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Four P’s Remastered

The metaverse is years away. But that doesn’t mean you should wait to figure out your brand’s place in it. To make it manageable follow these four P’s of metaverse marketing.

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This article was originally published to Medium

The metaverse is years away. But that doesn’t mean you should wait to figure out your brand’s place in it. To make it manageable follow these four P’s of metaverse marketing: Product, People, Performance and Protection.

DALLE-2: Watching the pieces come together.

Don’t worry, you won’t have to toss out the other marketing P’s you’ve learned over the years. In fact, you definitely need those too. If you don’t know what those are there are way better places to learn about them than here.

Miss parts one and two? Today is the last time you’ll be able to say that.

Six Years

The metaverse is six years from being truly mainstream. But don’t breathe a sigh of relief just yet. Six years goes fast when it comes to emerging technology.

If you’re wondering where all this certainty about the future is coming from the answer is Gartner. The Gartner Hype Cycle is useful for tracking the tools that are going to make the metaverse possible. In this case we’re interested in foundational technology for the metaverse: web3, NFTs, decentralized identity & generative design AI. These pieces of tech are all on the 2–5 year track in the Hype Cycle. The metaverse itself is “more than 10 years out” by their reasoning. But taken together it is my opinion that a “mature metaverse” is six years out. A mature metaverse is one with ad products to buy, systems to integrate with and most of all a strong creator economy in place. The metaverse in 10-plus years will be well into its mature phase and the opportunity for innovation will be on the downswing.

So with 6 years on the clock, how do you start getting your business ready for the metaverse?

DALLE-2: Transforming real into digital

Product

There are myriad ways to get your product into the metaverse. But ultimately it comes down to two ways of looking at it:

Direct Representation and Abstract Representation of the product.

Direct Representation

If you make a real world product you’ve probably figured this out. Real world products — especially clothes, shoes and accessories — are already in the metaverse. It’s not always cool, it doesn’t always make sense, but most real products exist digitally anyway. Cars, toasters, lamps, bookcases; all of these are manufactured using tools that unfurl the complicated matter of matter and render them in reality. So moving them to a digital world means getting the format right and choosing a platform partner.

But before these products throw off their two-dimensional existence for the exciting new three-dimensional ones consider the following:

What purpose does this product serve in a digital world?

My friend Martine Lavoie likes to use a water bottle as example for this problem, and it’s a great one. In the real world a water bottle holds liquid to be consumed by its owner. It keeps you hydrated. But in the digital world we don’t need water. So a direct representation of a water bottle won’t be that interesting. Without a purpose it becomes a cosmetic accessory. Not all bad. A large portion of what made Fortnite successful was understanding the value of cosmetic items in virtual worlds.

In order for this to work we have to give the water bottle a purpose in a digital world. Our water bottle needs to in some way alter the way we experience a digital world.

In the world of Fortnite “being hydrated” might simply mean having a full health for your in-game avatar. So our water bottle could have some interaction with restoring your avatar’s health. A character animation that shows our avatar chugging from the bottle as their health rises could be one form of Direct Representation. Another way could be arranging a sponsorship or creating a mod where health improving items on the map resemble our humble water bottle.

But what if you don’t have a real-world product to begin with. If you’re a bank, insurance company, law firm or consultancy your services have no physical analog in a digital world. Instead you need to think about how your product or service exists through Abstract Representation.

Abstract Representation

Abstract Representation tells people something about the product or service by changing their digital identity or the world in which it exists. It is what you sell as an idea rather than a literal representation of the prduct.

Good news: your ad agency already knows how to think this way. The best agencies in the world have built their whole business on stripping down a product to its base idea and then showing how that idea changes the customer’s life for the better.

Let’s say we’re a big bank known for having locations just about everywhere people go™. The products we offer like loans; savings & chequing accounts; or overdraft protection have no analong outside the real world. Sure, you can use them to buy digital currency that is used in metaverse platforms. But that doesn’t tell us a thing about your bank. It doesn’t say that our services are available everywhere people go™. Instead we need to figure how the promise of being our customer extends into unreal worlds:

How does being our customer add value to the way they experience a digital world?

The answer to this comes from our differentiator: everywhere people go™. Differentiators make brands recognizable in a new context. In this case that new context is 3D worlds.

One way we could accomplish this is to simply extend the interfaces of our services to these new worlds. That would be “everywhere people go™” through Direct Representation.

