Michael Malthouse
After joining Twitter earlier in 2010, Malthouse wanted to establish his own site to branch out. "As I reach the end of my 27th year of coaching AFL, I feel it important to have a voice outside of the usual realms," Malthouse writes. "I want to express all of my opinions and views, share some of my knowledge and experience and learn what's important to you, the faithful football supporter."
The Brief
Michael (Mick) Malthouse needs no introduction. Suffice to say he’s possibly the most successful AFL coach of the recent era, with 6 Grand Final appearances, and 3 victories. Michael was also a distinguished footballer, playing 174 games and winning a premiership in 1976. Outside football, Michael’s great passions include a keen interest in history, and supporting various environmental causes.
After joining Twitter earlier in 2010, Malthouse wanted to establish his own site to branch out. “As I reach the end of my 27th year of coaching AFL, I feel it important to have a voice outside of the usual realms,” Malthouse writes. "I want to express all of my opinions and views, share some of my knowledge and experience and learn what’s important to you, the faithful football supporter. My focus at all times is 100 percent on Collingwood and at the moment that means preparing for a preliminary final. Hopefully, though, this website will allow you to join me on this exciting, stressful, challenging, nerve-wracking journey!"
Lava’s brief was to establish a new corporate identity for Michael, followed by a stand-alone, highly custom and polished website with a CMS to enable him to publish regular updates and opinion pieces. The website needed to attract public speaking enquires, and provide plenty of space for sponsor advertising.
With Lava Director Stuart Gonsal a passionate West Coast Eagles supporter, Lava was delighted to work with Michael, and daughters Christi and Danielle on this project. In the lead up to the ‘10 Finals Series, there was a real sense of buzz!
Lava’s Solution
Step 1 was to establish a corporate identity that really reflects Michael. The two M’s in the logo combine to evoke the symbol of Yin-Yang, seen as the idea of balance according to Chinese philosophy. In the Michael Malthouse logo, this represents the balance between strength and caring, professional work and family life.
The website design's approach is clean and sleek. Christi and Dani were keen to see a black and white colour scheme, with a dash of red. To add some quirk, Lava created an interactive animated landscape to complement the site’s navigation menu. This landscape scene uses a collage of imagery from Mick’s history in AFL football, such as the West Coast ’94 Premiership, trees to symbolise his environmental interests, and favourite objects from his ‘den’ (study) such as books and aboriginal sculptures.
Similar to the Shane Warne website, Lava has integrated Michael’s Twitter feed into the Homepage of the site. With over 5,000 followers, Twitter has proven to be a key aspect of the site launch and directing continued traffic, such as when a new Blog entry is posted. The Blog section has been a huge success, with Michael and Christi posting extensive articles, and with exceptional user responses. Some Blogs have 30+ posts, all very well written and some almost essay length! A cute aspect of the Blog is having each new article accompanied by a random 'mugshot' from Michael’s past. There are some humorous fashion choices and expressions!
Other features of the site include the multimedia Gallery, which houses many photos and video clips. Old photography was scanned in, and Christi and Dani went to great lengths to source and collate these materials. A Bookings facility enables interested parties to submit basic details, requesting Michael’s services for public speaking appearances. All site sections allow advertising by sponsors. The Lava CMS enables simple editing of the site content, including our Ad Management tool for loading new ads, and monitoring their performance (analytics). The Lava e-News Builder was provided, and in a similar way to Michael’s Twitter, this is key to directing traffic to the site.
The Michael Malthouse website was a delight to work on, and the Lava team enjoyed the process immensely. Christi, Dani and Michael were fantastic collaborators, and the site response has been hugely successful with mainstream media coverage including The Herald Sun and The Age papers, and SEN Radio.
Testimonial
Stuart, I know it has been a quick turn around, but we really appreciate it. Timing wise, it's perfect for the AFL finals series! It's been a massive learning curve for us but you've all made it quite easy in the end. Thank you all so much again. We are very excited and grateful.
Christi & Danielle Malthouse
