FC Dallas “Get In The Game” Fan Experience

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FC Dallas roped in Groove Jones to help them kick off the season with a new fan engagement initiative. Football fans of all ages got the chance to step inside the XR Avatar Scanner.

The fans would be scanned and transported onto the pitch at Toyota stadium, where they got the chance to score the winning goal.

Fans who took part in this event received a personalized FC Dallas video which they could share on all of their social media platforms.

FC Dallas unique fan engagement initiative

Once a fan is scanned, their digital double avatar is composited into a video where they are the stars. In the “Get in the Game” experience, they join three FC Dallas players -Paxton Pomykal, Jesus Ferreira, and Paul Arriola on the pitch at Toyota Stadium.

The ’Get in the Game’ fan experience was open to everyone who attended the FC Dallas and Colorado rapid match.

The event was held in the Gallagher club at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas adjacent to the National soccer hall of fame. Inside the Gallagher Club, fans lined up to get scanned. Within minutes, they received their custom video.

The Set up was simple, the fans have to scan a QR code at the queue entrance, register and get in line. Once they have registered a brand ambassador captures their unique code and then enters it into the scanner. After a 5 second countdown, they are scanned in a blink of an eye. A forward-facing camera display allows everyone to show off their game face before its scanned. After getting scanned, fans often pause to get their photo taken inside the booth.

“The scanner system delivered more than what we were expecting,” “Over 2 nights we had hundreds of fans participate in a truly unique, once-in-a-lifetime fan experience. Everyone walked away with a great memorable moment that they could then share with thousands of other FC Dallas fans. Creating a real FOMO moment.” Jerome Elenez, Vice President of Marketing of FC Dallas

Over the 4 hour event, the team managed to scan hundreds of fans of all sizes. Their system’s AI could determine any body shape and automatically add a skeleton rig and animation into their 3D file.

Behind the scenes

With the aim of making this concept a reality, reference videos of the players were shot. The animation team used these videos to recreate the entire experience. The team deployed a drone to capture the stadium using photogrammetry, which was applied to the model used in the video production.

Once everything was captured, the players joined the rest of the team in the studio at downtown Dallas. The team used an XR Avatar scanner as their volumetric capture camera system. The XR Avatar scanner is powered by 50 4K cameras that capture HDR (high dynamic range – for color and depth) using multiple focal lengths. The camera instantly captures both the geometry and texture of the person standing inside.

Within seconds they captured them and effortlessly brought them into the production pipeline.

The team also recorded the voice of FC Dallas and the Dallas Mavs Mark Followill, who provided the play-by-play call in the video.

The FC Dallas marketing team created banners and sent the season ticket holders emails about this initiative. The MLS team had also hosted a special VIP event the night before so that these fans could beat the lines before the game.

During the match between FC Dallas and Colorado Rapid, The marketing team utilized LED signs and videos in the stadium to drive awareness about the event that happened in the National soccer Hall of Fame.