The Genesis Performance Lab experience continues to drive value for Genesis. Adapted for deployment at various events along the PGA Tour, the Lab merges the tradition of golf with the latest in sport tracking and mobile app technology, helping Genesis discover potential customers among tournament guests while instilling an emotional connection with the brand and its luxury automobiles.

Background

Merging the traditional game of golf with a vehicle launch can bring many different opportunities. ICON was tasked to not only provide a solution to this challenge but adapt it for future events including PGA Tour stop sponsorships.

Goal

The project’s main objectives were twofold: to build awareness of the Genesis brand, and to create relevancy for guests to physically get in and experience a Genesis G90 car. These objectives were later adapted to focus more on tracking attendance and gauging guests’ interest in the Genesis brand at various PGA Tour events.

Solution

Through data visualization, digital projection mapping, and mobile technology designed to work with TrackMan’s cutting-edge launch monitor technology, the team transformed a luxury sedan into an intimate theater; taking players on a personalized tour of both the Genesis brand and their own golf game.

Deliverables

• A cinematic recap of guests’ individual TrackMan statistics, projection mapped onto the windshield of a Genesis G90 which included custom animations and soundtrack.
• A custom event landing page.
• A series of tablet applications to drive the overall experience—from registering guests to controlling the recap animations.
• A comprehensive software platform, developed in collaboration with TrackMan Golf, to utilize the statistics gathered via the TrackMan monitors.
• A post-event email thanking guests and directing them to the GPL landing page to view and/or share their personal statistics.

Technical Approach

For the windshield to transform into a theatrical experience, the team needed to understand how the audience would see the visuals from inside the Genesis G90.

Early on in the process, a series of projection tests were conducted on the windshield to confirm the placement and scale of the graphics across three “zones”.

The projection film was truly the “secret sauce” for showcasing the theater experience inside the Genesis G90. The film had to meet multiple requirements: simple application without modifying/damaging the G90, flexible to meet the curvature of the windshield, and able to withstand humid weather conditions.

Integral to the experience was the TrackMan Golf launch monitor. The device used cameras and two radar systems to analyze a player’s golf swing—everything from before the club hits to after the ball has landed.

During this phase, the team pushed TrackMan’s software development kit to new limits, digging into the SDK to make the software custom to this experience.

Controlling the interactive experience were three individual apps developed/created by ICON Interactive to work alongside the TrackMan technology: (1) Greeting and check- in app used to register guests for the experience; (2) Control app which allowed a user to be selected and their personal theater experience be played and controlled while inside the G90; and (3) TaylorMade performance analysis app that took the data for several statistics and demonstrated the performance gains of the TaylorMade ball.

Evolution

The experience has evolved to focus more on an intimate putting experience with a social shareable video featuring the user and their customized data sets. This experience has seen on going use at PGA Tour Events, such as the Genesis Open and the Farmer’s Insurance Open.

Results

As the culmination of a six-part series on the Genesis Invitational program, Golf Digest developed a series of posts and editorials highlighting the final event and the impact The Genesis Performance Lab had on individual golfer’s experiences. Over the course of seven branded content articles and seven paid social posts on Facebook and Instagram, the immersive experience garnered almost 700K impressions and provided Genesis with the reach and impact in the golf space to further solidify its stance in the sport.