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Brief
SoccerRepublic.ie, a dedicated site designed and built by Yomego for market leading Irish telecoms company eircom, was successfully launched in February 2009 to provide soccer fans with everything they need to know about Irish soccer, receiving almost 100,000 unique visits in its first fortnight.
Following on from this success, eircom engaged Yomego to position it once again as the ‘facilitator’ of a great community, this time focused on fans of Gaelic football and hurling in Ireland.
Strategy
eircom understands the value of getting involved and generating a dialogue and a presence amongst a demographic that buy a lot of broadband. It’s a longer-term view… find the right communities, build programmes that empower people to connect, but from the position of ‘facilitator’, rather than ‘sponsor’.
The previous success of Soccer Republic had taught eircom the valuable lesson that online communities are willing to accept branded social media, provided that it’s on their terms. Using social media in this positive and collaborative way, eircom found that it could build awareness and cement customer relationships.
With Gaelic football and hurling enjoying a loyal and enthusiastic following in Ireland, it appeared the ideal focus for a new social media site, enabling fans to meet, chat, upload and swap content and join forums – all using a platform facilitated by eircom. This approach would provide eircom with a non-invasive and mutually beneficial way to get existing and potential customers to interact with the eircom brand online.
Execution
GGA Rising is a niche community, one supported by a strong brand that helps focus its participants on one topic: Gaelic sports.
People crave the ability to share their passion in a site dedicated to supporting it rather than getting lost in a larger, more generic network – that’s why every big social networking site is made up of small networks and not one massive one. Niche communities can lose their identity in a social network like MySpace or facebook, which don’t provide the authoritative content the communities need and don’t foster a strong sense of identity.
Yomego worked with eircom and its content partners to design and deliver an interactive social media site that would:
• add value to users - by providing exclusive content – a behind-the-scenes peek for fans, thanks to the shirt sponsorship deal
• have plenty of attitude – a tone and creative approach that’s in tune with the community
• encourage involvement - there’s plenty of opportunity to take part: commenting, posting blogs, rating videos, entering competitions, playing viral games
• embrace the passion - unlike soccer, eircom has no official tie with GAA sports, but they spotted an opportunity to embrace a thriving and passionate community and are working with GAA to deliver mutual benefits
• make it easy - to chat, make friends, build groups, upload and share content and be entertained by fresh and engaging content
• feature bells and whistles - like a Predictions game – bolted on. Nothing heavy handed, eircom are positioned as the non-intrusive facilitators, helping a community thrive.
The site was developed using a customised version of the social networking platform supplied by Yomego’s sister company Huzu.
Results
The site is new, and there will be a bedding in period, where the community is given time to grow and flourish – people have a way of deciding for themselves how they want to use the site and will put forward suggestions as to how it can support them better.
Asking what people want is the first step to helping them get it.
The first step is to monitor usage, comments and feedback. The more we learn the more we will be able to press the right buttons to drive interactivity & provide the functionality to make it easy.
This might be:
• Using mobile to deliver alerts, offers and competitions
• Localising the community even further, providing relevant content to people in a particular area and based on preferences.
• Developing all-important partnerships – e.g. streaming in live video of games and commentary.
• Creating relationships with local clubs / teams / partners and businesses.
• Helping the conversation through chatrooms around events, instant messaging, and live chat.
There is also scope for partners and advertisers to become involved sensitively by adding value – providing extra content, games, competitions and getting tactical product placement/ subtle branding in return. These associations can also be leveraged by partners away from the community site.
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