Digital marketing agency Bolser has been appointed by the Premier League, The FA and the government’s Football Foundation to help enable the investment of a projected £92m into multi-sports grassroots facilities across England by 2025.
The Leeds-based agency has provided the charity with digital strategy consultancy and the design and build of a web app called Pitch Power that helps support the improvement of grass pitches at football, cricket, rugby league and rugby union grounds across England.
The free-to-use app will see every community club and organisation across cricket, rugby league, rugby union and football given the ability to carry out their own sport-specific grass pitch inspections.
Once an inspection is submitted, grass pitch experts at the Grounds Management Association produce an assessment report with bespoke advice and recommendations to improve the grass pitch quality at a site.
Although previously an initiative solely for football, the Football Foundation has announced that the app is now available for rugby league, with rugby union set to go live this autumn and will be available to cricket at the start of the next season.
The app created by Bolser improves the overall user experience of carrying out a pitch inspection and submitting the relevant information. The agency has also extended the app to support submissions across all four sports.
Sam Bunis, director of brand, marketing and communications at the Football Foundation, said: “Bolser are UX design specialists. They have helped us translate complex user journeys into intuitive, insight-driven designs to convert more users.”
Bolser previously supported the Football Foundation to design and develop a new website to demonstrate the impact of funding provided by the foundation.
Bolser managing director, Ashley Bolser, commented: “The PitchPower app is an excellent initiative and we’re very proud that our work will help the Football Foundation to support the improvement in grass pitches across England.
“To produce an app which meets the Football Foundation’s requirements is testament to the design expertise and build capability of our team here at Bolser.
The multi-sport PitchPower app was launched at an event where the Football Foundation announced that by 2025, the charity plans to commit 40 per cent of its investment, worth a projected £92m over the next three years, into multi-sport projects. This will benefit the landscape of sport across the country, ensuring people will be able to access more places to play for more of the nation’s favourite sports.
Several high-profile sports figures attended the event, including England men’s football manager and Football Foundation supporter Gareth Southgate, England men’s rugby league coach Shaun Wane and captain of the England women’s cricket team Heather Knight OBE.
