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Aston Villa

CREATING A DIGITAL HOME FOR FANS
Our Work

Aston Villa Case Study

One of football's most historic clubs came to us with a vision to create a new digital home for its fans around the world.

Aston Villa appointed us to create two new platforms - a first HD video channel (AVTV) followed by a new official website that would become the primary digital destination for fans seeking information and content about the club they love.

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Challenge

Football is as competitive off-the-field as it is on.

A football club's website was once the go-to destination for fans seeking official news. But in recent years, clubs of all sizes have found it difficult to compete with the resource of national broadcasters such as Sky Sports and BBC Sport or the immediacy and freedom of social media users.

Our challenge was therefore to engage Aston Villa fans in a way that only Aston Villa Football Club could and, in doing so, help it build deeper connections that lead to a strong commercial performance.

Solution

We helped the club shift the emphasis of its website from official news channel to the home of exclusive, value-added content.

In recognition of the pride in the club’s rich history, a new On This Day feature was introduced. Rather than the great moments from the club’s past being buried within a complex navigation, they now have pride of place on every page of the site.

A brand new interactive match centre drills down to an unprecedented level of data, visualised through real-time player stats, live heat-maps, live scores and minute-by-minute text commentary.

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We took a modular, widget-based approach to the design, ensuring fans have access to everything they need on any device.

This means the club can quickly and easily pull relevant content into widgets from sources such as social media channels, the new high-definition AVTV channel and the retail store. This not only reduces administration time but promotes vital revenue streams for the club.

The aging technology that supported both sites was replaced by a powerful Sitecore engagement management platform.

This provides the club with the control and flexibility to create, publish and cross-promote different types of content, leading to a more relevant and engaging fan experience.

It also supports vital third-party integrations - from social sign-in (Gigya) to social media content aggregation (Stackla) to in-depth statistics (Opta).

Outcome

"This project targeted our web offering at an increasingly mobile audience, reducing barriers to ticket and retail purchases while bringing premium club content to the foreground. It complements our vibrant social and AVTV channels and was met with hugely positive sentiment from fans. It marks the start of a wider commitment to embrace technology and media to better serve our exceptional supporters, at home and abroad."
Will Radford, Head of Media & Content Aston Villa Football Club