The Emirates Australian Open has reached new heights in crowd attendance and engagement.
As Matt Jones won his first Stonehaven Cup last week, a greater audience than ever before tuned in to our 100th national championship.
There was an increase in crowd numbers across the four days, continuing the upward momentum of recent years.
Television ratings remained very strong, exceeding last year’s figures on day one before the world-first day-night Test match in Adelaide began, then holding their own against the record cricket ratings.
International TV figures lifted with wall-to-wall coverage taking the tournament around the globe.
But the biggest surge came from non-traditional sources with both internet and radio coverage taking the event to a whole new audience.
Off the back of last year’s huge mark, internet traffic on www.ausopengolf.com surged by almost 40 per cent with a new record of almost 400,000 users throughout the tournament, including a record 160,000 plus on the final day alone.
All four days set new benchmarks in internet traffic, with enormous international interest again generated, with the US (19 per cent of the total audience) and the UK (15 per cent) taking a keen interest.
The Australian Open Radio concept was again a smash hit, this time spreading its wings with domestic simulcasts to expand its audience.
Melbourne radio station SEN (Sunday) and Perth’s SportFM (all four days) simulcast to their audiences at the same time as record on-course and online listenerships tuned in.
The total audience reached by AO Radio reached nearly 100,000 in just its second year, with the online aspect up more than 40 per cent, on-course figures jumping 40 per cent and an estimated 80,000 new listeners via the simulcasts.
Our social media net also expanded with more than 2000 new followers gained on Twitter and another 1000 more on Facebook. Several individual posts garnered more than 100,000 impressions, highlighting the importance of this expanding market.
And with the addition of Periscope functionality, we livestreamed to a total audience of more than 1000 the best media conferences of the week.