Man City to extend members scheme to include swappable content
Manchester City is set to extend its augmented reality season ticket scheme to allow fans to use their membership cards to interact with each other and swap content.
The football club, currently at the top of the Premier League, is utilising the cards’ RFID (radio frequency identification) technology to make the cards more personal to each individual fan.
Manchester City supporters will soon be able to use their smartphones to access exclusive augmented reality content based around players from the team. When they are in the vicinity of another fan with a membership card they could soon be able to swap the content – like stickers – with friends.
Richard Ayers, Manchester City’s head of digital, says: “[This] takes [being a fan] out of the TV and the home and the stadium and puts it in the pub and makes it very personal.”
Manchester City launched its digital membership scheme this season. Beyond augmented reality content, the tiered scheme also allows fans to collect points to go towards purchases at the City of Manchester Stadium and the club’s website.
The football club has launched a series of digital initiatives in recent months as it looks to take advantage of the team’s current good run of form and engage with more fans to boost online revenue
It collaborates with Electronic Arts, maker of the FIFA series of football console games to produce a series of club-specific content and became YouTube’s first Premier League partner earlier this year.