But another way might be having agents in popular virtual worlds. Today these agents would be creators. In a few years virtual people might be a viable way to do this as well. Agents are exclusively available to customers and teach you the ins-and-outs of the virtual world they’re in.

However, understanding your product in this way means you need to understand your customers first. Without knowing them well it’s hard (impossible?) to figure out if having virtual water bottles on their avatar or being everywhere people go™ is something they care about at all.

DALLE-2: The social apparatus evolves.

People

No metaverse will be successful without people. Lots of people. If you’ve ever played an massively multiplayer online (MMO) game that hasn’t taken off yet you know how hollow digital worlds can feel.

So lets assume that all the metaverse platforms understand this and succeed in getting us together in virtual worlds. Is it the same as when we all joined Twitter in 2006? There are similarities, but old-guard social networks like Twitter had a different purpose in that time. They were almost exclusively about connecting people. In 2022 it’s expected that platforms connect people. So now platforms promise more than connections. Metaverse platforms promise the most. They promise to connect us in natural ways, they promise to let us own our identities and evolve them and most importantly they promise to let us create new things together in digital worlds.

It is this intersection of individuality and togetherness that we need to understand in order to make the metaverse useful to our customers (and therefore to our businesses).

Individuality is a promise of metaverse experiences. This is a direct rip from the world of gaming. Building a “character” to play a game is a concept that goes all the way back to tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons. “Character creation” is a common feature of modern games of all types. Some are so intricate they’re almost as interesting as the game itself.

This focus on hyper-individuality is what makes metaverse experiences appealing to creators. In their current world distinctiveness is elusive. It’s elusive because the algorithms that decide what is popular shape how we behave as we seek that popularity. The result is homogeny, and the cycle starts over.

Togetherness is on the other side of the equation. Since a metaverse with no one else in it is purgatory we need to create a lot for people to do.

What people do together in the metaverse matters a lot. The metaverse is real time fun. It’s not leaving a quip for others to laugh at on a wall, or a recorded video showing how to make a perfect Caesar.

While metaverse experiences look a lot like games they aren’t strictly games. Games have competitive objectives. Most metaverse platforms have creative objectives. Minecraft and Roblox have gaming elements in them: bad guys to fight, power ups to collect, but they’re not successful because of this, they’re successful because of what they let you create in them.

Like our Product exercise we can get to the heart of the matter by answering a couple of questions:

How will they express themselves? & What will they do when they’re together?

Luckily we’ve proven to be pretty good at finding ways to express ourselves. Profile pictures, a simple image to show people who you are, carry a tremendous amount of information with them. This isn’t a feature of the platforms, it’s a hack. A sanctioned hack, but a hack nonetheless.

As for what they’ll do together? Well that really depends a lot on the platform, certainly. But people are ingenious. Look no further than the world of memes. Memes are one of the largest (the largest?) collective art project people have ever undertaken. Memes show us that when people get together they can make something clever, entertaining and meaningful. But most importantly memes are a highly efficient way of communicating. They work on any screen and creating them requires just a web browser and they scale to the size of any community.

In the metaverse we should be watching for the equivalent creations that:

  1. Don’t rely exclusively on language to convey information
  2. Can be produced and consumed by any participant
  3. It improves the value of an experience for everyone

Strong hints you’ve found the creative activity people can get behind look like this: It can be understood without much analysis (more than language); anyone can join in and make it (produced by any participant); and it’s entertaining for people to be part of (improves the experience).

Fornite dances fit this model. When you dance in Fortnite you’re communicating without language (1). Today it’s possible to make your own dances, although it’s a little cumbersome (2). And… Well, dances were a real phenomenon for a while (3).

Of course, all of this is for nothing if we don’t know how well it’s working. Certainly we can see people dancing. But are they having fun? This is where Performance comes in.

DALLE-2: How are we doing?

Performance

Modern digital systems are remarkably quantifiable. Every action we take online can be measured. What’s more is every time we use these measurements to make a decision about what to do next we find even more data to collect. This never ending loop of measurement and new measures is the magic that lets us build on ideas so fast today. We are always only a click or two away from spotting the next big trend.

But the metaverse is a little different. In the metaverse people are acting in real time. Anything “real time” requires heavy duty computing. Sorting, filtering, formatting, aggregation — all of these techniques in data science have to happen in the moment when it’s handled in real time. This is 180º to the asynchronous web where there’s plenty of time to get data ready before it’s displayed as information.

That means the things we can measure in the metaverse are going to be everything we measure today, plus. Data from the asynchronous web will be valuable for setting preferences, determining what worlds we might be interested in exploring or what advertising exists in our view in a virtual world.

