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Vodafone Tribes

Ubiquity worked closely with Vodafone to build the community websites Vodafone One Tribe and Vodafone Rugby Tribe, supporting Vodafone's sponsorship of the Warriors and the New Zealand franchises of the Super 14.

• The challenge

  Vodafone's sponsorship of the Warriors and the Super 14 delivers considerable value for Vodafone. Their sponsorship of these major sports is part of a global strategy to bring fans closer to what they're passionate about and align the Vodafone brand with their customers' favourite sports brands.

  Vodafone wanted to develop communities or “tribes” of fans that interact with each other and the sponsored brands. To support “tribal gatherings” at the games, Vodafone wanted to create online communities to allow members to connect to each other any time using electronic media. This would increase the length and depth of brand exposure.

  Ubiquity has worked on Vodafone One Tribe since the 2006 season, with the level of interactivity increasing year on year. In 2009 the focus was to leverage the large database of members, increasing each member's depth of interaction with the site. The concept had also been so successful that Vodafone also wanted to roll out Vodafone Rugby Tribe for NZ Super 14 fans and Vodafone Netball Tribe for NZ Netball.

  How Ubiquity helped

  In 2009, the Vodafone One Tribe site was updated to provide a richer user experience, with functionality including:

  • Celebrity and Fan Blogs

  • Forum and chatroom

  • Live commentary

  • Fixtures and statistics

  • Tipping and fantasy competitions

  • Image gallery with submission online or via PXT

  • Quizzes and polls

  • Email and SMS updates

  The sites include a significant component of user-generated content and community self-regulation, which reduces overheads for Vodafone in terms of site management. In a number of areas Ubiquity chose to integrate third party solutions to provide a rapid and cost-effective platform for the sites while still maintaining a seamless user experience.

  Further efficiencies were gained by capitalising on the existing Vodafone One Tribe platform for Rugby and Netball. This also allowed a single sign-on between the sites to be implemented.

  We're very impressed with the new Vodafone Rugby Tribe website, it has clearly exceeded our expectations. You have surprised us with not only the speed you have delivered the site, but how easy the launch has been from our perspective.
  
  - Leon Marsh, Vodafone Sponsorship Manager, Sport

  
  What was achieved
   

  We're very confident the Vodafone One Tribe website has added value to our brand.
  
  - Leon Marsh, Vodafone Sponsorship Manager, Sport

  
  The Vodafone One Tribe site allows Vodafone to maximise their sponsorship of the Vodafone Warriors. The site has attracted a loyal following with over 32,000 members, and the additional website features in 2009 have already lead to a threefold increase in traffic over the same period in 2008.

  Building on the Vodafone One Tribe platform has provided Vodafone with a cost-effective way to repeat this success for their Super 14 Rugby and Netball sponsorships.