The Challenge
To provide a website that promotes the club’s unique values while bringing together and communicating with a 300 strong community.
What was our role?
Who is Marldon FC
Marldon FC Youth Football Club was set up by a group of parents and local footballers. Various children from different clubs were already playing football together on the village meadow so it was a natural step to create a club and community just for them.
The club now have a community of around 150 players plus their parents, with teams in all age groups covered by the Pioneer Youth League. They are committed to nurturing and balancing both technical and physical ability and social and psychological development. This is enshrined in the FA’s Four Corners of Development.
Values and community wrapped in a modern brand and design
They also believe themselves to be the only club to have set up a Youth Council, empowering the players themselves to decide on issues such as logo design and club award ceremonies.
Marldon FC wanted a website to promote their values and attract more players and coaches. They also needed a way to communicate important information, such as COVID policies, to the whole community. Vu approached the project from a charitable angle, conscious of their limited budget.
We couldn’t resist the opportunity to update the club crest
A Deep Bench
The club knew they had an ally at Vu due to Dom’s affiliation with the club. During the difficult period around lockdown, we were able to support the club to keep players, parents and club officials up to speed with developments. The website was a natural extension of that support.
A Community Effort
With over 300 community members, including players, parents and club officials, making sure everyone was aware of the latest COVID situation, including their personal responsibilities was a huge challenge which needed a digital solution.
Affordable digital data capture and new process for the football community
“The technical guidance to implement google forms and digital processes guided the club through Covid. I genuinely don’t know how we would have done it otherwise.”
We opted to use Google Forms, a shared digital service designed to quickly and easily collect information. By integrating this with the club’s new website, players and parents could read relevant blog posts regarding COVID compliance and give their informed consent where needed.
To tell the club’s unique story, we spent time digging into its history, uncovering some fascinating details along the way.
Highlighting Marldon FC’s community focus was important to ensure new players and coaches understood the club’s commitment to positive communication, social development and other forward-thinking ideals. We put this message across clearly when creating the home page content.
Results
Enquiries
New players and coaches
Info
Valuable feedback from members
Strategy
Informing the wider strategy
Safety
Training and games information during COVID lockdown
Keeping the Marldon FC community in the loop was not just a good service – it was vital for ensuring players, parents and coaches knew how training and games were to be run during COVID lockdown.
Due to the efficiency of Google Forms integration, the club were able to engage with every member of the community, helping them to restart football safely.The club also received valuable feedback from their members, helping to inform their wider strategy going forward.
The striking, bold, community-focused design also seems to have worked with the club seeing an uptick in enquiries from new players and potential coaches.
Do you know anyone who may be interested in this project?
Click to share:
+44 (0)1803 866430
