Mirum Hong Kong rolls out digital strategy for West Ham United

The club has launched a new website in a bid to recapture a fan base that has increasingly shifted its attention to social media. The new digital strategy has also been designed to support a major change at the club, as it prepares to relocate to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in 2016 (formerly the London 2012 Olympic Stadium).

Mirum Hong Kong (formerly Designercity) has a strong background of working with top football clubs in the UK, having previously worked with the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool. The agency was appointed by West Ham in June 2014 following a competitive pitch.

In the first part of an “holistic digital plan” to be rolled out this year, Mirum has launched a new website for the club, which it says “bridges the gap between social media and traditional club sites.”

According to Mak Win, CEO at Mirum Hong Kong, many football clubs have been experiencing a decline in traffic to their official web portals, as more fans engage with their clubs on social media.

“Lots of football club has been losing traffic to their official websites,” said Mak. “This has been happening for the past few years. One of the major parts of the strategy is to try to incorporate social sharing attributes back to the website. Our aim was to create a platform for supporters to be able to engage with club, the management, players and each other within one unified platform.”

The next phase of the club’s digital strategy, said Mak, will focus on West Ham’s move to the new stadium, where part of the club’s challenge will be to sell more tickets at the larger venue. Mak added that Mirum would also be developing new ways to engage fans at the stadium.

“With the club moving to the Olympic Stadium in 2016 this is a particularly exciting time for West Ham and Mirum to demonstrate how innovative thinking can help to revolutionise the fan experience at every point,” said Mak. “We see massive potential to enhance the whole match day experience, from helping people to find their seats to video replays during the match and games to keep the fans entertained during half-time.”

New features on the website include West Ham Live, a text-based talk-radio station providing a range of programming, including post-match analysis, live player and celebrity discussions and quizzes and competitions. Other features include My West Ham, a personalised page that offers members access to premium content.

Designercity was acquired by XM Asia, a JWT company, in August 2013 and is now Mirum Hong Kong, part of the new global digital agency that JWT formed in January.