Super Rugby

The Pitch

Re-imagine and revitalise the digital presence of the Southern Hemisphere's flagship Rugby Union international tournaments. Provide a complete back-end system that allows the sport's judiciary to meet and review video footage together virtually.

Oh, and do it all in 8 weeks. Go.

 

The Goalposts

SANZAR is the organisation that runs the biggest Rugby Union tournaments of the Southern Hemisphere – Super Rugby and The Rugby Championship (formerly Tri-nations). It’s a joint venture of the South African Rugby Union, the New Zealand Rugby Union and the Australian Rugby Union.

With just 8 weeks to go until the start of the Super Rugby season, SANZAR threw us the challenge of:
  • Redesigning and re-launching their digital presence – not just a brand new website for the organisation and for both tournaments, but an extension into social media too.
  • Architecting an extranet solution to manage data and include a virtual video review solution for judiciary spread across three continents.

The Team

  • Producer
  • Head of Referees
  • IA & Creative
  • CEO
  • Design
  • Social Media
  • Trainer
  • Strategist
  • Operations
  • Lead Developer
  • Marketing
  • SEO
  • Infrastructure

The Workshop

webqem performed an environmental scan comparing other sports franchises.
What are the goals?
Languages?
Where is your audience?
What Devices?
Known technical constraints
Who is providing content?
How is content provided?
Measures of success?
Timelines/Budget

The Plan
of Attack

Workshop with key team members:

 
  • Responsibilities for both teams
  • Business requirements
  • Goals and KPIs
  • Workflows
  • User profiles and personas
  • Available content and assets
  • Integration of data sources from Fox Sports (game fixtures, results & ladder)
  • Manage our own content & take control of our public site
  • Use video clips to explain rules
  • Improve the judicial process. Traditionally we would fly the judiciary to a single place, which was costly & time consuming. We need to be using the internet and technology to be more efficient & effective in the judicial process.
  • Display game fixtures, results & ladder standings instantaneously
  • Cross-promote Super Rugby, The Rugby Championship & SANZAR internationally

The Branding
Challenge

How would we effectively deal with three separate brands & competitions?

Our solution: The site transforms its appearance based on the season, providing a single go-to destination for rugby fans year-round - recognising that the tournaments are the heroes...

The
Technicalities

  •  
    Building to the latest in web-standards provides an efficient, accessible platform that's search-friendly and ready to extend in the future.
  •  
    CSS3 rich styling provides transitions that enhance the user experience, without resorting to complex scripted solutions or flash.
  •  
    Building to the latest in web-standards provides an efficient, accessible platform that's search-friendly and ready to extend in the future.
  •  
    A single technology platform for the administration and meeting of the sport's judicary, in real-time, across the globe.
  •  
    The advanced analytic power of Ooyala’s industrial strength video serving platform gives SANZAR more control over their video assets.
  •  
    Detailed insights and statistics give SANZAR a clear understanding of what's working, and what's not.
  •  
    Content automatically translated for the Argentinian audience.
  •  
    Integration with Fox Sports Data API provides automatic import of results and player stats into SANZAR's system.

Taking the
Judiciary Online

Adobe Connect Web Conferencing has dramatically slashed time and costs behind the scenes. Broadcasters now upload their footage to SANZAR and the judiciary from three continents meet online, in real-time to make their decisions.

 
 
 

The Support

webqem provided a turnkey solution for technology & hosting

  • Ooyala
    In The Cloud
  • Adobe Connect
    Dedicated server
  • Website
    Co-shared servers
 
 

The Result

  • In just 8 weeks, the project leapt from inception to hugely successful launch - in time for season start, and on budget.

  • 3 brands were repositioned and brought together online, across the site and social media channels.

  • Attention to Search Engine Optimisation has seen 62% of hits coming from native Google searches

  • 35% of new visitors are arriving via the new Facebook page

  • Total visits up to almost 600,000 - a 400% lift on the previous year.

  • Average time on site increased 200%

Just wanted to express our greatest thanks for the way webqem handled the project. We love the look and feel of the new competition sites, and have seen some fantastic benefit coming out of them. Our Extranet has become so user friendly now and is such a massive improvement on what we had previously. The approachability, flexibility and patience demonstrated by the webqem team has made the process a pleasure. Lyndon Bray, SANZAR Game Manager