Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

IRONMAN Group Goes Virtual; Facebook Watch at Center of Strategy

25/03/2020

IRONMAN Group Goes Virtual; Facebook Watch at Center of Strategy By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director

Wednesday, March 25, 2020 - 3:23 pm

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

For Matthieu Van Veen, The IRONMAN Group, chief revenue officer, and his team the challenge was simple: how can they use social media platforms to give IRONMAN triathlon fans a chance to get closer than ever to the sport they love. As a mass-participation sport IRONMAN found its core fans and athletes were underserved by the traditional media market where live coverage of a 10-hour event was simply not an option.

Enter Facebook Watch and its ability to give IRONMAN a platform that engages its community in a whole new way and also provides a great outlet for coverage of complete IRONMAN events.

Matthieu Van Veen of the IRONMAN Group says Facebook Watch allows triathletes and fans to consume more content than ever.

We have 280,000 competitors and a big community that was starved for content, says Van Veen. That helped lead us to the initial conversation with Facebook as it is a platform that brings people together.

But now, with the world in a health crisis, IRONMAN has needed to postpone and even cancel some of its upcoming events and the team at IRONMAN has decided to go virtual, with a virtual racing series set to debut on Facebook Watch on April 4.

(l-to-r) Matthieu Van Veen of IRONMAN Group, Devi Mahadevia of Facebook, and Ken Kerschbaumer of SVG discussed how IRONMAN Group makes the most of Facebook Watch at Sportel Americas.

We believe that under extraordinary circumstances such as these, athletes should be able to maintain the structure and continuity that training and competition provides, says Andrew Messick, President & CEO for The IRONMAN Group. The IRONMAN Virtual Club is an innovative digital platform that enables our athletes to continue training with purpose, remain connected to our community and provides an opportunity to compete through the IRONMAN VR Series.

Athletes will compete in traditional age-group categories and for select virtual races. They will also have the opportunity to earn qualifying slots to the 2020 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship, set to be held in Taupo, New Zealand, in November of this year.

The format and distances may vary each race weekend. The IRONMAN Virtual Club platform will utilize connected devices and be compatible with most wearable technology and app trackers.

Devi Mahadevia of Facebook says the IRONMAN community is a natural fit for Facebook Watch.

Devi Mahadevia, Facebook, director of emerging and digital sports partnerships, says that there are more than 40,000 fitness-related groups on Facebook and that the communities on Facebook are built by the athletes.

When you marry those groups with the right content the magic happens, she says. When the groups share content, they become the marketing channel and drive where the content goes.

The IRONMAN season consists of full-distance triathlon events and the IRONMAN production team uses seven cameras (four on motorbikes, two located at the transition areas, and then a drone) and a bonded-cellular backpack to send the signals back to Boulder, CO, where the announcers are located.

What interested us in Facebook as the ability to be non-traditional and engage people when they are watching the content, says Van Veen. With a 10-hour window how do you keep people watching? And how could we make things like polls or the ability to ask a question seamless to the user?

While the races are going on the IRONMAN team gets to see viewers from around the globe join as they wake up. The good morning from the U.S.! or Good morning from Japan! messages hit the chat board and the engagement climbs. More than a million people watch over an hour of IRONMAN content in one sitting a year, so the engagement is there. And then the questions start coming into the announce team.

They ask questions that really matter about things like nutrition strategy and our announcers can react to the questions which means greater engagement, says Van Veen.

Adds Mahadevia: The question tool brings viewers into the broadcast and they get more involved. IRONMAN has gotten 5,000 responses from the audience using these tools.

The platform also lets IRONMAN know more about what the viewers are doing while they are watching the races. Triathletes not competing in the competition on Facebook Watch will tune in during their own marathon or triathlon training sessions and even the sponsors can get involved during the broadcasts.

Our sponsors can be broadcasters as we give them the ability to put the content into their Facebook page so that people can watch it in other groups, says Van Veen. The more the better.

During the races the IRONMAN team also created edited clips for things like first out of the water and tagging partners on a minute-to-minute basis. And the athletes also respond to the chat trends. Heather Jackson, a U.S. triathlete, once held a banana in her hand while riding for miles and the chat feed lit up with viewers cracking jokes and wondering what was going on. The production crew responded by creating Banana split times and at the next race Jackson herself embraced it with complete banana racing kit and bike.

It shows the power of being relevant to this community, adds Van Veen.

In the past two years more than five million people have watched at least one minute of IRONMAN content on Facebook Watch. Much of that is due to the groups, where authentic social relationships are the glue, and also by sponsors and even the tourism boards for locations where the races are held.