The “plus” is what real time opens up. The plus might be adding how we say something to what is being said. It can track what we’re looking at, for how long and where our attention is taken next.

These are all new opportunities to change what we communicate.

If you know that your latest digital twin doodad is more interesting if people see someone else with one first it makes signing on a star creator a lot less risky.

Actionable data in real time leads us to a single question to ask about how our measurement strategy needs to change:

What will you do when you can track behaviour in the moment?

After all we don’t collect data to put it on a shelf and admire it. Our job is to make decisions based on the data. And in a real time world that means making decisions before the data is in. Developers are intimately familiar with this kind of prediction. They make them all the time and they call them conditionals or “if-thens.”

First imagine what might happen (if) and determine the action taken in that circumstance (then).

Thinking this way isn’t new. It’s called “scenario planning” and you can find it in places as broad reaching as the endeavours of a military force or as specific the conditions of your auto-insurance policy. What is important is to understand what you can know, and that’s evolving quickly. The previous Oculus VR headset — Oculus Quest 2 — had four external black and white cameras. The new Oculus Pro has ten sensors.

So, find out what you can know, then think about what you’d do with the outcomes of that knowledge. This is likely a new kind of reporting you’ll need to figure out. This new type of reporting anticipates behaviour instead of exclusively analyzing it. So our understanding of how things are going shifts from hitting numbers (monthly active users, clicks, time spent) to how accurately we figure out what changes behaviour in a way that benefits customers and our brand.

The computational requirements of collecting and processing data like this are enormous. So like all of our planning for the metaverse, we have time to get it right. And that’s good because this capability is a scary one. Big platforms don’t have a great track record in how they’ve used data and it’s harmed people in the real world.

Which brings us to the last P: Protection.

DALLE-2: Changing the locks on the same old criminals

Protection

The process of ensuring our experiences in the metaverse are inclusive, safe and rewarding relies on our understanding of the other three Ps. We need accessible products and services (product) that our customers want to experience (people) and a way to figure out how to improve that experience in the future (performance).

Protection fits in the mix in a few ways. One of them is simply data security. Keeping people’s data is a big responsibility. Even more so when that data is recording what they say and look at. This is a promise of web3: data you own and can take with you easily. The latter part isn’t there yet, but the former is well developed. NFTs are one example, and also a technology that defines the “Peak of Inflated Expectations” on the Hype Cycle.

But the metaverse is a creator’s space. And that means that there will be more value in these worlds as people spend time in them. Where there’s value increased by human interest there’s the potential for fraud, harassment and exploitation.

Fraud is rampant in the nascent web3 world. As this is being written FTX has crumbled and erased a few billion dollars from people’s pockets. There are plenty of crypto heists to link to as well. These have been caused by both technical flaws and human ones. It’s reasonable to think the technical will get sorted out in time. The kind of fraud we (as marketers) should think about is the latter kind. Setting up clear policies around ownership has to be coupled with technical means of enforcing those policies.

Harassment has been a severe issue online since well before the social web. Each iteration of our online existence makes harassment all the more potent. The metaverse is no exception. But, with real-time measurment comes the possibility to provide real-time enforcement of anti-harassment policies. There are rudimentary systems like this in online games today. Meta has committed to offering similar tools in their platform. It is up to us to understand these tools and to work with platform providers to improve them.

Exploitation is not unique to the metaverse, but the metaverse might be a more fertile place for exploitation to flourish. It can flourish because the nature of a metaverse experience is one where you (the user) add value to the world by being in it. Mostly this is from what we create there. This is why the metaverse is a creator’s space. To protect these creations a balance needs to be struck between creators and the platform as to how each benefits from the activities of the other.

Remastered

So. Here comes the metaverse, just six short years away. Like all technology it creates fabulous new opportunities along with scary levels of change and the risk of unforseen consequences.

But, if we spend this time planning for the metaverse we can be ready to operate there as it becomes more and more mainstream.

And it’s not all that scary. A lot of what we’ll do is familiar to us: working closely with the creator community, finding new ideas buried in the data, good old fashioned customer research and content strategy. All of it with new twists: a focus on what creators make instead of who they are; encouraging customers to do things together; knowing those customers more intimately and figuring out how to best make use of what they’ve created for us.

The metaverse is a big topic I couldn’t hope to explore in three articles. And as I was writing this the bottom appeared to be falling out of it.

