Since the curtain fell on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, United World Wrestling (UWW) has taken a concerted-yet-considered approach to its digital transformation journey. The governing body for Olympic wrestling has been working alongside N3XT Sports on a multi-phase digital development strategy which has seen the International Federation (IF) transform, in the space of three years, from a once social media-oriented entity into a diverse, digitally focused media house.
As the world’s attention turns to Paris 2024, UWW’s third Olympic Games since the federation was reinstated into the Olympic Program in 2013 and its president Nenad Lalovic first tabled plans to modernize the sport, the wrestling body has positioned itself as a digital benchmark within the Olympic Movement. N3XT Sports has guided UWW’s digital transformation journey:
- Our dedicated Digital Transformation team led more than 150 workshops and interviews with UWW’s internal departments, covering more than 90 attendees and 18 stakeholders during the assessment phase of UWW’s digital transformation. The assessment phase provided a solid grounding for formulating a clear roadmap for digitalization.
- Thereafter, N3XT Sports supported the integration of UWW’s first-ever mobile app, an integrated video hub, and customer relationship management (CRM) capability during the implementation phase carried out through 2022. UWW’s dedicated mobile app was an instant hit, topping sports app rankings for downloads in several of the federation’s key markets
- Following an uplift in audience engagement, in 2023, our team oversaw the development, integration, and launch of the dedicated UWW+ over-the-top (OTT) streaming service, via web and mobile, and advised senior executives on how it should be connected to UWW’s wider digital ecosystem and bring paying customers into the federation’s fan-marketing funnel.
- Every stage of UWW’s digital transformation is managed by our dedicated Project Excellence team. With the support of N3XT Sports’ seasoned project managers, the department ensured that every project phase was delivered on time and to budget.
The streaming platform was rolled out in time for the 2023 UWW World Championships (WCH23) held in Belgrade, Serbia, last September, and has underpinned a significant shift in how the federation engages its core audience. UWW receives year-round assistance from N3XT Sports’ Digital Transformation department, which supports UWW on digital content planning, audience analytics, as well as customer engagement and communication across web, mobile, and social media.
While recording 4.7 million video views and surpassing 8.2 million viewing minutes, the OTT service has also supported growth across UWW’s digital channels, including increased engagement via social media. UWW ranked seventh place among Olympic IFs in the 2024 SportOnSocial League Table, presented by RedTorch, jumping two places from last year’s edition, and clinching third place for its engagement on TikTok, fourth place on Instagram, and seventh place on YouTube.
UNITED WORLD WRESTLING GROWING FAN ENGAGEMENT, REDUCING DATA SILOS
Scoring highly in our International Federation Fan Data Guide 2024, which provides proprietary research into the Olympic Movement’s digital transformation, UWW’s impressive video engagement is the result of a strategic approach to its digital product development and technology adoption, which also underpins the federation’s improved data and information maturity, supported by the launch of a CRM capability in October 2022.
By way of example, UWW’s CRM solution helps maximize email subscriptions as part of its audience retention strategy. As a result, with the help of N3XT Sports’ Digital Transformation department, UWW doubled its average click-through rate across an increased number of email campaigns through 2023, while boosting its year-on-year (YoY) CRM email sign-ups by 168 percent.
Meanwhile, UWW has also introduced a single sign-on (SSO) across its digital portfolio, including its re-designed website, mobile app, and recently launched OTT product, which includes a tiered paid-subscription model. This is pertinent since UWW is now able to generate a 360° view of its entire digital fanbase and has proven hugely influential in personalizing its content distribution across the federation’s digital and social media channels and carving out new revenue streams within its digital portfolio.
Gordon Templeman, UWW’s Director of Commercial Operations and Communications, outlines the federation’s approach to augmenting its digital inventory and fan-marketing funnel. Highlighted in N3XT Sports’ Olympic Digital Transformation Report 2023, Gordon says that, while UWW has aimed to “diversify by investing in our own digital platforms”, the federation’s digital transformation “is progressing in a way that creates fewer data silos, allows us to work seamlessly as an organization, and to capitalize on our digital capabilities”.
“There are many industries that have already gone through [their own digital transformation] process and is something we are seeing more of across the sports industry,” he explains. “This is not something that can wait another five years before we look to instigate change. By then, it might be too late. As the Olympic Movement attracts new audiences, we must stay ahead and modernize with the industry, in order to set new goals and not to shy away from doing things differently.”
WHAT’S N3XT?
In the lead up to Paris 2024, UWW has set out to transform its digital operations in such a way that converts and retains new fans on the back of the summer showpiece, while also laying the foundations to scale and augment its owned products in the years to come.
Part of the process has been to align its digital, social, and commercial strategies at every stage of the fan funnel, leveraging its social media channels to promote its streaming offering, including the launch of the federation’s TikTok account, for which UWW has invested in a dedicated content team and strategy, and N3XT Sports has helped guide every step of the way.
It is common practice for IFs and National Olympic Committees (NOC) to ramp up their content distribution around the Olympics so as to generate more interest in their respective disciplines. Nevertheless, it’s important for federations to put in place resources that bridge the digital fan journey and requires a staggered transformation process in order to develop strong bonds with subscribers.
With its focus firmly on Paris 2024 and beyond, UWW is well placed to serve its subscription base via a plethora of digital products and to build a rich community of wrestling fans. N3XT Sports is proud to be a part of UWW’s modernization and to help transform the federation into a benchmark for digitalization throughout the modern Olympic Movement.
Our team at N3XT Sports works tirelessly to develop and implement data and digital transformation strategies across a multitude of sports properties at federation level, competition level, and club level. To find out more about how N3XT Sports can serve your organization, fill out the form below, and we’ll be in touch. Our goal is to drive the digitalization of the sports industry and our clients.