The tourism boards can showcase their destinations and it is a meaningful platform to promote destination events, says Van Veen. They aren't just targeting eyeballs but our community which helps decide th
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2020/03/25/ironman-group-goes-virtual-face...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

17/06/2026

The R&SPR300 portable receiver from Rohde & Schwarz sets new standards in spectrum monitoring

The R&S PR300 portable receiver from Rohde & Schwarz sets new standards in spect...

17/06/2026

Elt Group and Rohde & Schwarz sign a cooperation agreement to explore commercial opportunities in electronic warfare and defense

Elt Group and Rohde & Schwarz sign a cooperation agreement to explore commercial...

17/06/2026

NABLF Graduates Its 2026 Broadcasting Leadership Training Class

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/06/2026

ABC and ESPN Score Most-Watched NBA Finals Since 1998

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/06/2026

Smartly, Roku Bring Social Performance Tools to CTV

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/06/2026

Pliant Technologies Debuts Crewcom Flex at InfoComm 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/06/2026

The Immersive Supervisor Emerges as Hollywood's Next Production Role

The Immersive Supervisor Emerges as Hollywood's Next Production Role Brie Clayton June 17, 2026 0 Comments Above image: On set live immersive revi...

17/06/2026

Vertical Musical Playback Shot with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K

Vertical Musical Playback Shot with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K Brie Clayton June 17, 2026 0 Comments Large format sensor and DaVinci Resolve workflow used fo...

17/06/2026

DAZ 3D Launches New Game-Ready Character Assets Built for Modern Engines and Production Workflows

DAZ 3D Launches New Game-Ready Character Assets Built for Modern Engines and Pro...

17/06/2026

Spectrum Awards $1.1 Million in Digital Education Grants

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/06/2026

XR Sports Alliance Adds New Members

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/06/2026

AIMS Launches Free Online IPMX Training Series

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/06/2026

Kiloview Partners with SFM to Expand AV-over-IP Solutions...

Montr al, Quebec, June 11, 2026 Kiloview, a leading provider of AV-over-IP and NDI -based video transmission solutions, today announced a distribution partner...

17/06/2026

Kiloview Launches U4 IP Video Dock Bringing Professional...

Changsha, China, June 15, 2026 Kiloview officially announced the launch of U4 IP Video Dock, a compact IP video decoder and output dock designed to bring prof...

17/06/2026

Visibility builds credibility - the tools you use every day...

Visibility builds credibility - the tools you use every day, now visible on your LinkedIn profile Published on Jun 17, 2026 Categories: Company News, Product ...

17/06/2026

Harmonic Completes Divestiture of Video Business to MediaKind

Transaction Positions Harmonic as a Pure-Play Broadband Company SAN JOSE, Calif. - June 17, 2026 - Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ: HLIT), the worldwide leader in virtual...

17/06/2026

FOX Advertising To Launch Industry's First End-to-End Agentic Advertising Platform, Powered by FOX AdStudio

FOX Advertising To Launch Industry's First End-to-End Agentic Advertising Pl...

17/06/2026

Building resilience in an era of compounding threats

How SGN is future-proofing critical national infrastructure with Arqiva Managed Connectivity. When disruption becomes the norm As Storm Eunice tore across the ...

17/06/2026

Good Vibrations hit Dublin and Limerick as RT Concert Orchestra plays the music of the Beach Boys

The RT Concert Orchestra will bring the timeless music of The Beach Boys to aud...

17/06/2026

June 16, 2026

Calibr-Skaggs awarded $5.1M by NIH to develop long-acting hepatitis B virus therapy A new program aims to replace a daily HBV drug with once-monthly or even qua...

16/06/2026

Thomson launches new learning App

Thomson's highly regarded expert-led online learning courses are now easier to access on the go via our new App. Available now on Google Play Store, the J...

16/06/2026

Neumann MT 48 Receives Major Firmware 2.0 Update

Neumann.Berlin has released firmware version 2.0 for the MT 48 audio interface, adding plugin compatibility, expanded Dante networking options, broadcast encode...

16/06/2026

TVNewsCheck Opens Nominations for 2027 Women in Technology Awards

TVNewsCheck has announced that nominations are now open for its 2027 Women in Technology Awards, to be presented at NAB Show 2027 on Tuesday, April 6 in the Med...

