Genesis Supporter Shirts - Wearable Technology

Kiwis are known for really getting behind their sports, be it the All Blacks, Silver Ferns, or just the local gumboot throwing competition. So, when it came to the 36th America’s Cup, New Zealand’s leading power company asked an interesting question: Just how much energy do the nation’s fans put in supporting Emirates Team New Zealand?

To find out partnered with Shine and created the Genesis Supporter Shirt; wearable technology that captured the energy the fans put into supporting the team and converted into free hours of power for Genesis-powered schools across the country.

How To Visualise All That Support

We created a digital platform which allowed for live access for key analytics and metrics of each supporter during each race.

The dynamic iconography and clean user interface allowed for ease of use and individual tracking of each supporter. A final summary dashboard after each race displayed the total hours of free energy generated.

The multi-channel campaign featured an interactive site experience that transformed the nation’s supporter energy into free energy hours for Genesis-powered schools. It tracked and displayed real-time data from supporters wearing the shirt, including stress levels, movement, calories burned, and heart rate. This data was projected onto live digital billboards across Auckland, providing instant updates on the amount of free power generated during each race.

The Wearable Tech

Satellite put a sensor on each t-shirt that measured the movement of people wearing it. Supporters who wanted to take part were asked to register and send in a video via social media and Genesis selected 10 and invited them into their offices to watch the race and wear the t-shirt.

During the race we measured their movement using the sensor in the shirt.

Android App

We developed an Android app to receive the data from the sensor and transform it into Movement, Stress, Calories burned and Heart rate by a series of calculations. The app then pushed the data from each of the supporters’ t-shirt sensors to the cloud.

Website

A website displayed a live feed of the data from each participant wearing a smart t-shirt. It calculated the total hours of free energy generated by the supporters.

The Outcome

The campaign was acknowledged as a Finalist in the 2021 Best Design Awards.

The wearable tech t-shirts appeared across every major news outlet, with supporters generating a massive 185,141 hours of free power to give back to Genesis-powered schools.

It became the most successful campaign in the history of Genesis, and to top it off, Emirates Team New Zealand won.

Credit: Creative agency Shine