A specialist website development company and D2N2 grant recipient has now been appointed to work on a major digital project which will help to improve customer experience for one of its clients.
Purpose Media, based in South Normanton, Derbyshire, has recently been hired by Derby County FC to create a brand new club website – scheduled to be live in July 2017. This is the latest in a stream of successes for Purpose Media, which has tripled its staff numbers in the last year (2015-16) and continues to grow. In the summer of 2015, it applied for and received an £85,000 grant from the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).
D2N2 is the LEP for the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire area and works with businesses, local authorities, skills and training providers and community and voluntary organisations to grow its areas economy, with the aim of creating 55,000 new jobs in ten years (2013-2023). As a part of this mission, it worked with business management organisation EMB Group to deliver an Unlocking Investment for Growth (UI4G) grant scheme, to provide bridge-funding for businesses which had expansion projects, but did not quite have the necessary funding.
Businesses who applied to the UI4G programme had to demonstrate a strong business case, value for money, sustainable job creation and that private sector investment would be leveraged by the UI4G grant. Businesses which also came under one of D2N2’s eight key sectors, such as Purpose Media – a creative and digital firm – were also of particular interest to the D2N2 LEP investment panel – chaired by D2N2 board member Peter Gadsby.
Purpose Media applied to the D2N2 LEP for £85,000 to help them acquire more office space, expanding the business and creating ten new jobs as a result. Since this expansion it has also merged with A Star Media, a video production company which has worked on a number of projects with the D2N2 LEP for the last three years.
This latest project undertaken by Purpose Media will see them create a brand new website and mobile platform for Derby County Football Club, as well as providing news, features, and interviews as part of the club’s move to provide a brand new online experience for its fans. This follows previous a previous projects undertaken by Purpose Media, which included the building and development of an online ticket booking system, which streamlined the online buying process and saw the club’s ticket sales increase by 50%.
Matt Wheatcroft, Managing Director of Purpose Media (pictured left), said:
“Our aim is to develop a fully-integrated and optimised website which provides the club with enhanced flexibility over content, more commercial opportunities and better insight into fan behaviour, while at the same time being more engaging and easy-to-use for supporters.”
Brandon Furse, Head of Ticketing, Analytics and Technology at Derby County added:
“Purpose Media were our number one choice. Since working with them over the past three years we have built an excellent working relationship and they have certainly delivered results. For example, when we first launched our new online ticketing platform, designed by Purpose Media, our online ticket sales rocketed.
Derby County’s president and chief executive Sam Rush spoke of being ‘delighted to be able to partner with Purpose Media’, adding:
“The club website has been outside the club’s control for over 16 years, in which time digital technologies have transformed the way we all live our lives. By creating a brand new up-to-date digital platform, we will not only be able to take advantage of some of these technologies, we will also be able to provide our supporters with a much improved online experience.”
For more information on Purpose Media, click here
For more information on D2N2’s UI4G Programme (now closed), click here
For more information on the above release, please contact Sam Burbage, Social Media and Marketing Officer at the D2N2 LEP, on 01159 578254, or by email: sam.burbage@d2n2lep.org
