DixonBaxi London

ABOUT

Drawing on Dutch football culture for FOX Sports Netherlands rebrand.

FOX Sports NL is a Dutch group of sports channels, owned by Eredivisie Media & Marketing CV in which FOX Networks Group has 51% ownership. The majority of the content, and what the audience come for, is live Eredivisie football, the top Dutch football league. It is home to some of the worlds most recognised and loved teams. In addition they broadcast every other Dutch football league, across more than 6 channels, and cover premium European and US sports.

The project.
The heart of the challenge was to transform the brand - which had a distinctly US-centric look - into the ‘Home of Dutch Football’ by being more in sync with the needs of the localised Eredivisie fan. The underlying objective being an uptake in subscriptions.

The Home of Dutch Football
Our creative strategy was built around an authentic insight - fans care more about their clubs than the league. This led to an ambition to better represent the heritage of the clubs and supporters, making them an essential part of the FOX Sports NL brand.

We created a new, streamlined logo and a brand language that is inspired by “Total Football,” a tactic synonymous with Dutch football where the whole team works together to allow free movement and self-expression. The ever present grid system and motion language resonate with this rich history and the revolutionary tactic. From a bespoke monospaced typeface to a modular system for all on-air match graphics and off air activations the system has endless potential.

Wearing the club colours with pride
Understanding the importance of the clubs in the lives of fans was a crucial part of the process. We decided to hero the clubs, their crests, and team colours to create a connection with the supporters. The often, primary colours of the clubs created an uncompromising aesthetic and using the colours of the opposing teams in heads-to-heads intensified the sense of the competition and rivalry.

A brand for the 24/7 fan
Beyond the on-air experience, we created a brand that would cater to today’s 24/7 fans. The flexible design language and clear editorial principles are ideally suited to creating a rich suite of content to keep supporters engaged all week online and through social media.

A new era for FOX Sports NL
The re-brand had a radical visual development, dropping the US stylings to give the Netherlands team their own authentic attitude.

Since its launch, the positive attitude towards the FOX Sports NL brand has jumped from 56% (July) to 65% (September), with brand tracker results showing the attribution about the 'passionate' qualities of FOX Sports NL has grown from 60% to 64% during the same period.

Commercially, the rebrand has had a positive effect on year-on-year subscriptions. With August numbers (a crucial time for subscriptions with the new season starting) up 40% on the previous year. This has all resulted in FOX Sports NL having their highest number of viewers ever for an Eredivisie match – with 1,076,000 tuning in to see PSV beat Ajax 3-0 on 23rd September 2018.

The FOX Sports team have fully embraced the new direction and are creating distinctive promos and campaigns that continue to grow and build the brand as the season unfolds.

“We’re very confident that it will help us in achieving our ambition that we have as a brand.”
Jan Bonjer - Fox Networks Group, Director Marketing & Creative

MADEIT CREDITS

  • Fox SportsClient

Who pooled - Fox Sports Netherlands