“ Sitecore emerged as the clear choice as it was the most flexible and scalable solution to manage multiple sites in multiple languages that the ATP could own a license to in perpetuity. „

- John Phillips, SVP Digital Marketing, ATP

Challenge

ATP’s strategic marketing plan began in 2009 with the launch of the ATP World Tour brand and FEEL IT advertising campaign which intended to connect the global attributes of the circuit with the unique brand character of men’s professional tennis. In order to reach the broadest audience the ATP required a digital platform and new web sites which would establish a presence for the ATP World Tour brand and translate across a variety of languages in many countries.

Prior to the new web sites, the ATP struggled to efficiently manage content on the web which restricted the ability to grow reach and increase fan engagement. Additionally, the ATP was unable to create interactive experiences capable of driving consumption of content and increasing visit duration with the ATP World Tour. Key components to a solution included the following:

• Content Management System (CMS): Editors previously required HTML skills for basic content updates. Many changes required design and development support as data and presentation layers were not separated. ATP required a site that was intuitive to administer and would allow web editors to spend more time creating content to be shared across many sites opposed to spending time posting content.
• Streamlined Workflows: Previously, there was not an efficient process for sharing and translating content for the web or mobile web. ATP needed to translate shared content across many languages, many sites and many devices.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): The previous site suffered from the inability to handle search engine spiders because of an exposed database and lack of automated content relationships. ATP required a focus on SEO to exploit a depth of content and to increase site traffic naturally.
• Mobile Friendly: The former web site did not provide a mobile friendly presentation. The ATP needed to reach new fans and increase engagement with existing fans by providing access to critical content while on the go anywhere in the world.
• Consumer Relationship Management (CRM): The ATP previously had a limited ability to capture, collect and utilize consumer data for marketing and remarketing purposes. It was critical that the new experience integrated a CRM acquisition and retention program to promote content and sell tickets.

Solution

ATP conducted a comprehensive discovery phase to compare all available web and mobile web content management solutions as well as evaluated professional services organizations with experience implementing digital platform solutions to the scale required.

“Sitecore emerged as the clear choice as it was the most flexible and scalable solution to manage multiple sites in multiple languages that the ATP could own a license to in perpetuity. As a Sitecore partner, Digitaria provided the ATP an immediate leg up on the competition through the implementation of a world class publishing process and consumer experience with room to grow.” said John Phillips, SVP Digital Marketing – ATP

According to John Van Spyk, GM/VP Digitaria Sports, “Digitaria has always enjoyed our partnership with the ATP, as we've continually worked together to define and execute a digital strategy that focuses fan interaction. Sitecore provided a flexible and scalable framework for the web site, mobile as well as adobe air application development, allowing Digitaria to expand ATP's digital blueprint and deliver interactive experiences that are best in class.”

The ATP digital platform now powers web sites and mobile web sites from a shared database of more than 25,000 male professional tennis players, scores, news, photos and video content published in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Chinese.

Solution customizations include the following:

• Statistics Engine: The ATP digital platform features a powerful statistics engine that Digitaria engineers built exclusively for the ATP which threads live scores, stats and rankings, throughout the web sites.
• Site Search: In addition to enabling an intuitive and browsable information architecture, Digitaria reworked the underlying search architecture to effectively expose a depth of content through intelligent site search.
• Flash Media: Digitaria developed extensive and search engine friendly flash media players integrated with Sitecore providing fans with a rich media experience and the ability to expand, rate and share content.
• Content Tagging: Every asset and every page served by the ATP digital platform is tagged automating relationships between content and providing context based on recency and relevancy.
• Mobile Web Sites: Digitaria developed mobile modules within Sitecore to extend virtually every page of the web sites for mobile web browsers, with device detection and redirection, requiring no additional resourcing to manage English, Spanish and Chinese language versions.

See the Customer Solution Video
Video length- 6 minutes

Result

Technical Description

Solution Special Ingredients

• Ooyala – Video Platform & Players
• Mirror Image – Content Distribution Network
• Silverpop - Email Service Provider & CRM
• Adtech - Ad Server

Additional resources:

• Video Interview
• Press release