Renewing the Brazilian soccer experience

Overview

The Atlético Paranaense, a major soccer club from Brazil, initiated a brand repositioning project. They aimed to create a new and enhanced experience for their fans, going beyond just revamping their brand. This experience would encompass all points of interaction between the club and its fans, including matchdays at the stadium, website interactions, and other digital services offered by the club. In a meeting with the board, the main goal was articulated: "We want to have the best soccer website in the world. We strive to provide a unique experience for our fans."

We want the best soccer website in the world. We desire a unique experience for our fans.

Methodology

The project was planned using a design thinking approach to determine the best way to create the experience. Initially, we immersed ourselves in the context to understand the relationship between the fans and the club, and then we attempted to identify potential business opportunities.

Discovering way more than just soccer matches

During the initial stages of the project, we scheduled some immersions to understand the context. I visited the Arena da Baixada stadium on match days to gain a fan's perspective of the matches. Following that, we visited the Training Center to learn about the backstage processes, staff, strategic goals, infrastructure, etc.

Unveiling the user experience research process

The user experience (UX) research process was managed in two stages: a qualitative stage, and a quantitative stage. Many tools were used to map and document the findings:

Research

The research included gathering opinions from over 500 fans throughout the entire design process.
Users

User journey, consumer personas, and empathy map were created to understand the fans' needs better.
Business

Service maps, OKRs, the Golden Circle, and the value proposition canvas were created to enhance business understanding.

New insights and opportunities through data analysis

A data analysis was performed using Python scripts to analyze large amounts of data from Google Analytics and the company’s CRM. This effort generated a lot of business insights for a better understanding of user behavior.

User Interface

The visual guidelines were created in a joint effort with the club's marketing team based on the new brand identity, and a design system was developed to provide assets for the website and the store. During the research, we learned that, mostly during the matches, more than 70% of the direct traffic comes from mobile devices. Due to this finding, the website and the store should follow a mobile-first strategy. A large group of components were created to provide assets for the whole platform.

Recommendation System

The website uses a recommendation system to deliver exclusive content. This algorithm analyzes user behavior and preferences to provide highly relevant content.

Match Day

The match day page was designed based on the second screen concept, turning the site homepage into a central hub for match-related content.

3D Arena

A new 3D platform has been launched which allows fans to explore the stadium virtually and discover club stories and interesting facts.

Project results

The website was successfully launched releasing new experiences, features, and content for the fan base. The club's PR and the specialized media covered the website launch raising the audience's interest.

Traffic increase

The website registered a 300% increase in traffic with a peak of 10,000 simultaneous users.
Sales increase

The e-commerce store increased their sales rate by 18% during the first month.
New features

New features and a whole new experience were released for a demanding fan base.