Live Championships drive digital engagement Rohan O’Neill explains how the Australian National Championships in Hobart has driven unprecedented growth across the digital assets of Tenpin Bowling Australia
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he staging of Tenpin Bowling Australia’s (TBA) Australian National Championships in Hobart in July and August this year was a wonderful success both on and off the lanes. The partnership with Strike 3 Bowling, who successfully delivered the newly created event, despite the enormous challenges due to COVID-19, has demonstrated its value both on and off the lanes. Off the lanes, the digital impact of hosting an event in Australia was a huge result at a time when the Olympics were front of mind for most sport fans. The statistical evidence showed the sport increasing its reach over the 28-day period of the Championships by 91%, with engagement growing at over 340% during that same period building momentum despite the obvious challenges that we face as an industry.
Building our presence across our digital platforms is critical, both to the existing participants and fans as well as to new audiences, and we also saw an increase in social media following from new audiences over the event timeframe. Increasing our following by 94% over the 28-day period when compared with the previous 28 days during the event has reaffirmed the importance of national events. The struggles of the last year and the thought process leading into 2021, drove TBA’s desire to push through and deliver events for the bowling community. In 2020, there were limited tenpin bowling events and for 2021, we decided where possible that we would follow a principle of ‘enabling bowlers to bowl’; hence we did whatever we could to ensure the bowlers who could attend were provided with an exceptional experience.
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Of course, it was not ideal that many bowlers were unable to attend due to COVID-19 restrictions but we were rapt that we could safely deliver a firstclass event for the hundreds of bowlers who could make it, who were certainly pleased that an event was held. On the lanes, the event was an outstanding success. The schedule was tested numerous times throughout, with flexibility the key. Strike 3 did an extraordinary job in delivering a remarkable event. As for sporting feats during the Championships, we had seven perfect 300 games bowled at the event, with two female athletes (Kaitlyn Commane and April Sims) becoming only the second and third female bowlers at this centre to deliver perfection. For April, it was her first perfect game (achieved by striking in every frame), and for Kaitlyn,
