eircom Soccer Republic
Soccer Republic - a site for the fans, by the fans
eircom understood from day one that fans will only accept branded social media if it’s on their terms - a far cry from ‘make my logo bigger’ corporate sponsorship.
The challenge was to position eircom as the ‘facilitator’ of a great community, and to present exclusive benefits for eircom customers. The hook was eircom’s exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the team’s players, management and backroom staff.
Soccer Republic was born – a branded community site where fans can access latest news, stats and videos - positioning eircom as the key player in getting fans behind-the-scenes access to the players and management team.
"Soccer Republic has all the bells and whistles of a contemporary social network. It gives fans the opportunity to be part of a vibrant and engaging digital community, with a host of exclusive benefits."
Michael Kennedy, Marketing Director, eircom
Combining a ‘white label’ platform with relevant bells & whistles
The development of Soccer Republic combined Huzu’s white label social networking with strategic and creative input from social media agency Yomego.
HuzuSocial provided its platform which features the functionality and the infrastructure to make it easy to get the social networking elements of the site up and running quickly and cost-effectively.
It underpins all the community aspects of the site, particularly the ‘Fanzone’, where people can meet, upload and share content, comment, chat, and join groups.
Partner agency Yomego focused on the overall user experience - delivering added value content in the best way to users. For example, the front-end of the site features news that fans can’t readily access from other sources –the inside story from within the squad. Also providing a fans’ perspective to the main stories – even down to analysis of items in the foreign media.
An online ad campaign was also created by Yomego, as well as a viral game involving video clips and an intriguing ‘What Happens Next’ mechanic.
Why not just use Facebook and twitter?
Whilst sites like Facebook and MySpace promise ‘mass reach’ and a way to attract new people to Soccer Republic, it’s the destination itself where the bulk of community interaction takes place.
Soccer Republic is featured on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, bebo, YouTube and various blogs - purely to drive traffic and aid promotion - but for eircom, choosing to build their own destination means that they have full control of the site, access to their own data, can make decisions over content and information delivery - a site tailored to the needs of their audience.
Results so far...
In its first few weeks, Soccer Republic had 1m page impressions attracted over 100,000 unique visits.
Thousands of fans now use the site, as a knowledge source, sounding board, swap-shop, and destination to get behind-the-scenes access to the players and backroom staff.
"We’re actively encouraging users to give us open and honest feedback on what they like and dislike. Future development of the site will be democratised, and we’re determined to stay true to the original plan; to develop a site for the fans, by the fans."
Michael Kennedy, Marketing Director, eircom
The Twitter feed is proving a great hit and YouTube generated over 5,000 views of the tour video in the same time period.
On the run up to and following the Italy match, visits to the fanzone increased by 310%.
eircom, lead sponsors of the Irish national soccer team, wanted to create a place where fans of the Republic of Ireland football squad could get together and support their team during its 2010 world cup campaign.
