Origin was in Melbourne so we looked at how Origin will play out in the digital space on Harf Time.
Look at the support the Queensland Maroons get on Facebook.
Like on the field they have a big lead on the NSW Blues
Be sure to register & go to the big game between Melbourne Storm & Brisbane Broncos to see yourself on BattleCam.
If you can't make the game you picture will still be included in the crowd shot if you upload your picture.
Until next week
Listen to Harf Time on Wednesdays (at 2:45pm) when Sean Callanan discuss sports digital with Daniel Harford.
Tune into Harf Time over the weekdays from 12-4pm on 1116 SEN.
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Podcast transcription
HARF: Sean Callanan who joins us, good day, Sean.
SEAN: Good day, Harf. That would be Harf Time's own, LA Kings,
HARF: Harf Time's own…LA Kings
SEAN: We were talking about them and they knocked off the Vancouver Canucks.
HARF: Yeah, the Harf Time's own, and they've sent a tweet through saying, “Hope you enjoyed the ride boys. There's still more to come.”
SEAN: Exactly.
HARF: So, good luck to the Kings. Hey, what's happening on sportsgeekhg.com at the moment?
SEAN: Well, the thing is it's Origin, Origin week this week, and obviously the big boys are in town for the game tonight, so it'll be a good case, a lot of people going, and a lot of people watching at home, and it'll be another case study to show Twitter just absolutely smashes it, and to have the whole eastern seaboard of Australia be tweeting about the Origin. Most likely the hashtag will be #origin because it's been the Australian NRL actually haven't pushed out an official hashtag, like their not like the #NBAPlayoffs that got tweet buttons…
HARF: Oh, haven't they?
SEAN: No, there's nothing on their site pushing it, so you'll see some people using #origin, some people using #SOO, some people using #stateoforigin, so really I should have gotten everyone together and said…
HARF: In Queensland…
SEAN: Yeah, exactly, so…
HARF: Using #origin1
SEAN: #Origin1, yeah, so it would've been smart if they had credited it, but no matter what, #origin will be trending, Billy Slater will be trending, when there's a try, that guy will be trending and it'll be worldwide because at 9:00 p.m. in Australia we're the only ones awake on Twitter, so pretty much anything that's going to happen will be trending worldwide, so that's how it happens. If you want to trend worldwide, you've got to move Harf Time to the night shift.
***Harf laughing*** right…
SEAN: The thing is you're competing against the LA Kings at the moment, so that's the problem, but big support for the two teams. We we're just looking at the Facebook numbers before. 360,000 for the Queensland Maroon's and 220,000 for the New South Wales Blues, so we're just wondering what kind of numbers that the big V would get if it was still on Facebook and still active, and I'm thinking it could go close to half…
HARF: Is that ‘likes' is it? Is that what…
SEAN: Just ‘likes,' yeah, so…
HARF: Oh, yeah, you'd get half a million there…
SEAN: I think there would be half a million of Victorian footy fans to back the big V, but I think it's all in the past, and maybe we'll look at the timeline feature to look at old pictures of state of origin footy, but I don't think it's going to come back for the AFL.
HARF: That's the thing about Origin, too. I spoke to Ray Warren earlier this afternoon who said, “It's not just a game anymore; it's an event.”
SEAN: Yep.
HARF: That's what he said, and it is. Origin's become that big poster event for the NRL for the whole year and people, like you say, like to get involved by social media and be a part of it, and that the thing that let's you do it, it let's you be a part of it while you're sitting on the couch.
SEAN: And it's a big TV event. I mean that's the other thing, being in Melbourne, everyone in Queensland and everyone in New South Wales is watching and then you've got extra people in Victoria watching because it's in Melbourne, so it's always going to be the biggest game when it's in Melbourne, but I tend to agree with the guys in Queensland, and you said well it doesn't have to be here every year because I think if it is here every year there might be a bit of a ho-hum nature about it from some people in Melbourne, so if you keep that event nature of every one or two years, it probably makes sense from my point of view.
HARF: Well, speaking of the Rugby League, the Melbourne Storm are doing BattleCam. Explain to me what BattleCam is.
SEAN: So BattleCam's, for one is an amazing event that the Storm boys are going to back up two days later and play the Broncos on the Friday night, but from a digital point of view, BattleCam, if you go to the Storm website, and we'll get Jumper who's wearing a hoodie today in honor of Mark Zuckerberg, and he's really getting into Facebook now, so he's doing the posts. He's going to put a link to BattleCam, so BattleCam is going to be a 360 degree gigapixel picture taken in the middle of the AAMI Park, so everyone's going to be in the stadium, sitting in their seats, holding a sign, giving the thumbs up and they're going to go around and take a shot at everyone in the seats.
HARF: Okay.
SEAN: And then what you'll be able to do, it'll launch the day after on the 26th, you'll be able to go in, zoom in to the photo, find you, find your mate, find your brother, find your sister…
HARF: You can zoom in?!
SEAN: Zoom in, tag yourself, share it on Facebook, share it on Twitter. The cool thing is get on there now and listen to what Billy Slater has to say. Register now and get a ticket so you're there.
HARF: Well, it's going to be a huge crowd. I don't think there are not too many tickets left.
SEAN: Yeah, so get a ticket now, so you've got a seat and get ready. They're giving away prizes all the way up to the game, and then if you actually can't make it and you're going to be at home or something's happening, you can still register for BattleCam and give them your photo and we'll put you in an empty seat.
HARF: Get out of it!
SEAN: It might be in the back row. We might stick you on top of the goal post maybe.
HARF: Get out of it…
SEAN: So, and there are going to be a couple lucky few Melbourne Storm members, so you should sign up, that are actually going to be snuck out in the field and sitting in the coaches, so in the players spot, we're not going to tell Craig Bellamy, but they're going to be sitting there when the photo is taken and then we'll quickly sneak them away. We don't want Craig Bellamy finding out about it, but those guys are going to get a real special experience. So check it out BattleCam with Melbourne Storm.
HARF: Right-o, just the Storm website, is it?
SEAN: Storm website and, yeah, the guys there are all over it. We'll send out a link on the Harf Time Facebook page thanks to Jumper.
HARF: Yes…Harf Time, two words I dare if…Did he just say gigapixels to pull off this? Yes he did. What's that mean…lots of pixels?
SEAN: Correct.
HARF: Lots of pixels.
SEAN: Absolutely really high def pictures, so you need more pixels.
HARF: Fair enough, thank you, Sean. I look forward to all the latest installments in the world of social media sportsgeekhq.com. Thanks pal.
SEAN: Cheers, mate.
HARF: Sean Callanan our man on @sportsgeekhq on Twitter, as well.