To help make complex data digestible, we created Datables—a series of real-time animations that updated fans about pivotal moments in the matches 60,000 times faster than text. The ads, which ran on digital out of home boards around France, generated data visualizations to reflect important events in the matches as they happened. By using analogy and comparison, the ads put the data in perspective for fans, making it even easier to understand. So, for example, rather than telling fans that a player had just served 222km/hr, the custom-built backend database would generate an animation showing the speed of the serve in relationship to the speed of falling sky diver—a comparison that visually communicated the speed in a way that could be understood extremely fast.

For Datables, the innovation began on court, where a series of sensors followed the events in the matches and translated those events into data. That data was sent instantaneously to a custom-built backend server that analyzed the information and determined when a “notable event” had taken place. As soon as that occurred, the information was input into the appropriate generative animation template. These templates framed the data as a comparison to something every fan would be familiar with, then altered a component of the animation to visualize the specific data point. Within a fraction of a second, that animation would then be broadcast to 500 digital out of home boards around the country, ensuring the data went from the stadium, to the streets, to the fans in a flash, all in a visual format that anyone could understand.

In order to measure the campaign’s impact, tests were run throughout the media flight. From these tests we learned that among interviewees*:

74% of the people saw IBM as a modern business.

79% thought it was a technologically advanced business.

74.5% thought it was a successful, performing business.

71.5% thought it was an innovative business.

Also, 83% found out about the partnership between Roland-Garros and IBM.

Overall, 63% of the interviewees at the Defense’s Esplanade enjoyed the campaign, and 72% at the airports.

*267 people were questioned in Charles de Gaulle’s airport and 214 at the Defense’s Esplanade in Paris. The studies took place from May 29th to June 7th.