In recent years, digital event formats at sporting events have evolved from mere accompanying tools to genuine worlds of experience. Today, they enable a completely new form of communication—one that is more personal, emotional, and data-driven than traditional event campaigns. This effect is particularly strong when marketing automation and emotional storytelling are combined.

Why storytelling has such a strong impact in digital sporting events

Sport is emotion: success, perseverance, surprises, personal records.
It is precisely these moments that can be used in real time to create stories - automated, personal and highly relevant.

Digital sporting events provide the perfect basis for this: live data, checkpoints, altitude meters, pace, best times. All of this can be used to create individual stories and play them out at the right moment.

Marketing automation turns every progress into a personal story

Whena participantreaches a goal - such as a pass, a best time or a level-up - a suitable message can be triggered immediately:

• "You've made it up the Grosse Scheidegg - an epic moment! Your exclusive reward awaits you here."
• "New level reached! You belong to the top group - grab your badge."
• "Best time cracked! Share your triumph and secure your bonus."

This mechanism transforms services into stories - stories that connect.

Best practice: Alpenbrevet Extended

A clear example of this is the Alpenbrevet Extended . A bonus checkpoint on the Grosse Scheidegg automatically triggered a partner offer when reached. The reward came at the emotional peak – where it meant the most to the participants.

The result:

• Emotion + performance + brand were perfectly linked
• The partner received an effective placement
• Participants felt rewarded and motivated
• The story remains in the memory

This creates an experience that classic campaigns can hardly achieve.

How LaceUp makes such event formats possible

To create these kinds of experiences, you need a platform that processes activity data and combines it with storytelling - and this is where LaceUp comes in. LaceUp can process GPS movement data, intelligently recognize checkpoints and automatically play out suitable messages or partner offers. Organizers can use it to develop sporting events into continuous worlds of experience.

LaceUp orchestrates these stories in an automated and scalable way. And this is exactly what makes the platform interesting not only for event organizers - but also for brands and tourism regions that want to reach athletes in emotionally significant moments.

Why brands and tourism regions benefit

Brands can use digital sporting events to embed their products or messages in real sporting experiences. A challenge, a sponsored checkpoint or a themed mission can be directly linked to the participants' sense of achievement. This creates an authentic brand story that doesn't feel like advertising, but like part of the adventure.

Tourism regions benefit just as much. Digital checkpoints can be used to bring passes, viewpoints or highlights of a region to life - even independently of the day of the event. If, for example, an automatically generated story with scenic information or a regional offer is played when reaching the Grimsel Pass, an emotional connection to the location is created. The region becomes a playground for experiences that are linked to personal sporting successes and motivates participants to return repeatedly.

Countless possibilities for automated storytelling

Whether summit moments, best times, level-ups, adventure routes or personal final reports - with platforms like LaceUp, a wide variety of stories can be told automatically. Every interaction becomes an opportunity for communication without any additional effort. The world of experience remains dynamic, personal and lively.

A new era of sports communication

The combination of storytelling, marketing automation and digital sporting events is changing how events, brands and destinations communicate with sports-loving target groups. Emotional moments are used in real time to convey meaningful stories. LaceUp provides the technological basis for this and combines event experience, brand communication and destination marketing in a seamless, scalable platform.

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