U.S. Soccer debuts app, new campaign before Women’s World Cup

The organization’s new app will allow fans to follow along in real time with increased statistics and graphics.courtesy of u.s. soccer

U.S. Soccer is relaunching its digital platforms this week alongside a new marketing campaign for the U.S. women’s national team, hoping both will build momentum for the team heading into the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France next month.

The campaign, which is titled WNT Everywhere, will begin with locally targeted activation across 11 U.S. cities where the players are from or where they’ve played soccer. In each city, a local female artist will create a mural that features the respective players linked to that market. Some of the most popular players are featured in multiple markets.

Those murals will have a tie-in with a newly launched mobile app, the federation’s first. On each mural a logo will act as an AR trigger that, when scanned with the app, will provide access to an exclusive video featuring the player. U.S. Soccer will also release commemorative posters of each player on the team designed by the artists that will be made available nationwide.

The digital relaunch includes a new website and the app, both of which are being designed by agency AKQA. It comes at a key time for the federation, as its senior national teams prepare for two crucial competitions — the Women’s World Cup and the Concacaf Gold Cup.

“We saw it in 2015 with the women’s team during the last World Cup — there is a real opportunity to engage both existing and new fans in a deeper way than we are able to do during any other part of the national team cycle,” said Kay Bradley, U.S. Soccer brand director.

Currently, 60% of the federation’s traffic on its website comes from mobile device users, and information related to the men’s and women’s national teams drives most of that. The new app heavily features both teams. The federation signed a partnership with Opta to be its official live match data provider in 2017.

“It’s intended to be a match-day companion,” said Ross Moses, U.S. Soccer director of analytics and research. “The idea is for it to help you get to the match whether that’s live or on television, help a fan experience it further as a second-screen experience, and then help them revisit it with additional content.”

That additional content will come from the integration and relaunch of the federation’s fan program that it is now calling Insider. It is mostly used by fans to get early access to match tickets. Now, U.S. Soccer will look to provide those members with additional behind-the-scenes access.