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Sport England’s #StayInWorkOut

Design and build of a virtual timetable for free and paid exercise classes, supporting #StayInWorkOut

Sport England encourages everyone in England to become and stay active. Cyber-Duck developed the digital strategy and consolidated their website portfolio into a distinctive platform in 2020; our combined work already saw grant applications rise by 50%. But when the COVID-19 crisis hit and lockdown loomed, all eyes turned to the nation’s health in an unprecedented level.
Straight away, Sport England needed to adapt to the changing environment and provide new guidance to the public. Together, Cyber-Duck and Sport England created a customer-focused hub on the new website, with clear trustworthy advice, and a virtual activity finder, to encourage people to #StayInWorkOut.

Key stats

14,000

views of the activity timetable

7,489

funding applications approved

3

months from design to development, ready for the crisis

SE1

Objectives

Cyber-Duck has partnered with Sport England since 2019. In Spring 2020, we had just launched a distinctive new website that could engage its B2B audience. But our most important test was just around the corner.

Word of a COVID-19 lockdown began to circulate in March. Sport England immediately realised that they had to adapt fast, to continue their mission to get (and keep) everyone moving in these unparalleled times.

Fortunately, they had just come through the user-centred website redesign process with Cyber-Duck. So, we both had a clear idea of their target audience’s demographics/needs, across B2B (Sport England) and B2C (stand-alone campaigns like This Girl Can). Responding swiftly and clearly, our main objectives were to:

  1. Encourage the population to exercise safely
  2. Adapt messaging swiftly to ever-changing social distancing guidelines
  3. Support and guide the sporting and physical activity sector

Encouraging people to exercise

Throughout lockdown, Sport England commissioned weekly COMRES research on activity levels. The research showed the existing activity gap between men/women widened; the restrictions had a bigger impact on women. 

‘Join the Movement’ was the answer. On Sport England’s new website, we launched a ‘hub’ of information around exercise that was free and easy for partners to do at home or outdoors. This supported Sport England’s paid social and TV ad campaign.

Together, Cyber-Duck and Sport England had already built a local activity finder (physical events) for Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign.

The launch had to be postponed due to Covid regulations – but we used the learnings and user testing to speed up the build of a new virtual activity finder, tailored for the pandemic.

W
orking with technology platform IMIN, which has an open data API for physical activity providers in England, we switched from This Girl Can’s technology to Sport England’s. We built a virtual activity finder in Drupal, with new API keys, filtered for relevant activities only; carry disclaimers and feedback mechanism to help safeguard the public. This was proposed, designed, built and released live during the first lockdown.

SE2

Guide the sports sector

At this difficult time, Sport England also needed to support and reassure the sports sector. Lockdown and social distancing guidelines had huge implications for clubs, gyms, organisations etc 

On Sport England’s new website, we assisted them by getting a ‘hub’ of information online that highlighted funding opportunities. That included research, FAQs and importantly, applications for the £35m Community Emergency Fund.

The flexible new Drupal CMS meant Sport England could provide timely guidance and information on grants and funding.

In under 6 weeks, the Community Emergency Fund surpassed the annual page views of Sport England's Community Asset Fund and Small Grants Fund combined (the nearest comparable content).

SE3

Results

With gyms closed and team sports/classes off the menu, Sport England needed to keep people fit and active. At the same time, the sports sector needed support and reassurance. Maintaining the population’s physical health is a vital part of our country’s ongoing fight against COVID-19.

By collaborating with Cyber-Duck, they could do just that, informed by real insight into their audience’s behaviour/needs. In just 3 months, we launched the Virtual Activity Finder. We did this by integrating and customising a specialist sports 3rd-party API data feed with the Sport England Drupal website, including both search filters and consumer safety features. 14,000 have used it so far.  

To help the sports sector, we launched a ‘hub’ of information together. The Community Emergency Fund was launched in response to coronavirus in March. It was originally opened as a £20m fund that increased to £35m due to demand, and the fund paused to new applications on 14 May. They had 11,043 submissions in that timeframe, and to date have approved 7,489 applications, totalling £27.6m. 

Combined, all this work has resulted in a nomination for the ‘Best Digital Communications during COVID-19’ from the Digital Impact Awards. 

Key stats

14,000

views of the activity timetable

7,489

funding applications approved

3

months from design to development, ready for the crisis

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