World Rally Sport: Case Study

• Logo Development
• Rich Media
• Content Management Systems
• Online Marketing Strategies

• www.worldrallysport.com

Executive Summary

Automotive rally enthusiasts World Rally Sport Media Inc. sought to pursue their passion and capitalize on the sport’s fast-growing popularity. Partner Acro Media provided custom software for advanced Web 2.0 functionality, bespoke logo and site design, and marketing services to help convert visitors into active, contributing members—in effect, creating the world’s premier online community of rally fans.

   

Registered members can access, post and exchange media with other members—in effect, to easily share their passion for rally sport with others around the globe.

A Drupal content management system enables WRS to easily update and edit their Web site themselves, with no need for special technical skills.

Setting: The Rally Phenomenon

With roots dating back more than a century to motoring’s earliest days, “rallying” has grown into what is arguably the world’s most popular spectator motorsport. Yes, it’s that big—especially in Europe.

The sport’s top series—the FIA World Rally Championship—is a series of three-day stage rallies, held in over a dozen countries around the globe. On ice, snow and boulder-strewn gravel, over tarmac mountain passes and rough forest tracks judiciously closed to regular traffic, professional drivers and navigators race million-dollar, four-wheel-drive cars against the clock.

Unsurprisingly, the WRC series is generally considered the most challenging motor sport contest—for both man and machine—in the world.

Despite rally sport’s massive following, a lack of exposure and sponsorship have hindered its North American popularity. At least until 2006, when ESPN added rallying to its testosterone-charged X Games. The two-day event featured rally superstars on a made-for-TV course complete with 70-foot jump. Rallying instantly gained millions of new fans, many within the traditionally elusive—and lucrative—young male demographic.

Virtual Community Center & Garage

Enter World Rally Sport (WRS) at full throttle. Rally racers themselves, they are driven to create the globe's foremost community of rally enthusiasts and present rallying to the world as both a sport and a culture. Their Web site, purpose-built by Acro Media, attracts new and established fans the world over, converts them to members and prompts their regular return. It combines a one-two punch of marketing (for high visibility) and interactive design (for user engagement) to help it succeed.

The WRS Web site leads as a social network platform, boasting an arsenal of Web 2.0 features that enable members to plan, promote, discuss and learn all things rally-related. User-generated content (UGC)—exemplified by dynamic user profiles—focuses the site’s wide parameters. Registered members contribute to vibrant forums, upload their own photos (and videos from ten popular sources including Youtube), buy and sell via classified ads, vote in polls, and access news, weather and currency exchange from hand-picked feeds. Onsite search helps members find what they need, quick as a throttle blip.

Social Media Technology

Like any performance machine, WRS maintains ultimate control over everything—from posting fresh race results to moderating all user-generated content. Thanks to a Drupal content management system—2007’s Overall Open Source CMS Award winner—they can add, edit and remove site pages, create Web forms and blogs, post schedules and announcements, and select information feeds to display onsite. WRS can determine which pages users may access and/or add comments to, and even delegate site management tasks with precisely defined levels of access and functionality. Best of all, they accomplish all this themselves, easily, without the need of any special technical skills.

Because Drupal is open source software, it requires no per-copy or per-use fees—the WRS online investment goes further. Longer, too: a vibrant community of Drupal developers devotedly enhances and extends its functionality. Thanks to its many existing add-ons, continual evolution, and scalability, Drupal can easily accommodate World Rally Sport’s online growth far into the future.

The ability to manage the timeliness, quality, appearance and amount of content keeps World Rally Sport in the lead and wins them many direct benefits: fast delivery of fresh content that attracts, engages and retains an elusive target market; the agility to instantly address new developments in the hyper-paced rally world; control over site access and content to enhance and protect the World Rally Sport brand; and site self-management to avoid the high costs and hassles of relying on experts.

In creating an online community of rally enthusiasts, World Rally Sport sets a world record pace. Acro Media is proud to co-pilot, helping them navigate the online world as they hurtle towards online dominance.