"How are Harry Potter’s talking newspaper, Eagles tickets alike?"

From SportsBusiness Journal

Review by Emily Goodin in KIN 332 (section 1)

Tim McDermott, chief marketing officers of the NFL Philadelphia Eagles made the decision in late July that for 2012 football season the Eagles would be using the world’s first visual browser mobile app known as Aurasma to incentivize season ticket holders.

Seeing that the age of the Smart Phone has caught up to speed and is commonly found in the pocket of the average everyday American, the Eagles has chosen the “quasi Harry Potter-ish” talking newspapers Smartphone app known as Aurasma to relay addition information including a combination of highlights, previews, messages from players and analysis to season ticket holders. The Aurasma app has a very simple concept that brings simple print material to life by providing a video image to the consumer.

Once season ticket holders has downloaded the Aurasma app and Eagles Official Smartphone App all they have to do is merely point their phones at the season ticket and with a snap of their phones a detailed video will be displayed on their iPhone or Android. The mobile application has brought static images to life just like the enchanted newspapers found in the Daily Prophet found in the world of Harry Potter.

The technology Aurasma was created by Cambridge based software campus Autonomy in late 2010. It wasn't until May 5, 2011, the application Aurasma Lite was launch and was originally designed for the iPhone 3GS phone; a month later a version for the Android was released on June 10, 2011. Aurasma is the worlds first visual browser, and allows Smartphone picture to recognize images and objects. These images and objects may be taken from any angle, and will be recognized as “trigger images” and will be identified by the Aurasma app. The app will then relay a brief video providing the season ticket holder with additional information about the upcoming game. This year there will be 10 games played at Lincoln Field, and this gives the Eagles 10 more opportunities to provide their fans with details of upcoming events, special promotions, opinions or interviews from team players, or update fans with new statics and highlights as the season moves on.

A mass email will be sent out to Philadelphia Eagle ticket holders explaining to fans that each season ticket issue, total of 10 tickets, holds the key to addition information about each game day event. Hopefully for the Eagles it will create an incentive for season ticket holders.