Client: Central Coast Mariners Football Club
Industry: Sports
Solution: Digital Fan Hub
About CENTRAL COAST MARINERS FC
Central Coast Mariners are a professional, community-based football club based in Gosford, New South Wales, competing in Australia’s top-flight league, the A-Leagues. Although the Mariners are one of the smallest clubs in the league, they boast an impressive record, having been crowned A-League Champions three times (2013, 2023, 2024) in six grand final appearances, Premiers three times (07/08, 11/12, 23/24), and competed in the AFC Champions League on five occasions. The team staked their place in history in 2024, becoming the first professional team to win the football treble in Australia, being crowned the A-League Men’s Premiers, AFC Cup Champions, and A-League Men’s Champions.
Campaign Objectives
Through the implementation of Komo for marketing activations, Central Coast Mariners were looking to engage their fan base while also adding value to their partners and sponsorship offerings. Specifically, they were looking to:
- Provide their partners with access to a full catalogue of digital games and competitions.
- Elevate the match day fan experience in meaningful and engaging ways.
- Connect with their wider football community in an authentic way, including signing children up for football clinics and connecting with their audience in different formats, not just traditional eDM.
To deliver a more meaningful Match Day experience for their audience, Central Coast Mariners used Komo to offer fans a centralised, digital Fan Hub where they could access important information as well as interactive experiences to keep them coming back for more. The digital Fan Hub included:
Live Trivia
Fans had the opportunity to test their knowledge and compete against each other with live trivia relating to the players on-field. This initiative came to life throughout Mariners fan events throughout the 23/24 season as well as watch parties throughout the Socceroos’ 2022 FIFA World Cup campaign.
Half-Time Promotions
Central Coast Mariners leveraged the Fan Hub as a mechanism to engage fans in real time and select winners for half-time promotions.
Partner and Sponsor Promotions
Within the Fan Hub, fans had access to exclusive offers and promotions from Central Coast Mariners’ partners and sponsors.
Maccas Player of the Match
Throughout the season, fans had the opportunity to vote for the player of the match in both men’s and women’s matches, through a Player of the Match poll within the Fan Hub. The players with the highest votes following each game was the awarded the Player of the Match award.
Community Competitions
Throughout the season, the Mariners ran a competition where children from each of the local schools could submit designs for the next season’s training kit. Fans could then vote for their favourite design within the Fan Hub.
MATE Photo Frame
On match day, the Mariners leveraged the power of the big screen to promote their commercial partner, MATE, encouraging fans to submit their selfies via the Fan Hub for a chance to have their photo featured on-screen and win a signed jersey.
Match-Day Information
The Fan Hub was used as a centralised point for fans to access important and timely match-day information as well as engaging content, including videos, news, and articles.
Pink Round Rebrand
To commemorate their partnership with the McGrath Foundation and raise important funds for breast cancer nurses, the Mariners rebranded the Fan Hub in line with the annual Pink Round.
Post-Season Fan Surveying
To ensure that the fan experience remained engaging and meaningful, the Mariners leveraged the Fan Hub at the end of the season to survey the fanbase about their match day experiences. This helped uncover key insights regarding the success of their efforts and areas for improvement.
Results
Using Komo, Central Coast Mariners were able to achieve their objective of delivering a more meaningful experience on Match Day for their audience, whilst also transitioning from traditional printed Match Day programs in-stadia, to a completely digital experience. In doing so, the Mariners were more accurately and easily able to report on the level of audience engagement and traction of their initiatives and provide commercial partners with detailed data analytics on the effectiveness of their activations throughout the duration of their campaigns.
TESTIMONIAL
"We found Komo fantastic for us. We have transitioned from a print matchday program to an in-stadia app, so we can share with our fans different offers from our commercial partners, different trivia for players that are on-field, and it also enables us to be able to engage fans in real time - for selecting winners, for promotions, [as well as] activities at halftime and down on the field." - Jenna Eagles, Central Coast Mariners
Check out the cards they used below...
Want to see how easy it is to bring a game like this to life? Check out the Live Trivia and Photo Frame Knowledge Base articles!
Want to learn how to get results like these? Book a 1:1 demo with us, and spend 30 minutes exploring just what's possible with the Komo Platform!
