Headquarters: Sydney, Australia
Technology Stack: Storyblok, Next.js, Vercel
- 4 months To Launch
- 228% Increase Match Day Attendance
- 370% Increase Match Day Revenue
Storyblok has helped us with our productivity and efficiency. Today, because of how easy and quick it is to update our content, we save big on time. This is very important for our busy schedules. The Visual Editor is fantastic! It makes the content management process a joyful experience, and not a chore.
Sydney FC (opens in a new window) is one of the founding members of Australia’s A league and its most successful club. They have 31 trophy wins in their 16-year history. They are a club committed to the community. Sydney FC are very proud of their new stadium, which opened its doors in August 2022. This allowed Sydney FC to come back home after being 4 years on the road. At this point, it was important to have an online presence that would allow Sydney FC to portray their excitement about being home.
So, digitizing the Allianz Stadium experience was a task Herbert Digital (opens in a new window) helped complete. Herber Digital, a Storyblok Partner, love bringing digital products and experiences to life. They have helped their clients innovate on their digital products and platforms. Herbert Digital built the Sydney FC stadium website (opens in a new window) with all its revolutionary features in just 4 months.
The Sydney FC requirements were fluid even during the engineering phase. So, Storyblok as part of the solution was a perfect fit to adapt with minimal effort. Storyblok has worked perfectly for us as it answers the need for an idiot-proof CMS with its Visual Editor.
The challenge of building online hype and excitement
Back in 2018, the club had to embark on a 4-year journey. During this time, they played on suburban grounds on different sites across Sydney. All to allow the aged Allianz Stadium to be rebuilt from the ground up so they can have the wondrous new stadium they have today. This was exhausting for the Sydney FC fans and members.
So, about two years before their return, the Sydney FC team was getting hyped about coming back home. But, they realized they needed to find a way to build that same level of hype and excitement with their fans. Thus, Sydney FC partnered with Herbert Digital. Together, they started a journey to overcome the following challenges:
- Build a website for members, fans, and corporates: A place to find and lock in the member packages, seat selection, and hospitality packages available in the new stadium well before the first game.
- Build a one-stop shop for Sydney FC supporters.
- Meet a very strict deadline to go live, well before the first game.
- Populate and manage the site content with an idiot-proof Content Management System.
- Allow for easy onboarding and independence for the content team.
We were under intense time pressure to create relevant content for the website. The intuitive design of Storyblok was effective in allowing our content team to approach the project with minimal training. This, combined with the ability to view changes in real-time, allowed us to achieve our goal ahead of the deadline.
A new and interactive stadium site with Storyblok
The site experience offers supporters a one-stop shop (opens in a new window) for all Sydney Football Stadium news and information. It features a unique Experience Selector (opens in a new window) that allows visitors to pick the best seats for their circumstances. This includes the atmosphere they want to enjoy and the groups of people they want to sit with. The tool allows businesses to find the perfect Hospitality Option (opens in a new window) for their clients and staff. Lastly, the website provides all the information for the different types of membership packages.
Storyblok’s CMS played an enormous role in building the stadium website as it provided the following benefits:
- Best-of-breed technology
Since Sydney FC needed best-of-breed technology that allows them to create, edit, and deliver content for their members, fans, and business organizations, Storyblok’s CMS was the perfect match. - Easy to use (opens in a new window)
Storyblok satisfied the content team's need for a tool that was extremely easy to use. Additionally, it provided them with the best editor experience in terms of speed, independence, and creative freedom. - Intuitive UI
The Sydney FC content team was able to approach the project and populate content with minimal training. - Visual Editor (opens in a new window)
The ability to see changes in real time was a real game changer in meeting the deadline for populating all the content to the new website. - Responsive CMS
In the development process, Storyblok was able to adapt to the changes and updates that the Sydney FC team required.
The biggest win for us in using Storyblok has been the flexibility it provides us when having to make changes to the content structure. We, as marketers, can independently execute these changes without having to involve developers. And because of that our initial plan for the site changed.
Storyblok checks all the boxes for a great CMS
From Herbert Digital's perspective, Storyblok checks all the boxes for a great CMS:
- Transparent and affordable pricing (opens in a new window).
- Flexible Content Modeling (opens in a new window).
- Easy access to APIs.
- Easy integration with other technologies.
- Great documentation and information on how to get started and use the CMS.
Using Storyblok while working on the Sydney FC project was a pleasure, according to Adrian Hoess, the Founder of Herbert Digital. In those cases where Herbert needed to add extra pricing or member categories, they found it very easy to adjust quickly because of the ability to create a flexible content strategy from the start. This also enabled the Sydney FC team to complete, add, and change things fast and easy.
Sydney FC’s primary membership hub
From start to finish, the new site, with all its revolutionary features, was built in just 4 months. Thanks to Storyblok’s Visual Editor, Sydney FC was able to populate the whole site content in the CMS in just two weeks over the Christmas holidays!
What’s astonishing is that after being launched in 2022, the page had close to 300K views and over 1 million page events. Moreover, their Match Day Attendance increased by 228% year-on-year while Match Day Revenues were up by 370%.
Lastly, the site was built to allow Sydney FC to return to the stadium and sell memberships in year one. The team never really planned to continue using the website past that period. But, they quickly realized it was a no-brainer to continue using the site as their primary membership hub. This was due to the site's success and the ability to use Storyblok to manipulate what was required in terms of content and its cost.
