosing ECAL and it will undoubtedly become a highly-sought after feature moving forward according to ECAL CEO Patrick Barrett.

“As publishers invest in single identity management across platforms, it’s important vendor partners like ECAL can support single sign-on to facilitate a consistent, familiar login experience, and uniformity around data and insights for the business.”

Racing fans, don’t miss a moment throughout the 2021 Season and beyond with ECAL. Visit https://www.astonmartinf1.com and register now.

Welcome to the final instalment of our special series on the ‘Superheroes of Sync’! Hopefully you’re inspired and motivated to make the most of your ECAL calendar communications and marketing.

NFHS

NFHS: Watch it Live!

The NFHS Network provides the official live streaming service for over 25,000+ US high schools. ECAL enables sports fans to sync their favourite school sports to calendar, with smart alerts and prompts to ‘Watch it Live’. The ‘play’ ▶️  and ‘sports’ 🏈  emojis mark the live broadcast, with strong ‘calls to action’ and direct action links to the live stream, geared towards converting free VOD users to paid streaming subscribers. With this smart business logic, the ‘Watch it Live’ link has a CTR of 9%+, with a very high conversion to paid subscription.

Formula E esports

Formula E: Esport is back

It’s great to push important announcements into calendar. Formula E’s highly successful ‘Accelerate’ (simulator gaming) series through Covid-19 lockdown is back! To make things really interesting, there’s a £100,000 prize pool on offer!

South Australia Tourism

SATC: Feature rich content

South Australia’s tourism events and festivals are seamlessly delivered to calendar. ECAL’s specific logic is applied to auto-insert key dates for single day, multi-day (eg: ‘Day 1’, ‘Day 2’ etc.) and long festival (eg: ‘Starts today’, ‘Ends today’ etc.) events, along with details, ticket pricing categories and action links to ‘Book Now’.

FAWSL Live Panel Show

FAWSL: Live panel show

In conjunction with premier partner Barclays, FAWSL celebrated International Women’s Day by hosting a virtual panel featuring some of the most inspirational figures in the women’s game.  A great example of keeping fans engaged with non-match day content.

NBL Next Stars Documentary

NBL: Next Stars Documentary

The NBL engaged it’s highly connected audience to promote its feature length documentary charting the rise of LaMelo Ball and RJ Hampton from the NBL to the NBA.  Another great example of promoting interesting and relevant business content to high value consumers.

Welcome to Week 3 of this special 4-week series, as we highlight the most creative and super engaging calendar marketing campaigns.

NBA Milestone Alerts

NBA: ⚡️Milestone Alerts

The NBA has taken fan engagement to the next level, injecting advanced match stats into game entries with this cool ⚡️ ‘Milestone Alerts’ feature! Whether it’s Carmelo Anthony moving into 95th spot for All-Time total rebounds or LeBron James tying Paul Silas and Tony Parker for 32nd on the NBA All-Time games list, the NBA is giving fans more of the moment! Watch out for the ⚡️ symbol in game titles to uncover important player milestones!

Formula E

Formula E: Post Race Highlights!

Formula E is keeping fans engaged long after the chequered flag with its ‘🏎 🏁 Missed the action?’ calendar event. Racing enthusiasts can ‘catch-up’ on all the action with one click to the race replay and highlights video.

Morrison Centre

Morrison Centre: Ticket Status!

Performing arts theatre, the Morrison Center provides interested theatregoers with everything they need to make a purchase decision. Detailed show information, ticket pricing, ticket status (‘on sale now’, ‘selling fast’, ‘almost gone!’ and ‘sold out’) and one click access to purchase tickets

Premier League: Esports Deadlines!

ePremier League players will never miss a qualification deadline with timely calendar reminders.  Entries feature detailed instructions, including cut-off dates, with one click access to ‘register’, ‘play now’ or see the ‘match schedule’.

Toronto Arrows: Pre Game Show

Major League Rugby team the Toronto Arrows is pushing events into calendars that aren’t restricted to the playing field. The team is promoting it’s live pre-game facebook show via the calendar to build awareness and increase time engaged.

This special 4-week series highlights some of the most creative and super engaging calendar campaigns we’ve seen lately. Great ideas, fantastic executions, awesome results. Here’s Week 2!

TAB Make a Date with Play

TAB: Virtual Locker Room

To help racing and sports fans navigate a hectic spring betting calendar, and the constraints of Covid-19 lockdown, TAB invited Aussies to ‘Make a Date with Play’. At the heart of the campaign, ECAL enabled sports fans to sync their favourite sports fixtures and feature racing events to calendar. To help bring mates together, users could create a Virtual Locker Room (a private virtual room), complete with live vision, odds boards, video chat and more. What an amazing campaign!

RLWC

Rugby League World Cup: Priority Ticket Access!

Rugby League World Cup used the official schedule release to build their global calendar audience. This direct connection to high value, passionate fans has helped to drive early ticket sales within important priority ticket windows.

Arsenal

Arsenal FC: Home Kit On-Sale!

Arsenal’s significant calendar audience was alerted to the release of the new adidas Home Kit with a dedicated ‘On Sale’ calendar entry, with a clear call to action to ‘Shop Now’ online. Targeted marketing entries like these typically receive CTR’s of over 10-15%.

Harlequins

Harlequins: Competition Time!

English Rugby team Harlequins gave connected fans the chance to win a signed jersey via the calendar. This ‘Win a signed third shirt’ calendar entry asked fans to name the player they’d like to sign the top, with an action link to ‘Enter Now’, and achieved a CTR of 5.2%!

NBL Dream Courts

NBL: Partner Promotion

The calendar also presents a great opportunity for your corporate partners. Dream Courts, the official basketball courts partner of the NBL received this promotion in calendar, encouraging fans to create the court of their dreams!