Personally, I think this tech is too intriguing an idea to die just because an early mover overpromised. Every time we’re given the chance to connect with each other in some fantastic new way — chat rooms, blogs, instant messaging, social websites, social apps — there is an explosion of creativity. The metaverse is proving to be no different so far. The technical hangups always end up solved (6 years! Say it with me!) and the cultural impact is huge. As marketers we have to be close to culture. Culture is where attention is and our jobs are to capture attention.

Thanks for reading.

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Cashiers vs. digital ordering: What do people want, and at what cost?

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Task Group summarized the rise in digital ordering over the past couple of years, its acceptance among customers, and its cost.
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You walk into a fast-food restaurant on your lunch break. You don’t see a cashier but instead a self-service kiosk, a technology that is becoming the new norm in eateries across the country. The kiosks usually offer customers a menu to scroll through and pictures of meals and specials with prompts to select their food and submit their payment in one place.

Self-service kiosks are big business. In fact, the market for self-service products is expected to grow from a $40.3 billion market value in 2022 to $63 billion by 2027, according to a report from BCC Research. Consumers do have mixed opinions about the kiosks, but about 3 out of 5 surveyed consumers reported that they were likely to use self-service kiosks, according to the National Restaurant Association. The technology, while expensive, can boost businesses’ bottom lines in the long run.

Task Group summarized the rise in digital ordering over the past couple of years, its acceptance among customers, and a cost analysis of adopting the technology.

Self-service kiosks—digital machines or display booths—are generally placed in high-traffic areas. They can be used for different reasons, including navigating a store or promoting a product. Interactive self-service kiosks in particular are meant for consumers to place orders with little to no assistance from employees.

The idea of kiosks isn’t new. The concept of self-service was first introduced in the 1880s when the first types of kiosks appeared as vending machines selling items like gum and postcards. In the present age of technology, the trend of self-service has only grown. Restaurants such as McDonald’s and Starbucks have already tried out cashierless technology.

From a business perspective, the kiosks offer a huge upside. While many employers are looking for workers, they’re having a hard time finding staff. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, employers struggled with a severe employee shortage. Since then, the problem has continued. In 2022, the National Restaurant Association reported that 65% of restaurant operators didn’t have enough workers on staff to meet consumer demand. With labor shortages running rampant, cashierless technology could help restaurants fill in for the lack of human employees.

The initial investment for the kiosks can be high. The general cost per kiosk is difficult to quantify, with one manufacturer estimating a range of $1,500 to $20,000 per station. However, with the use of kiosks, restaurants may not need as many cashiers or front-end employees, instead reallocating workers’ time to other tasks.

In May 2022, the hourly mean wage for cashiers who worked in restaurants and other eating establishments was $12.99, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Kiosks could cost less money than a cashier in the long run.

But how do the customers themselves feel about the growing trend? According to a Deloitte survey, 62% of respondents report that they were “somewhat likely” to order from a cashierless restaurant if given the chance to do so. The same survey reported that only 19% of respondents had experience with a cashierless restaurant.

What would it mean for society if restaurants did decide to go completely cashierless? Well, millions of positions would likely no longer be necessary. One report suggests 82% of restaurant positions could be replaced by robots, a prospect making automation appealing to owners who can’t find staff to hire.

Due to the ongoing labor shortage, employers have tried raising employee wages. Papa John’s, Texas Roadhouse, and Chipotle were among the restaurant companies that increased employee pay or offered bonuses in an attempt to hire and retain more workers. Meanwhile, some companies have decided to use technology to perform those jobs instead, so that they wouldn’t have to put effort into hiring or focus their existing staff on other roles.

Story editing by Ashleigh Graf and Jeff Inglis. Copy editing by Tim Bruns.

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Is real estate actually a good investment?

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Wealth Enhancement Group analyzed data from academic research, Standard and Poor's, and Nareit to compare real estate to stocks as investments.
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It’s well-documented that the surest, and often best, return on investments comes from playing the long game. But between stocks and real estate, which is the stronger bet?

To find out, financial planning firm Wealth Enhancement Group analyzed data from academic research, Standard and Poor’s, and Nareit to see how real estate compares to stocks as an investment.

Data going back to 1870 shows the well-established power of real estate as a powerful “long-run investment.” From 1870-2015, and after adjusting for inflation, real estate produced an average annual return of 7.05%, compared to 6.89% for equities. These findings, published in the 2019 issue of The Quarterly Journal of Economics, illustrate that stocks can deviate as much as 22% from their average, while housing only spreads out 10%. That’s because despite having comparable returns, stocks are inherently more volatile due to following the whims of the business cycle.

