Sydney FC uses Storyblok’s CMS to boost match day revenue

September 7, 2023

Content management system Storyblok has revealed how it has helped A-League club Sydney FC build a digital stadium experience that generates a massive amount of engagement from the fans along with revenue for the club.

As part of its strategy to boost fan engagement, Sydney FC has leveraged Storyblok’s content management system (CMS) to build winning digital experiences that ignite fan enthusiasm and boost match day income.

The journey began back in 2018, when, with Allianz Stadium being rebuilt, Sydney FC began a period of fours seasons of playing at different venues around Sydney.

Seen as being exhausting for the team and fans, who missed having a stadium of their own, as the end of the rebuilding of Allianz Stadium approached, Sydney FC knew they needed to do something special to build enthusiasm for the team’s return to the new venue.

They decided to leverage Storyblok’s category leading CMS, working closely with Herbert Digital, a Storyblok Certified Partner to build an exciting digital stadium experience in just four months.

Along with being the main source of content for everything about Sydney FC, the website features an ‘experience selector’ that enables fans to pick the best seats for their circumstances and the atmosphere they want to enjoy.

As Jeremy Butler, Head of Consumer Business, Marketing and Content at Sydney FC, explains “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. We, as marketers, can independently change the content without having to involve developers. This, combined with the ability to view changes in real-time, allowed us to achieve our objective ahead of the deadline.”

Thanks to Storyblok’s Visual Editor, Sydney FC was able to create all of the content in the CMS in just two weeks. When it launched in 2022, the website had over 1 million page events. Match day revenue skyrocketed by 370%, and attendance increased by 228% year-over-year.

Sydney FC only planned to use the website for the initial return to the Allianz Stadium, but after seeing this success and experiencing how easy and cost-effective it is to manage content with Storyblok, they decided to continue using it as their primary membership hub.

Storyblok co-founder and Chief Executive, Dominik Angerer advised “great digital experiences generate excitement far beyond the devices that they live on. Sydney FC has been able to use compelling content to drive action by their fans, leading to record revenue and attendance. This is a winning strategy, both on and off the pitch.”

Images courtesy of Storyblok.

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