[Case study] How to create strong brand experiences for a club and its 30 million fans

Definition: A strong, consistent brand adds value to any company wishing to remain relevant. A strong brand is always relevant, with its stakeholders recognizing, appreciating and forming a lasting attachment to it without necessarily even realizing it.

At Frontify, we constantly reiterate to our customers the importance of having a strong brand and how it is perceived by its consumers. This is especially true for Borussia Dortmund (BVB) fans. After all, BVB is much more than just a soccer team, but a brand that unites the passion of almost 30 million fans worldwide.

In this case study, we take a look at how Frontify was able to help BVB develop their brand image.

Borussia Dortmund in a nutshell

Borussia Dortmund is one of Europe's biggest soccer clubs, a successful club with a long tradition. Founded in 1909, the club's many victories in recent years have contributed significantly to its growth and popularity.

But beyond the pitch, keeping the club relevant and at the forefront of innovation is essential for commercial stability and lasting sporting success.

A new challenge: moving from the field to the digital world

In 2005, a new era began with the introduction of a new concept, proposing a commercial approach less linked to results on the pitch, but prioritizing the brand's progression into the digital world by establishing solid, lasting foundations.

The club's new challenges were as follows:

1. Increasingly complex silo working for different departments and a growing number of stakeholders
2. Restricted access to digital resources of all kinds
3. Increased dependence on the marketing team at all times.

A brand platform for continued success

Developing and harmonizing the brand...

A large part of this effort involved investing in brand development and the implementation of a brand management platform to better share and make easily accessible :

• all brand elements,
• campaigns,
• and current projects.

With a stronger brand identity and visual guidelines in line with core values - intensity, cohesive strength, ambition and authenticity - a more powerful brand emerged, and sporting results followed.

... to extend its reach

In the decade that followed, BVB enjoyed a massive increase in earnings. But the strategy also paid off outside the stadium.

From a brand and marketing perspective, BVB experienced significant international growth, which led to the reincorporation in 2019 of a department for after-sales and partnership management, which had previously been handled by an external agency.

This has strengthened brand recognition, rewarding a global brand design strategy.

Convincing results: brand universe drives growth

The Frontify platform has enabled BVB to:

• optimize stakeholder alignment and consolidation;
• increase brand consistency and usage;
• facilitate collaboration and access to the brand.

Frontify has made it easier to open up the brand to everyone, which prior to implementation was not possible and managed by a small team. The implementation of the platform quickly enabled an increasingly complex set of contact points to better collaborate and sponsor new brand champions efficiently and sustainably.

With internationalization, a considerable increase in requests of all kinds led to rapid growth, greater consistency and recognition, and more regular traffic around the brand.

Frontify allows anyone - with or without design skills - to quickly access our brand universe, download logos, typefaces and brand assets and create brand visuals on their own.

Dennis Thom, responsable du marketing et du sponsoring

This is how the BVB brand portal was born. Since the introduction of Frontify in 2019, interdisciplinary departments such as marketing, communications, the international offices in Shanghai and Singapore and their external merchandising company all work within the same platform.

Thanks to their new, fully integrated brand and corporate design guidelines, BVB can easily manage approvals and create marketing materials very quickly and effortlessly.

For external partners, feedback and approval processes for marketing projects have improved significantly in terms of efficiency and accuracy, thanks in part to clear and easily accessible brand guidelines.

A strong, dynamic brand, ready to win new victories

We are now able to discuss resources and campaigns faster and more granularly than ever before, both internally and with external partners.

Dennis Thom, responsable du marketing et du sponsoring

The BVB brand portal facilitates coordination between graphic designers and agencies. It reduces the number of emails thanks to a precise structure and centralized resources that are now easily accessible and integrated into efficient workflows.

In the future, BVB's stronger, more dynamic brand will enable it to continue to grow its brand in new markets, gain greater visibility and refine its brand image with clearer messages. This will help it to strengthen its ties with its fans around the world, and provide the best conditions for maintaining its success on the pitch.

With the BVB brand portal, the future looks bright for Borussia Dortmund both on and off the pitch.

Sponsored article. Expert contributors are authors independent of the Appvizer editorial team. Their comments and positions are their own.