Earlier this week, Major League Soccer's Seattle Sounders FC introduced a revamped visual identity, marking a monumental new chapter in the evolution of the club’s brand. The Sounders’ refreshed brand features updated colors, a simplified crest, new wordmarks, and a fresh font.
Fan experience was a top priority for the Sounders when thinking about how to best showcase their new identity in their mobile app. To engage their fans at a pivotal moment in the club’s history, the Sounders turned to Rover to help them build a strong foundation that would maximize the brand’s long-term impact.
One of the principles we discussed when launching the updated brand was being very judicious with how the new elements showed up. We wanted to create a solid foundation for the new marks, so as to build consistency and brand equity long-term.
To accomplish this on mobile, Rover gave us the tools and the control to do that while providing a hyper-user friendly experience that allowed our most engaged fans to explore at their own pace and familiarize themselves with the new look.
Abby English
Seattle Sounders Director of Digital & Content
Increased Revenue Opportunities
With a new brand, comes new merchandise - and new opportunities for teams to drive sales. The Sounders integrated purchase links to their online store directly within the new experiences created in Rover. This provided fans with the opportunity to purchase the new merch without ever having to leave the app, increasing overall engagement and driving ROI.
Streamlined Mobile Campaign Creation
One of Rover’s key strengths lies in its ability to help teams reduce time to market and resource requirements.
Having already used Rover this season for various mobile campaigns, including their Bruce Lee Kit Launch, schedule release, & member club, the Sounders were familiar with the ease of the Platform and were able to quickly bring the campaign to life.
“Rover helped us build the bones of the initial experience, saving us a ton of time and giving us a much needed head start.”
“From there we were able to take the design even further and included both some features and templates from previous campaigns, while adding in some additional elements. The flexibility in layout and design that Rover provides always allows us to bring our brand to life without any design restrictions!”
Enhanced User Experience
One of the desired outcomes for the Sounders was to deliver a captivating experience that would educate fans about the evolution of their brand. By incorporating various multimedia components into their Rover campaign, such as videos, graphics, and animations, the user experience was impactful and engaging for Sounders fans .
“We used multiple swipe-able carousel galleries to showcase various aspects of the new brand,” added English. “Spacing them out over the experience gave it depth without feeling like an infinite scroll of information.”
Innovative Design Elements
Rover's flexible design functionality played a crucial role in presenting the new brand. By overlaying a static crest on the gallery showcasing the updated colors, fans could experience the various new elements interacting in a dynamic environment. Additionally, the integration of quick videos for each new brand mark further enhanced the visual appeal.
“We relied pretty heavily on the video feature to give the experience an elevated look and feel,” added English. “We wanted our new brand marks to appear dynamic and not flat so we leaned into quick videos for each, in multiple sizes on multiple screens. It was easy to resize, and reposition videos as well as layer in text so the experience felt seamless and flowed together.”
Overall
The Sounders’ decision to use Rover to launch their new brand on mobile proved to be a strategic and successful move, with over 16,000 experience views in the first week alone! With Rover's powerful capabilities and streamlined design process, the Sounders were able to create an engaging and visually appealing experience that captivated fans, while simultaneously increasing long-term brand loyalty and ROI through e-commerce sales for the team.