Creating a new agency website?
As Creative Director in an award winning independent creative agency, the re-design of the agency website was to say the least as interesting (I really mean challenging) a brief as you’ll get. Aside from the realities of delivering a ‘house-job’ the critical thing I did first was to ensure my contribution was not predictably about designing a set of templates. This was a brief to practice what we preach, so I used insights to drive the ideas and collaborated with the wider agency team, calling on the digital skills that are now fundamental in our creative process.
Before we did anything we picked the right team
It’s fascinating working with a mix of different thinkers, getting to view a challenge from a number of perspectives. This brief gave me the opportunity to pull together a core team comprising data scientist, UX designer, Information Architect (IA), content strategist, digital content writer and a technology developer.
Everything was about insight led thinking
At IF everything we do starts with data led insights. Our success is built on this approach.
Our in-house data scientist and planner led the team to uncover powerful insights from three key sources.
1. The Agency. We talked with staff, clients and partners. These insights clarified our point of difference - an insight-led creative agency… It’s no accident that’s the first thing you take from our home page! Through this feedback, we discovered two key insights: firstly, that our agency’s creativity and independence helps us to develop very strong partnerships. Secondly, and I’m sure it’s the same for many agencies, hardly any of our clients had a clear understanding of all our services. We now needed ideas to bring these insights to life.
2. The Audience. Clients – existing and prospect are the core target, with prospective partners and future employees important but secondary. We know they’ve either be drawn by a bit of PR, or by a recommend, or perhaps previous experience with us. But we cannot assume they know much about us, if anything. This insight led us to focus our story telling on a clear description of what we are, what we do and who does it. We also knew we needed to create reasons for our audience to come back to the website, so it needed to constantly offer something new and relevant. This informed the UX and content strategy.
3. The Channel. From previous analytics, we understood that we would need a mobile first solution, populated with short form digestible content. We learnt that the most engaged websites promote a ‘new news’ proposition and the site needs to operate in an agile and fluid process, so content can be added and the site can grow organically. In the realistic world of a very busy agency, this would be a challenge.
Ideas were created from insights and team contribution
Developing a new website is not centred on one big idea. Each member of the team used the insights to contribute complementary ideas. Here are just a few samples of the ideas from the team…
The writer and UX worked with the content strategist to create the overall IF story and packaged each chapter into short form content pieces. They decided on a strong focus on image based content. An image can speak a thousand words. It also creates valuable breathing space and vibrancy and this goes way beyond the home page. Each case study is treated as a short story with the header acting as a book cover enticing you in. They also capture the personality of the agency, using the insights and feedback to create a real sense of what IF can offer and how we work.
The IA advised not to use a standard visible navigation and only use the ‘burger nav’ as it demonstrates a mobile first approach and progressive design. We went for templates designed around ‘cards’ and ‘panels’ that can be flexible to facilitate various story formats. The IA worked with the tech developer to create a mobile responsive structure which resulted in scrolling templates that load as you browse to encourage visitors to explore without so much as a click. The framework is scalable to allow the site to grow in a platform that is easy to maintain.
As the website evolved through development, we could all see how each of the insights had informed the ideas and how the team contribution was making a real difference to the user experience.
So far the ideas are working
When compared to our previous website we’re already creating interesting results and new insights.
It’s just the beginning
When the site goes live, it is of course, just the beginning. It’s an always on channel that needs ongoing investment so it provides a customer experience that reflects the agency and the work we create for our clients. And of course it doesn’t work in isolation. Our social strategy, PR and e-CRM support the site to ensure it’s optimised and delivering maximum return for the agency.
Our experience with our web site has in many ways, been a microcosm of our agency’s approach to client business: insight and collaboration leads to some inspired creative ideas, then its down to effective multi-channel management to deliver the results.