WEST BABYLON, N.Y. – The East Coast Conference is proud to announce its website redesign in partnership with SIDEARM Sports and rebrand in partnership with Skye Design Studios. The site officially launched on Tuesday, October 24, 2023.
The new-look site features a fresh, enhanced design to showcase all ECC sports teams and features user-friendly pages for schedules, standings, news, statistics, and more, providing ECC fans with a modern digital experience. The site is easily accessible on all devices, as its responsive layout and design scales to fit to the user's device, whether it is a desktop, tablet, or mobile device, for improved navigation and deeper engagement opportunities. The site also provides a new scoreboard at the top of the site as well as quick access to social media outlets to follow all of your favorite ECC teams.
"I am excited to announce our new partnership with SIDEARM Sports," said ECC Commissioner Bob Dranoff. "SIDEARM Sports is the leading digital provider for college athletics, and we are proud to provide our fans with a fresh look and more interactive experience."
For over 30 years the ECC has championed the academic, athletic, personal, and professional development of student-athletes across the nation and around the world. The ECC’s new “Experience, Compete, Champion” campaign embodies the conference’s commitment to high-quality and competitive athletics through 20 women’s and men’s sports, strong academics, enriching community engagement, and preparing students with life-after-the-game initiatives. The branding addition is prevalent on the website’s front page as well as in the flashing logo during page transitions.
“As we went through this process, our vision was to create a brand that aligned with our status as a Division II conference that provides our member institutions with opportunities to experience, opportunities to compete, and opportunities to champion their lives, whether athletically, academically, in the community, or beyond,” said Dranoff. “We wanted to create a concept that would resonate with our member institutions and student-athletes, and we are confident and proud that the end result represents who we are as members of the ECC.”
During the year-long creative timeline, a wide range of conference stakeholders were engaged in a collaborative process guided by New Jersey-based Skye Design Studios (skyedesignstudios.com), a national leader in sport branding.
Key messaging and features include:
COMPETE: The ECC fosters an environment in which student-athletes pursue and reach their potential as collegiate athletes through quality athletic competition at a regional and national level, provides opportunity to embrace the challenge to achieve success, both personally and as a team, and maintains a forum to build relationships with student-athletes and institutions within and outside of the conference.
CHAMPIONSHIPS AND EXPERIENCES: Student-athletes in the ECC receive regional and national recognition, are provided as opportunity to participate in organized and exciting experiences and contend for conference, regional, and national championships, and learn leadership, personal, and professional development, wellness awareness, and guidance.
GEOGRAPHY: ECC student-athletes travel to three diverse metro areas in the U.S. (Western New York, New York City, and Washington, D.C.) and earn travel knowledge and experience while members gain access to a broad recruiting base.
COMMUNITY: Members of the ECC experience camaraderie among a variety of public and private schools, broaden their worldview by learning new things and meeting new people, and encounter immersion into a diverse group of student-athletes, active service in the community, and building quality relationships.
SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLKIT: A key vehicle for brand activation is through the use of the Social Media Toolkit. It has been designed in a three-tiered system, with each of the three tiers referencing a keyword from the ECC slogan. The full family is cohesive while allowing for flexibility as a method to keep posts fresh but on-brand. In addition to general base designs rendered in the conference colors, co-branded designs for each category are also available in each member institution’s color scheme. The full-time conference membership will have access to versions of the primary mark rendered in each institution's official colors.
About SIDEARM Sports
Operating in the LEARFIELD portfolio of companies since June 2014, SIDEARM Sports is the nation’s leading digital provider for college athletics. Based in Syracuse, N.Y. and founded in 2000 by Jeff Rubin, who continues to lead the business, SIDEARM is trusted by some of the biggest brands in the industry, including the majority of NCAA programs and Power Five athletic departments. As a leader in digital fan engagement, SIDEARM Sports provides the best-in-class software and technology that powers websites, mobile applications, OTT media services, live stats, video streaming and more for its partners. Clients continue to trust SIDEARM for its support, reliability, customization and easy-to-use interface that allows schools to tailor their content and digital presence directly for their fans.
About Skye Design Studios
Skye Design Studios is a national branding leader, with a focus on sport, lifestyle, and academic properties. The mission of SDS is to deliver a personal customer service experience and premium brand solutions to each of its clients. For more information, visit skyedesignstudios.com.
NOTE: With any new website, we may experience minor glitches early on. If you notice any broken links, please email Coordinator of Strategic Communications Nikki Philpot at nphilpot@eccsports.org.