App Features:

Vote for player hero of the day 
Line up ideal team and share
Vlog with review of the day’s play
Heroes cheer: cheer, record, share gif 
Aggregated news from social media and web

App Downloads:

The HerthaHelden-App (Hertha heroes app)

Football First

Football apps are often very busy and cluttered. Is that because the fans want them that way? The HerthaHelden-App shows once more that it can be different - with a simple and clean design that develops with its functionality from year to year. 

The aspiration the Deutsche Bahn (German Rail) had to develop an app for Hertha BSC fans was to not only bring the fans to the match, but also into the game. As a second screenapp, it gives the live stadium experience a new dimension and turns the long-time main sponsor into a fan partner. 

The main function was initially to name a player as hero of the game at home matches. In its first season, the app gave the line-up, live statistics and background information, especially in the form of exclusive photos that were uploaded with the HeldenCam-App (Heroes-cam app). Now the app has been developed further and offers, among other things, a tool to line up your own HerthaHeldenElf (Hertha heroes team), a newsfeed with aggregated information about Hertha and the HerthaHeldenYoubel (Hertha heroes cheer), a gif generator with the Helden look. 

"With the app, we bring fans to where they want to be: nearer to the game and to the players. They have been given a voice.“

Georg van der Vorst, Head of Sponsoring, Marketing and Media Cooperation at the Deutsche Bahn.

Right from the start, the design played a huge part in the development of the app. How would the Deutsche Bahn corporate identity and the Hertha club colours work together to form the stage for the heroes? The answer was that something completely new had to be created and that the designers would not orient themselves to other football apps that were already out there. Unusually, black turned out to be the right colour for the heroes. Large-scale, with specifically placed animation and clean lines, the app focuses on the essential aspects that matter: the players and the usability. 

In the first seasons, there was a blue animated aura around the players, but as time went on, the focus moved more towards the hero-themed aspect, leading to an almost black and white look. It reflected the magical atmosphere of a floodlit game in the rain, creating something reminiscent of the pictures in cult comics.

Please don’t smile. For the cover photo and poster motif, Hertha players - here Marvin Plattenhardt - were photographed in heroic poses. The players were later superimposed in front of the Bahn Tower, to subtly identify the origin of the app. 

The Deutsche Bahn only has a subtle influence on the app design. Effectively-placed red logo elements point to the originator. DB is now no longer the main sponsor seen on the player jerseys. For the 2017/18 season, the HerthaHelden will have a retro look to celebrate the 125-year Hertha jubilee. 

The design was so well-received by the fans that they were keen to present themselves in the same Helden look. In various campaigns, e.g. with a self-produced photobox, the Bahn and Scholz & Volkmer made this possible. Furthermore, the team behind the app received an award or two at the Red Dot Award and the European Design Awards. 

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