Real estate has inherent benefits, from unlocking cash flow and offering tax breaks to building equity and protecting investors from inflation. Investments here also help to diversify a portfolio, whether via physical properties or a real estate investment trust. Investors can track markets with standard resources that include the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, which tracks residential real estate prices; the Nareit U.S. Real Estate Index, which gathers data on the real estate investment trust, or REIT, industry; and the S&P 500, which tracks the stocks of 500 of the largest companies in the U.S.

High interest rates and a competitive market dampened the flurry of real-estate investments made in the last four years. The rise in interest rates equates to a bigger borrowing cost for investors, which can spell big reductions in profit margins. That, combined with the risk of high vacancies, difficult tenants, or hidden structural problems, can make real estate investing a less attractive option—especially for first-time investors.

Keep reading to learn more about whether real estate is a good investment today and how it stacks up against the stock market.


A line chart showing returns in the S&P 500, REITs, and US housing. $100 invested in the S&P 500 at the start of 1990 would be worth around $2,700 today if you reinvested the dividends.

Wealth Enhancement Group

Stocks and housing have both done well

REITs can offer investors the stability of real estate returns without bidding wars or hefty down payments. A hybrid model of stocks and real estate, REITs allow the average person to invest in businesses that finance or own income-generating properties.

REITs delivered slightly better returns than the S&P 500 over the past 20-, 25-, and 50-year blocks. However, in the short term—the last 10 years, for instance—stocks outperformed REITs with a 12% return versus 9.5%, according to data compiled by The Motley Fool investor publication.

Whether a new normal is emerging that stocks will continue to offer higher REITs remains to be seen.

This year, the S&P 500 reached an all-time high, courtesy of investor enthusiasm in speculative tech such as artificial intelligence. However, just seven tech companies, dubbed “The Magnificent 7,” are responsible for an outsized amount of the S&P’s returns last year, creating worry that there may be a tech bubble.

While indexes keep a pulse on investment performance, they don’t always tell the whole story. The Case-Shiller Index only measures housing prices, for example, which leaves out rental income (profit) or maintenance costs (loss) when calculating the return on residential real estate investment.

A chart showing the annual returns to real estate, stocks, bonds, and bills in 16 major countries between 1870 and 2015.

Wealth Enhancement Group

Housing returns have been strong globally too

Like its American peers, the global real estate market in industrialized nations offers comparable returns to the international stock market.

Over the long term, returns on stocks in industrialized nations is 7%, including dividends, and 7.2% in global real estate, including rental income some investors receive from properties. Investing internationally may have more risk for American buyers, who are less likely to know local rules and regulations in foreign countries; however, global markets may offer opportunities for a higher return. For instance, Portugal’s real estate market is booming due to international visitors deciding to move there for a better quality of life. Portugal’s housing offers a 6.3% return in the long term, versus only 4.3% for its stock market.

For those with deep enough pockets to stay in, investing in housing will almost always bear out as long as the buyer has enough equity to manage unforeseen expenses and wait out vacancies or slumps in the market. Real estate promises to appreciate over the long term, offers an opportunity to collect rent for income, and allows investors to leverage borrowed capital to increase additional returns on investment.

Above all, though, the diversification of assets is the surest way to guarantee a strong return on investments. Spreading investments across different assets increases potential returns and mitigates risk.

Story editing by Nicole Caldwell. Copy editing by Paris Close. Photo selection by Lacy Kerrick.

This story originally appeared on Wealth Enhancement Group and was produced and
distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.

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5 tech advancements sports venues have added since your last event

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Uniqode compiled a list of technologies adopted by stadiums, arenas, and other major sporting venues in the past few years.
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In today’s digital climate, consuming sports has never been easier. Thanks to a plethora of streaming sites, alternative broadcasts, and advancements to home entertainment systems, the average fan has myriad options to watch and learn about their favorite teams at the touch of a button—all without ever having to leave the couch.

As a result, more and more sports venues have committed to improving and modernizing their facilities and fan experiences to compete with at-home audiences. Consider using mobile ticketing and parking passes, self-service kiosks for entry and ordering food, enhanced video boards, and jumbotrons that supply data analytics and high-definition replays. These innovations and upgrades are meant to draw more revenue and attract various sponsored partners. They also deliver unique and convenient in-person experiences that rival and outmatch traditional ways of enjoying games.

