Helped create a national sports network "At The Heart Of It".

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THE CHALLENGE:

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HighSchoolSports.net was a startup software platform and site with simple team schedules and low levels of traffic. The client’s goal was to build a national network of hyper-local sites that:

1. expanded team and sports content for fans at every high school in the country

2. attracted national brand advertisers

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The key consumer insight was simple – high school sports are all local.  And the key users are all members of a “tribe” – Lions, Vikings, Knights, Titans, Eagles and more – and care passionately about their school and team.  

 

The platform's powerful database was the “secret sauce” that made the user experience unique, relevant and hyper-local.  By building a site UX that uniquely displayed each school, and then aggregating into a national network of 18,000 schools, HighSchoolSports.net could attract a big, demographically diverse audience attractive to advertisers.

 

 

THE IDEA:  "AT THE HEART OF IT"

 

At the heart of your school, your team, and your season became the brand's promise, and this new brand needed an identity that would read quickly as high school sports.​ The alphabet of chenille varsity letters is unique to prep sports, and the new iconic "H" brand mark leveraged this familiarity. 

 

An evocative brand message was crafted with creative partners John Moline and David Willett, and a new website built with Billups Design. And to demonstrate the power of dynamic data, the site's school colors and mascot database were leveraged to develop, design and deliver a powerful program for NIKE and their custom shoe design UX - NikeID "Show Your Colors" Contest.

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THE RESULTS:

 

• Site traffic increased over 300% in the first year

• Ad spending increased over 250% with Nike, Gatorade, Army, Milk and other big brands signing up

• Achieved Top 20 Sports Site on ComScore

• Acquired by Gannett Company