Digital Revamp
The past five years have seen football clubs and sporting clubs in general struggle to retain fan loyalty and interaction due to the rapid rise of social media. For English Premier League club West Ham United, listed by Forbes as one of the twenty most valuable football clubs in the world, their major challenge was to attract fans back to their official website. Fans had strayed to various online environments such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other sporting websites and apps. With their upcoming stadium move in mid-2016 to the world class Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, it was crucial for the Club to re-engage with fans through a revitalised official website with a visually stunning design and captivating content.
Planning & Execution
Mirum devised a digital strategy that would help bring West Ham supporters closer to the action, on and off the football field. Our solution was to create a new website; one that bridges the gap between social media and traditional football club websites, ensuring fans are constantly kept up to date.
The new fully responsive website adopts a combination of technology and an informative and entertaining content strategy to engage fans. Features include the text-based radio station West Ham Live and a Live Match Centre for text and audio commentary during matches. The Live Match Centre also provides a stream of live match statistics. The platform is supported by highly interactive features including an Integrated Supporters Clubs for global fans to connect and My West Ham, a personalized page on which fans can receive premium content, redeem exclusive club deals and vote on key club polls.
Effectiveness / Results
Mirum successfully helped West Ham United Football Club transform their online fortunes with a completely engaging and immersive new website appropriate for a club of West Ham’s heralded status. Millions of West Ham fans and football fans around the world now enjoy a revolutionary online footballing experience that brings them closer to the action on and off the pitch as well as closer to each other.
Fan embraced the new site immediately with over 10,000 fans signing up as members during the website’s launch month. Fans flocked to the site in droves with record breaking numbers experienced including over 100,000 unique visitors in a single day and over 550,000 page views recorded in a single day.