Ironman
Built for the long run.
Transforming IRONMAN's digital experience with a faster, more flexible platform for athletes, fans, and the road ahead.
01 — Overview
The starting line
IRONMAN's digital platform had reached its limit. Their legacy CMS was slowing down content production, creating unnecessary work for internal teams, and approaching end-of-life. At the same time, the brand was preparing to launch the new IRONMAN Pro Series before tackling a full rebuild of ironman.com. They needed a partner who could move quickly, solve the technical challenges, and deliver a digital experience that matched the scale of the brand.
- Strategy
- We turned an ambitious transformation into a phased roadmap: launch the Pro Series quickly, prove the approach, then scale it across the broader IRONMAN ecosystem.
- Design
- We created a flexible, component-driven experience centered around athletes, events, compelling live content, and the stories that bring IRONMAN to life.
- Technology
- We replatformed IRONMAN on Drupal and Acquia, connected its fragmented data and tools, and created a scalable system for managing thousands of pages.
02 — Phase one
A race against the clock
With the new IRONMAN Pro Series set to launch in just 75 days, there wasn’t time for a conventional rebuild.
Rather than treating Pro Series as a temporary microsite, we used it to establish the principles that would guide a larger transformation. Athletes took center stage, supported by live race standings, real-time statistics, video streaming, and on-demand content that let fans follow the competition as it unfolded.
Drupal gave IRONMAN control of the experience behind the scenes, while Brightcove powered the live and on-demand video that brought race day to the screen.
03 — UX & UI Design
Built for race day, and every day
The experience needed to capture the energy of IRONMAN by putting the athletes and competition at the center of the story.
Live standings, real-time stats, video, and athlete-focused storytelling brought fans closer to the action as races unfolded. Beyond race day, flexible content components gave IRONMAN new ways to tell stories, highlight athletes, and keep people connected throughout the season.
The result was an experience designed to feel alive whenever fans arrived.
04 — Platform & migration
Going the distance, going for speed
What began with the Pro Series became the foundation for reimagining ironman.com at a much larger scale.
We migrated thousands of pages into a more structured, component-driven platform and brought previously disconnected content, event data, video, and tools into a more cohesive ecosystem.
For IRONMAN’s teams, that meant less time working around the CMS and more freedom to create. For the brand, it meant a digital foundation built to evolve alongside the sport.
“A huge milestone has been achieved with today's Pro Series website launch. It’s been very well received internally, as well by our athletes.”
05 — Outcomes
Across the finish line
The Pro Series launched on schedule just 75 days after work began and welcomed 40,000 new users on its first day.
Just as importantly, IRONMAN came away with a platform capable of supporting what came next rather than another system already approaching its limits.
75Days from start to delivery of the Pro-Series experience
40KNew users on Pro Series site on launch day
33%increase y/y actions taken (IRONMAN.COM)
up 9%y/y user engagement (IRONMAN.COM)
