With last week’s announcement that the PGA TOUR would be launching its new iPad app, digital consulting firm Omnigon continues to bolster its slate of projects in the sports space. The company, along with POSSIBLE Mobile, unleashed the platform with features that include the use of real-time predictive statistics, both for individual players and the field with stats that include average proximity to hole for approach shots, driving accuracy and distance, distance to hole and the percentage of putts made from current distance.
The PGA TOUR now joins the likes of the NFL, NASCAR, FOX Sports, WWE and World Rugby as clients of Omnigon and comes off the heels of the company opening new offices in LA and St. Petersburg, Russia with the acquisition of international mobile developer Touch Instinct. Cynopsis Sports spoke with David Nugent, Chief Commercial Officer, Omnigon about the company, his clients’ changing needs, and how technology is transforming the sports experience. .
Nugent on the growth of Omnigon: We have been fortunate to continue to grow the business both in North America and in Europe, at least in part because of some of the visibility we have gotten and because we are reaching out into the right areas. The sports business in general is growing like crazy, and digital continues to become an important part of that year over year. I think that the good work that we’ve done in the states, along with the thought leadership, has given us a good platform for our European business. We’re learning a lot about that market and the way you approach it. In general, we are excited about the growth we’ve seen.
On the evolution of clients’ needs: In terms of our traditional clients, we continue to help them evolve their business from a digital perspective as their needs overall change. For some of these organizations, it comes down to the way the way the overall company thinks about digital internally. So, one of the interesting things that I have personally seen has been that there is this ebb and flow from a business perspective in the way digital is treated.
In some cases, it is owned out at the individual business unit. Companies like that have multiple assets and multiple business units that have for a long time spent money at the business unit level. Each unit has its own set of budgets and digital is a part of that. When you spend a lot of money doing that, somebody ultimately steps in and says ‘Why don’t we centralize that spend’ and then they typically build some kind of centralized digital team in the hope that they will centralize that cost and create efficiency. Then, what happens over time, is that the units don’t feel like they are being served, and eventually the squeaky wheels wind up taking back their budgets and it becomes decentralized again. We are involved in those cycles all the time.