Creating the digital flagship for a legendary football club

Founded in 1889, Hammarby Football is more than a football club – it's an institution, a lifestyle, and a community with some of Sweden's most passionate fans.

To elevate the experience of being part of the Hammarby family while boosting revenues, Hammarby Football contacted Emakina with the ambition of becoming a leader in the field of digital fan experience.

The new digital platform was designed to offer fans a more engaging and personal club experience through new improved functionality, services, and exclusive content.

Client Hammarby Fotboll

Agency Emakina.SE

Services Applications Commerce CRM Marketing automation Web building

The challenge

Hammarby wanted to attract new fans and deepen the connection with loyal followers through a new digital flagship platform offering a wider range of club experiences like articles, podcasts, videos, live statistics for games and players, premium subscriptions, co-branding, sponsored content and merchandise sales – so the technical solution would have to allow for many different formats of content and effortlessly manage third-party APIs. It was also important to highlight both the men's and women's team

Our solution

First, Emakina sought to understand the perspectives and motivations of fans of all demographics by mapping different personas and user journeys. This was followed by design and prototyping sprints to define the UX and UI. To maintain flexibility, we worked in agile development sprints, prioritizing MVPs together with the client's product owner. In true Hammarby spirit, we also invited loyal fans to beta test the new website, taking their feedback into consideration for further development.

The technology

Emakina implemented Sanity for continuous deployment and easy content management. We also made integrations with APIs from AXS (ticketing platform) and the Swedish Professional Football Leagues.

The results

With the new flagship platform, Hammarby Football brings fans closer to the game and the teams, with a wide range of exclusive Hammarby content, merchandise sales, and even live game and player statistics. The fan experience is no longer limited to the football stand, but happens 24/7, regardless of location. Hammarby now manages omnichannel journeys (stadium, shop, club partners) and therefore has a better understanding of how to respond to the needs of the fans.