In Los Angeles, the Rams and Chargers’ SoFi Stadium has become the gold standard for football venues. It’s an architectural wonder with closer views, enhanced hospitality, and a translucent roof that cools the stadium’s internal temperature. 

The Texas Rangers’ ballpark, Globe Life Field, added field-level suites and lounges that resemble the look and feel of a sports bar. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Clippers are building a new arena (in addition to retail space, team offices, and an outdoor public plaza) that will seat 18,000 people and feature a fan section called The Wall, which will regulate attire and rooting interest.

It’s no longer acceptable to operate with old-school facilities and technology. Just look at Commanders Field (formerly FedExField), home of the Washington Commanders, which has faced criticism for its faulty barriers, leaking ceilings, poor food options, and long lines. Understandably, the team has been attempting to find a new location to build a state-of-the-art stadium and keep up with the demand for high-end amenities.

As more organizations audit their stadiums and arenas and keep up with technological innovations, Uniqode compiled a list of the latest tech advancements to coax—and keep—fans inside venues.


A person using the new walk out technology with a palm scan.

Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register // Getty Images

Just Walk Out technology

After successfully installing its first cashierless grocery store in 2020, Amazon has continued to put its tracking technology into practice.

In 2023, the Seahawks incorporated Just Walk Out technology at various merchandise stores throughout Lumen Field, allowing fans to purchase items with a swipe and scan of their palms.

The radio-frequency identification system, which involves overhead cameras and computer vision, is a substitute for cashiers and eliminates long lines. 

RFID is now found in a handful of stadiums and arenas nationwide. These stores have already curbed checkout wait times, eliminated theft, and freed up workers to assist shoppers, according to Jon Jenkins, vice president of Just Walk Out tech.

A fan presenting a digital ticket at a kiosk.

Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox // Getty Images

Self-serve kiosks

In the same vein as Amazon’s self-scanning technology, self-serve kiosks have become a more integrated part of professional stadiums and arenas over the last few years. Some of these function as top-tier vending machines with canned beers and nonalcoholic drinks, shuffling lines quicker with virtual bartenders capable of spinning cocktails and mixed drinks.

The kiosks extend past beverages, as many college and professional venues have started using them to scan printed and digital tickets for more efficient entrance. It’s an effort to cut down lines and limit the more tedious aspects of in-person attendance, and it’s led various competing kiosk brands to provide their specific conveniences.

A family eating food in a stadium.

Kyle Rivas // Getty Images

Mobile ordering

Is there anything worse than navigating the concourse for food and alcohol and subsequently missing a go-ahead home run, clutch double play, or diving catch?

Within the last few years, more stadiums have eliminated those worries thanks to contactless mobile ordering. Fans can select food and drink items online on their phones to be delivered right to their seats. Nearly half of consumers said mobile app ordering would influence them to make more restaurant purchases, according to a 2020 study at PYMNTS. Another study showed a 22% increase in order size.

Many venues, including Yankee Stadium, have taken notice and now offer personalized deliveries in certain sections and established mobile order pick-up zones throughout the ballpark.

A fan walking past a QR code sign in a seating area.

Darrian Traynor // Getty Images

QR codes at seats

Need to remember a player’s name? Want to look up an opponent’s statistics at halftime? The team at Digital Seat Media has you covered.

Thus far, the company has added seat tags to more than 50 venues—including two NFL stadiums—with QR codes to promote more engagement with the product on the field.  After scanning the code, fans can access augmented reality features, look up rosters and scores, participate in sponsorship integrations, and answer fan polls on the mobile platform.

Analysts introducing AI technology at a sports conference.

Boris Streubel/Getty Images for DFL // Getty Images

Real-time data analytics and generative AI

As more venues look to reinvigorate the in-stadium experience, some have started using generative artificial intelligence and real-time data analytics.  Though not used widely yet, generative AI tools can create new content—text, imagery, or music—in conjunction with the game, providing updates, instant replays, and location-based dining suggestions

Last year, the Masters golf tournament even began including AI score projections in its mobile app. Real-time data is streamlining various stadium pitfalls, allowing operation managers to monitor staffing issues at busy food spots, adjust parking flows, and alert custodians to dirty or damaged bathrooms. The data also helps with security measures. Open up an app at a venue like the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, and report safety issues or belligerent fans to help better target disruptions and preserve an enjoyable experience.

Story editing by Nicole Caldwell. Copy editing by Paris Close. Photo selection by Lacy Kerrick.

This story originally appeared on Uniqode and was produced and
distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.

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