It may have looked liked me and my co-tennis-obsessed Designer friend Jana aka Trim Queen were playing hooky at the US Open this week. Well we kind of were! But what we also did, was have some fun using new Social Media tools to report on our findings and experiences around the US Open village.
We used an app called Boomerang to show us ‘reporting’ at the American Express ‘Live Experience’ exhibit which I posted on my Instagram page. This is where you walk into a virtual locker room-like setting, are video taped swinging a racket, and they superimpose your image playing tennis on center court. It was fun to feel like one of the pros!
We then walked to the Mercedes Benz booth where we took a picture with the official (well, maybe it was a replica) US Open Trophy. They created our own QR code with our contact information and after the photo was taken, quickly emailed us the result. Doubles Champions woohoo!
As we were watching the nail biting Nishikori vs. Murray battle, it started to rain! Arthur Ashe stadium now has a nifty new multi-million dollar roof that closes in 6 minutes. With the time-lapse setting on my iphone, I was able to catch part of the transformation from an outdoor match, to an indoor match! This video I posted on my Twitter page.
At the end of the day we knew our FANS needed the final LIVE recap of the event. We reported using Facebook Live knowing that anything can happen on Live TV. And wouldn’t you know, we got photobombed by an audience member! Our outlandish content included observations on those wearing white after Labor Day and our request for new uniforms for the staff that relate to tennis and NOT polo! Posted on Facebook.
We had the absolute BEST DAY EVER and can’t wait to do it again next year!