ECAL’s Superheroes of Sync are here! This special 4-week series highlights some of the most creative and super engaging calendar campaigns we’ve seen from our clients. Great ideas, fantastic executions, awesome results. Check out this week’s Superheroes!

ECAL Superheroes of Sync

FC Barcelona: Match Day Challenge

FCB launched a ‘Match Day Challenge’ promotion to increase fan engagement and participation online. With the opportunity to win a match day jersey, fans are encouraged to ‘Guess the Score’, ‘Enter a Quiz’, and ‘Rate the Game’ for each upcoming game. FCB leverage their calendar audience via a dedicated tactical entry delivered one day prior to the game, and the ‘On!’ 🔛 emoji announces the ‘Match Day Challenge’ is open. FCB has seen a 3x increase in engagement via the calendar!

ECB Superheroes of Sync

England & Wales Cricket Board: Tickets On Sale!

ECB launched their Men’s International season direct to their calendar audience to drive early ticket sales. This ‘Tickets On Sale’ calendar entry has multiple alerts (1 day, 15 mins prior) to drive awareness and prompt action, with an action link to ‘Get tickets’, and achieved a CTR of +11%!

ECALs superheroes of sync

Aston Villa FC: Villa Gaming

Aston Villa announced ‘Villa Gaming’, a new eSports platform for gamers feat. FIFA21, NBA2K and Rocket League. A great initiative to extend their fanbase. So Villa created a new ‘Villa Gaming’ schedule in ECAL, and this tactical event to existing users drives registration.

LIVENow

LIVENow: Watch it Live

Streaming platform LIVENow uses ECAL to drive tune-in and live streaming sales. Each calendar entry shows the latest event details, purchase options, localised pricing (based on user’s geo-location) and action links to ‘Buy This Event‘ and ‘Watch This Now‘.

NBL: NBL Cup Launch

The inaugural NBL Cup was decided over 36 games within 4 weeks of the regular NBL season. Designated Cup games were updated with a 🏆 emoji in calendar, and a series of ‘teaser’ entries in calendar were used to drive awareness, educate fans and drive advance ticket sales.

ECAL, the world’s leading calendar marketing solution, is proud to announce its partnership with Dream11.

ECAL’s ‘Sync to Calendar’ feature provides India’s biggest Fantasy Sports platform with the world’s best digital calendar service. For ECAL, this is yet another significant partnership with a major fantasy sports franchise.

With Dream11’s enormous popularity estimated at over 100 million users, this partnership takes the ECAL service to a significant new audience in sports-mad India.

The online fantasy sports platform includes cricket, football, basketball, kabaddi, hockey, volleyball, handball and baseball.

Registered users create a virtual team of real-life players and earn points based on their performance and compete with other sports fans!

ECAL’s ‘Sync to Calendar’ feature provides users with timely reminders via the calendar of upcoming contests, complete with entry deadline information and direct access to enter, tips and stats, earn referral points and lots more.

Dream11 users can ‘sync’ individual matches, team schedules and entire competition schedules to calendar via the IOS and Android app, ensuring they won’t miss a moment (deadline!) of fantasy action.

 

Dream11

The NBL Cup tips off on February 20 with a four-week basketball extravaganza in Melbourne! All 9 NBL teams, 36 games, 1 winner!

In what will be one of the biggest basketball events ever staged in Australia, the NBL Cup will feature 18 double headers at John Cain Arena and the State Basketball Centre.

The 36 games will count towards the 2020-21 Hungry Jack’s NBL Season and, in a first for the league, will also decide the winner of the inaugural NBL Cup with total prize money of $300,000 up for grabs. All games will be broadcast live on SBS, ESPN and Sky Sport (NZ).

Ticket prices start at just $17 with a blockbuster double header featuring Melbourne United v Perth Wildcats and Cairns Taipans v The Hawks to open the NBL Cup at John Cain Arena on Sat 20 Feb.

Don’t miss a moment of the action, sync your team(s) fixture to calendar here to receive timely reminders, broadcast information and direct access to purchase tickets, watch live and shop the NBL store.

NBL Cup

Celtic fans, it’s here! Your digital 2020/21 Celtic FC fixtures are ready to sync to calendar.

Never miss a moment of hoops action this season, sync every Scottish Premiership, European Fixtures and League Cup clash to your calendar, thanks to ECAL.

ECAL’s ‘Sync to Calendar’ feature provides fans of the Scottish Football powerhouse with the world’s best digital calendar service. Match details are updated dynamically throughout the season, complete with direct access to the Match Centre, betting odds with principal partner Dafabet CelticTV, Latest News, Social Media and lots more.

The addition of ECAL’s Sync to Calendar button coincides with Celtic’s newly designed website, enabling fans to engage with their team like never before.

Support Celtic FC throughout the 2020/21 Season and beyond with ECAL. Sync the Celtic fixture to your calendar now.

The AFL has released its ‘rolling fixture’ for the 2021 Toyota AFL Premiership Season. 2021 sees footy return to Victoria, NSW, ACT and Tasmania after a Covid-19 affected 2020 season.

The league has locked in the opening six rounds, starting with the traditional Richmond v Carlton blockbuster at the MCG on Thursday, March 18. Match-ups for Rounds 7 to 23 have been determined, but don’t yet have specific dates or timeslots.

For AFL Club ECAL subscribers, fixtures automatically hit the calendar, and will continue to be updated as the rolling fixture continues to evolve throughout the season. The days of the member fridge magnet fixture are gone, the calendar is where all the action is!

Timely reminders, TV broadcast information, official game hashtags and direct access to Club Memberships, Tickets, Online Shops, Video and Latest News just a click away.

It’s going to be big! Don’t miss it when footy returns, sync the full AFL Fixture to your calendar here or from your teams fixture page.