Taking The Virtual Seats Campaign To The Next Level

This week we were excited to launch our 2024 Virtual Seats campaign alongside the Paris 2024 Games. The aim of this campaign is to get behind your Australian Paralympic team and raise vital funds to support the next generation of Paralympic superstars.

After a successful Tokyo 2020 Virtual Seats campaign, we wanted to build on that success and amplify the campaign, to deliver an exciting experience to engage our donors and thank them for their support. We set out to find an agency that could help us create this and hit the jackpot when we found SLIK.

Over the past 12 months the team at SLIK have worked tirelessly, going above and beyond, to not just build a secure, well-designed Virtual Seats platform, but to create the most exciting, innovative, and accessible campaign we’ve ever seen. With a focus on accessibility, we wanted to create something unique, engaging and special for our supporters. We are so proud of what’s been created and excited for the world to see it. We sat down with the team at SLIK – Sarah Wood, Marketing Director and Harriet Miles, Account Director – to chat about the campaign. 

QUESTION: What have you enjoyed most about working on this project?

The SLIK team has been heavily motivated by the drive to raise funds to help Paralympics Australia transform lives through the power of sport. The most enjoyable aspect would have to be working with the Paralympic Australia Team, their courage in pushing boundaries, and their collaborative approach in finding the best solution for supporters. When you enjoy what you do and who you work with, the team is inspired to break new ground for the experience. 

QUESTION: With the directive of ‘accessibility is a priority’, what did you need to do differently in developing this platform?

With a focus to put digital accessibility at the heart of the experience, we worked with Paralympics Australia to gain vital insights from Australia’s Para-athletes, as well as useability and accessibility consultants, to ensure that accessibility was a priority. WCAG AA guidelines were followed throughout, and influenced key design features such as colour contrasting, font sizes, use of language and navigation to aid accessibility. We were also aware of the Virtual Stadium’s limitations with screen readers, so we developed an accessible version of the site to ensure no one missed out on the experience. 

QUESTION: The ‘Virtual Stadium’ is so cool! What are your favourite additions/inclusions in the Virtual Stadium?

There is so much exclusive content you can find in the virtual stadium but, it has got to be our futuristic avatar called “Speedy” who became the unofficial mascot for the project. We designed Speedy with the user in mind and gave them a chance to either walk to a “Behind the scenes” screen, run to the Aus Squad zone to see messages of support and/or jump onto platforms to see the entire scale of the stadium. But the coolest feature was enabling Speedy to be able to recreate Rowan Crothers famous celebration through an emote whenever they wanted. 

QUESTION: Biggest learning from this project?

That putting accessibility front of mind throughout a campaign should be an integral part of any creative process. There’s a common misconception that accessibility is restrictive, but we found it to be the opposite. It inspired our team to ask themselves “how can we do this differently?”

Anything final thoughts?

Thank you for this opportunity to bring the virtual stadium to life. It has been an honour knowing that SLIK’s work is going towards raising money for a deserving charity, amazing cause and that we are part of supporting the future generation of Paralympians to come. 

Show your support and Buy a Virtual Seat today.

By: Paralympics Australia and SLIK

Published: 8 August 202S