Company

The 2023/24 season was one Coventry City fans won’t forget. A push for the Championship play-offs, and an FA Cup run that took them all the way to a semi-final at Wembley against Manchester United.

Coventry Building Society was right there with them. The UK’s second-largest building society has its name on the club’s home ground, the Coventry Building Society Arena, under a ten-year deal. But a name above the door doesn’t get you to know the fans walking through it. Coventry Building Society wanted to give something back to supporters, and to turn thousands of anonymous fans into people it actually knew.

Challenge

Naming rights are great for visibility. Every fixture, every broadcast, every ticket carries the name. But visibility is one-way. Fans see the logo, but to the sponsor they stay anonymous. No names, and no idea who they are or what they care about.

Meanwhile, the best part of matchday was happening in the stands. The goals, the songs and the celebrations are real fans living every second of the game, and that’s what other fans trust and want to see. But those moments ended up on fans’ own phones and feeds, with nothing tying them back to the society whose name was on the ground.

That was the opportunity. By helping fans share those moments, Coventry Building Society could become part of the thrill and build a real emotional connection. If those fans became known contacts, it could keep that connection going beyond matchday, and show what the partnership was worth.

Solution

So Coventry Building Society partnered with Amondo to make the sponsorship something fans could take part in, from the stands on matchday to its own website between games. Each step brought fans a little closer, from a face in the crowd to a known, engaged fan of the brand.

Fans on the big screen

The #CBSFanWall put supporters’ photos and videos on the screens inside the stadium. Fans could post with the hashtag or scan a QR code in the ground and upload straight from their phone.

Scanning the QR code took fans to a quick consent form before they uploaded, so the rights to every photo were cleared the moment it arrived. Each post landed in one place in the Amondo platform, ready for the team to pick the best and put it straight on screen. Fans shared, saw themselves on the big screen, and shared again: an easy content loop with no rights chasing.

Players got involved too, from Callum O’Hare’s celebrations to Joshua Eccles and Luis Binks’ pre-match ritual. Fans saw themselves next to their heroes, with Coventry Building Society’s name on every moment.

A home for the season on its own site

A photo on a stadium screen is gone the moment the next one appears. So every approved post also went into a Fan Wall Gallery on Coventry Building Society’s own website, building match by match into a record of the whole season. Fans could find their own photo, relive the big moments and share them with loved ones. Every share pulled more fans back to Coventry Building Society’s own site, not a social feed it didn’t control.

That traffic was the society’s own. And every view, tap and scroll was tracked, so the team could see how fans were really engaging with the partnership.

Quizzes that keep fans playing

The longer fans spend inside a content experience, the more they care about it, and the more willing they are to give something back. A glance at a logo is forgotten by the next match. Gamification gives fans a reason to stay, take part and come back.

So Coventry Building Society built three quizzes into the experience with Amondo’s Quiz Tile. Fans could play right inside the content, without leaving the page. Each one tested what supporters really knew about their club.

Every start, answer and finish was tracked. That showed the society how deeply fans got involved. And the more connected fans feel to their club, and to the brand bringing them closer to it, the more likely they are to think of Coventry Building Society when it’s time to save or buy a home.

Competitions that build real relationships

Quizzes kept fans playing. Prizes gave them a reason to say who they were.

Coventry Building Society ran six competitions and giveaways across the season, through two dedicated competition microsites. Each one used Amondo’s Form Tile, a form built right into the content experience. Fans entered in a few taps, with no clicking away to a separate sign-up page where they might drop off.

Every entry came with the fan’s consent and landed as a first-party contact the society owned. With ad blockers on close to a third of devices, data that fans choose to share is one of the most reliable ways left to reach them.

It also closed the loop. A face in the crowd became a fan on the big screen, then a player in the quizzes, then a known contact. That’s someone Coventry Building Society could keep talking to long after the final whistle, and who already had a reason to feel good about the brand.

Results

Over one season, thousands of anonymous fans became people Coventry Building Society actually knew. The society collected more than 7,000 fan submissions, every one of them first-party and shared with consent.

Fans also spent real time in an experience the sponsor had made possible:

• The average session length in the Fan Wall Gallery was 51.6 seconds, meaning fans weren’t just glancing at it. They were settling in to relive the season on the society’s own site.

• The quiz completion rate was 79%, meaning nearly four in five fans who started a quiz played all the way to the end. Quizzes are easy to abandon, so finishing shows fans were genuinely invested in a branded experience.

Because the whole experience was built to be measured, the value of the sponsorship didn’t have to be taken on trust. Every entry was a data point the society owned, and every minute fans spent playing showed how much the partnership meant to them. A name on a stadium had become a relationship Coventry Building Society could see, measure and grow.

“We love working with Amondo. Their platform makes it easy to bring our brand and community content together, connect with our audience in engaging ways and show the real value of our sponsorships. The team are a joy to work with, and I'd recommend them to anyone.”

Ann Stanley

Marketing Manager, Coventry Building Society