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Crystal Palace F.C.

Digital Transformation

Digital has been part of Crystal Palace’s marketing and customer engagement efforts for some time, working with the club to identify areas where digital practice can improve.

From the Football League to the Premier League
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We have been working alongside Crystal Palace F.C., providing varied work from assembling a brand newsroom, via creating and serving content aligned with the rhythm and pace of Premier League football, through to supporting the orchestration of platform partners.
 
Crystal Palace F.C., founded in 1861, has recently been identified as the oldest league club in existence and is recognised worldwide for its passionate South London fan base. The club is hugely ambitious and has been steadily developing by reinvesting, improving all aspects of its infrastructure and fan experience.

Objective

The sporting landscape has evolved, and progressive sports clubs are now shaping holistic fan engagement strategy, as they push beyond the matchday in search of the “every day”. With a cumulative global audience of 3.2 billion, the Premier League is broadcast in a total of 188 countries. With this exposure comes fierce competition to appeal to fans worldwide, and to benefit from the commercial opportunities that are presented.

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The club has the ambition to grow it’s fanbase on a global level, producing content and gaining exposure beyond that of just core fans, expanding reach through a multitude of channels, fan hubs and partners. This, in turn, provides greater opportunities to engage potential fans to connect with on a deeper more meaningful level.
 
Whilst expanding to new audiences, the current fanbase remains paramount to the heartbeat of the club and from the outset, it was important to be able to learn more about each and every one of the club’s fans, with the ambition to be able to allow fans to live their “Palace Life” through one central online experience; managing accounts, ordering tickets and buying products within a couple of clicks.

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Approach & Technology

Our work with the club began by looking at their Events space offering, working to build a website to better promote and appeal to a variety of non-football specific audiences. We then supported the club as it formalised and modernised its branding by linking the various fan touch-points with common fonts, colour-ways and language. At the same time, we were supporting the club to assemble a content and production team, finely tuned to deliver coverage to new and existing fans across the globe.

Working with the club’s content, marketing and commercial teams, we have evolved a digital ecosystem built on a variety of platforms and applications, linked where appropriate to fan accounts, offering a personalised and tailored experience – whether watching a live stream, purchasing a membership or buying a match ticket.
 
There are a variety of technologies in place, including WordPress, Gravity Forms, Beaver Builder, Episerver, Brightcove, Vimeo, Vue.JS, React Native, Matterport, Stripe, Sprout Social, dotdigital, Google Analytics and Google Data Studio.
 
Filter directly controls: Palace TV, Premium Matchday and Selhurst Park and works closely with other club partners to maintain a positive fan experience across all platforms.

Achievements

Gradual progress has been made to achieve:

  • Personalised digital experience for fans
  • Single view of fan behaviour
  • Maximised digital presence and supporter data
  • Increased profitability of digital commercial assets
  • Created a seamless experience which enables customers to more easily spend with the club across services and products
  • Significantly increased spend from existing fan- base on retail, ticketing and premium hospitality products
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Performance & Results

We’ve worked in unison with the club to drive pragmatic and positive change, whilst supporting them in their efforts to better commercialise the digital estate.
 
On top of the growth of the Premier League, the club has also experienced a significant uplift across a multitude of metrics

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Fan Records +1,000%
Social Following +585%
Impressions +284%
Engagements + 1,085%
Web Sessions +69%

Performance & Results

We’ve worked in unison with the club to drive pragmatic and positive change, whilst supporting them in their efforts to better commercialise the digital estate.
 
On top of the growth of the Premier League, the club has also experienced a significant uplift across a multitude of metrics

“Filter has been a trusted partner providing innovative and cost effective solutions that have enabled us to create personalised experiences for our fans in South London and across the globe.”

Steve Parish

Crystal Palace F.C., Chairman

Do you have a digital challenge you need help with?

We are leaders in solving digital challenges, helping the ambitious brands we work with to transform and thrive.
 
We are always open to meeting new connections, so if you have a digital challenge you need solving, please do get in touch.

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