16/06/2026

Clear-Com Introduces Avalon IP Intercom Platform

Clear-Com has announced Avalon, a 1RU IP intercom platform for broadcast, live events, and production environments. Designed for IP-only workflows, Avalon suppo...

16/06/2026

SNS EVO Enables Remote and Distributed Video Editing Workflows

SNS has published a guide to remote video editing workflows using its EVO shared storage platform and companion tools, covering use cases ranging from home edit...

16/06/2026

Richmond Flying Squirrels Deploy Grass Valley LDX 110 Cameras at CarMax Park

Grass Valley has announced that the Richmond Flying Squirrels, a Minor League Baseball affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, have deployed five Grass Valley LD...

16/06/2026

AIMS Launches Free Official IPMX Training Series Online

The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) has announced the launch of the Official IPMX Training Series, a free online program covering the design, configurati...

16/06/2026

Swerve Womens Sports Announces Distribution Deals with Fubo, Plex, Amazon Fire TV, and Anoki AI

Swerve TV has announced distribution agreements with Fubo, Plex, Amazon Fire TV,...

16/06/2026

ATP and TikTok Expand Global Content Partnership

ATP and TikTok have announced an expansion of their global content partnership, extending the ATP's TikTok hub powered by TikTok GamePlan to cover all nine ...

16/06/2026

FOX Sports Turns Los Angeles Pico Lot Into Its FIFA World Cup Production Nerve Center

Network's LA facility serves as the heart of a sprawling operation built to ...

16/06/2026

300+ Records a Day, 150 TB Daily, and a Relentless Content Avalanche: Inside FOX Sports' World Cup Media Engine

At Pico, the network's media-management team is supporting a flood of HBS fe...

16/06/2026

NHL Games Leaving CBC in Canada as Sublicense With Rogers Sportsnet Ends

The NHL will no longer air on CBC after the pulic broadcasters and national rights-holder Rogers Sportsnet were unable to come to agreement. After a successfu...

16/06/2026

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Virtual Eye's Ben Taylor on Making Live Sports More Valuable and Entertaining Through Data-Driven Graphics

As live sports broadcasters continue to seek new ways to make complex action mor...

16/06/2026

Thats BRISK, Baby! FOX Sports' Broadcast Remote IP Studio Kits Bring World Cup Fan Energy Back to Pico

Built with the 2026 FIFA World Cup in mind, these small but mighty IP-based tran...

16/06/2026

Rumble three-band soft synth by UVI

Boasts individual synths for each band UVI's latest synth takes an interesting approach to synthesis, offering a trio of synth engines that each operate...

16/06/2026

PSP Levelizer: auto level adjustment plug-in from PSPaudioware

New intelligent auto-fader plug-in unveiled PSPaudioware's latest release offers automatic level adjustment and provides more detailed control than many...

16/06/2026

The Crow Hill Company launch Crystal Pads

New performance-focused library announced Crystal Pads is the latest addition to The Crow Hill Company's ever-growing product range, and according to th...

16/06/2026

GForce launch official Prophet-5 soft synth

Developed in partnership with Sequential In recent years, GForce Software have branched into official emulations of classic hardware synths, delivering a ha...

16/06/2026

DT 30 IE: New in-ears from beyerdynamic

Designed specifically for live performance monitoring beyerdynamic's latest announcement sees the company introduce an affordable in-ear monitoring syst...

16/06/2026

Cherry Audio recreate the Ensoniq ESQ-1

Official emulation celebrates iconic synth's 40th anniversary Cherry Audio have just introduced Ensoniq ESQ-1, an official recreation of the 1986 polyph...

16/06/2026

Australians place growing trust in SBS News

Australians place growing trust in SBS News 16 June, 2026 Media releases SBS has been recognised as one of Australia's most trusted news providers, ran...

16/06/2026

Rohde & Schwarz achieves highest number of GCF validated 3GPP NR NTN test cases for RF, RRM and PCT domains

Rohde & Schwarz achieves highest number of GCF validated 3GPP NR NTN test cases ...

16/06/2026

Hitachi and PESA Announce Strategic Partnership to Drive Growth in Poland's Rail Market

Bydgoszcz to Become a Local Centre of Excellence for Advanced Rail Technologies....

16/06/2026

Chyron Unveils Chyron Weather 2.4

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

16/06/2026

Historic Zhuque-3 Reusable Rocket Test Mission Captured with URSA Cine Immersive

Historic Zhuque-3 Reusable Rocket Test Mission Captured with URSA Cine Immersive Brie Clayton June 16, 2026 0 Comments Apple Immersive Video puts view...