The Halls of Fame in major sports are designed to enshrine the achievements of the most influential and talented players so that generations of fans can appreciate and reminisce about their accomplishments. But what would a Hall of Famer be without the idolization and support of fans?
Fans, after all, provide the fame and turn skilled athletes into rockstars by creating a platform built out of emotional and financial support. So isn’t it about time that we start to recognize the best fans in the same way we recognize the best athletes? ESPN and RED Interactive Agency think it is.
The Fan Hall of Fame, developed by RED, a creative full-service digital agency, and endowed by ESPN, is the first entity devoted to discovering, elevating, and celebrating greatness in sports fandom. The main focus of the Fan Hall of Fame is to honor the die-hards who have stood out from the crowd in rooting for their favorite team.
In 2012, ESPN approached RED Interactive Agency, to build a digital Fan Hall of Fame that would aim to celebrate three “super fans” per year. The goal of the Fan Hall of Fame was not to be a veiled ESPN promotional campaign, but rather, an authentic digital space that was meant to illuminate greatness in sports fandom.
RED worked with ESPN to create an experience for the Fan Hall of Fame that was geared towards the modern fan. For Zach Glass, RED’s Director of Advertising, this meant focusing on mobile: “Our biggest challenge was coming up with a design and technical approach that made the site as simple and easy to use on mobile and tablet as it was on desktop. Ultimately, we came up with an elegant design, incorporated a cropping tool, and added a ‘preview’ step to improve submission quality for all platforms. As a result, we ended up achieving the same application start/finish ratio across the board, regardless of device.”
The mobile and social-oriented approach that was taken allowed the platform to grow in size and scope over time and let fans experience the Hall across all devices. This was crucial considering that 60% of all Fan Hall of Fame page visits were from mobile devices and 55% of all the page visits to the contest came from social media.
Additionally, a backend system that supports fan submissions and votes via phone, tablet and desktop was implemented by RED that allowed dynamic updates in real-time. This system was important in keeping tack of the tens of thousands of votes cast by fans and visitors to the site. The three winners ended up receiving over 85,000 votes each with social media playing a big role as fans were able to follow the competition using the hashtag #FanHallofFame or by visiting the Fan Hall of Fame site.
RED started the campaign with digital ads looking for fans in the United States and Canada to submit an application to the Fan Hall of Fame demonstrating why they deserve induction. A panel of professors and ESPN sports journalists were tasked with judging the fandom of thousands of applicants and picking ten finalists. When a fan was fortunate enough to be chosen in the top ten they then had a 15-second video segment produced about them and their fanhood by ESPN film crews so that other fans could see their stories and passion and cast votes accordingly.
2013’s applicants represented over 120 professional sports teams and more than 100 college level organizations. The number of submissions increased by 41% from the previous year.
The three fan inductees from 2013 embody all the passion you would want to see in a member of any type of Hall of Fame:
Pierce Wallace, a.k.a the Georgia Joker, is a die- hard Georgia Bulldogs fan who dons a crazy super villian/super fan outfit in the stands and fuels the roar of the crowd in Sanford Stadium.
Barbara Rust, a.k.a The Sign Lady, has attended every Sacramento Kings home game with a hand-made sign since they moved to Sacramento in 1985.
Canaan Sandy, a.k.a CJ, gets his entire church to “call the hogs” and memorizes the Razorbacks’ schedule before each season.
In addition to being inducted into the Fan Hall of Fame, these fans each received stadium chairs dedicated in their names on the lawn of ESPN’s Bristol, Connecticut headquarters. A fitting symbol of their devotion and a reminder that the professional sports world, from ESPN, to Nike, to the World Cup, are fueled by the fan.