Northampton Saints, one of Europe’s leading professional rugby clubs, had a requirement to redesign and redevelop the club website. They sought the expertise of Clock’s sports savvy team to redesign and rebuild the site to fulfil the modern expectations of their fanbase as well as to support the business objectives.

The march starts here….

Rights holders have a unique advantage over standard media channels in that they can create and disseminate exclusive content that their supporters really want to engage with. Clock’s team designed and developed the new Saints site with the primary goal of creating a content-led experience that gives fans every reason to come to the site regularly. So whether the content is text or video based, the new site is a genuine club house for fans wanting to consume all things Saints related. The rationale is that the more the fans engage with the website because it offers a great experience and great content, the more likely the club is able to commercialise its inventory, such as tickets, merchandise and rugby camps.

A clear vision

We created a simplified information architecture that helps users easily navigate the site, aided by smart transitions and clear call-to-action buttons. The result is a fan experience that is simple and intuitive, whether on mobile, tablet or desktop.

The design emphasises Saints’ brand colours of black, green and gold and lend the new website a contemporary look and feel that is very much in line with how the club wants to be viewed externally: strong, modern and fan focused.

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Beta Launch

With the season barely finished, we wanted to make sure Saints fans had plenty to look forward to before the players depart for well earned holidays. The beta site includes:

Incorporation of Matchday Live commentary as well as Saints’ hospitality microsites meaning the new site becomes far more relevant for fans rather than a disparate set of different sites. Matchday Live in particular will become the hub for fans both in and outside of the stadium come match days, allowing them to be the first to read what is going on live - before any other media channels.

New Content Management System that allows the Saints content team to maximise their resources on both match days and non-match days alike. The huge amount of independent control the Saints team now has over the site, gives them greater flexibility in being able to create a variety of long and short form content - vital in supporting their fan engagement objectives.

Tim Percival, Marketing & Communications Director at Northampton Saints, said:

Our aim for the new website is to make life easier for Saints supporters to discover all the latest about the Club, and together with Clock we believe we have achieved that.

Saints is committed to improving its supporter engagement and innovation and the new website is the culmination of engaging with our supporter base, listening to their needs and observing their online behaviours.

Throughout the new site Clock have harnessed best-in-class technologies to provide improved features like an enhanced online matchday experience and a superior user-friendly design.

It is early days and we are thoroughly excited to see the effect of the new site on traffic, engagement and sales of Saints inventory. With more features to be released over the coming weeks, it is an exciting time to be a Saints supporter as a new director of rugby and player signings also bed in.

Take a peek: www.northamptonsaints.co.uk‍