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Designercity brings West Ham United into the digital age

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After working with English Premier League clubs Arsenal FC and Liverpool FC, Hong Kong agency Designercity has extended its work to West Ham United to relaunch its global digital platform. West Ham United F.C has today announced www.whufc.com, an new official website created by Designercity and Mirum Hong Kong that aims to propel the football club into the digital age.West Ham brought Designercity on board in June 2014 to develop its global digital strategy after a pitch. The site, which offers fans new ways to interact with the club and a consistent fan experience across all devices, is the first part of holistic digital plan that will roll out this year.It also continues a long relationship with the English Premier League for Designercity, which includes working with a number of its clubs on global and China projects. Designercity built the official Arsenal and Liverpool FC Chinese websites in Asia from 2001 to 2006. The agency was also in charge of building the official English F.A. Premier League Chinese websites from 2005 to 2007.“Designercity’s understanding of the footballing market combined with a great technical vision made them the obvious choice for West Ham," said Angus Kinnear, Managing Director, West Ham United FC."Part of the success of these projects is always down to the quality of partnership and we couldn’t have hoped for a more collaborative and enthusiastic ally.”Over the last five years club sites have struggled to retain fan loyalty in the face of a massive competition from social media. At the core of the strategy for the new site is to reverse this trend by focusing on ways to truly engage fans using a combination of great technology blended with a truly informative and entertaining content strategy.The new site’s offerings include West Ham Live, like a text-based talk-radio station it provides a wide range of programming, including extensive post-match analysis, live player and celebrity discussions and quizzes and competitions, and a Live Match Centre, which provides an exciting mix of audio commentary and text input from West Ham Live, bringing the fans and club together in the most important 90 minutes of every week. In addition fans will be provided a breathtaking mix of ‘live’ match statistics as well as a live picture stream."We are privileged to have been given the opportunity to create this new digital platform for West Ham United, a household name in the global footballing community," Win Mak, CEO, Mirum Hong Kong, said."With this project, we are going to connect millions of fans around the world with the club and it was imperative that we understood the challenge from the very beginning. The whole design phase was conducted through a co-creation exercise between the client’s business team in London and our design and development teams in Hong Kong. With the creation of a dedicated digital war room and an agile design process applied, the global teams worked efficiently throughout. We look forward to introducing more innovative ideas to the WHU platform and continue to bring something meaningful to the fans." Other features include My West Ham, a personalised page that offers members access to a vast amount of premium content including West Ham TV and West Ham Live, as well as personalised news, exclusive club deals and the ability to vote on key club polls.The new site aims to bridge the divide between social and club, enabling a consistent fan experience across every device as well as creating a global community. The platform design will support the growth and club culture that will shape the future for West Ham and its fans, as they ready to leave Boleyn Ground for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in 2016.“With the club moving to the Olympic Stadium in 2016 this is a particularly exciting time for West Ham and Mirum to demonstrate how innovative thinking can help to revolutionise the fan experience at every point,” Mak added.The next phase of the club’s digital strategy will focus on the club’s move to the new stadium.“We see massive potential to enhance the whole match day experience, from helping people to find their seats to video replays during the match and games to keep the fans entertained during half-time,” said Mak.Source: Press release

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