NB: Confidentiality agreements prevent us from naming this client.

Brief

"Design and build a market-leading, world-class portal for the new Wealth Management brand."

Our client is the wealth management division of a global banking group, formed to bring together all products and services for high net worth individuals and corporations under one brand.

In May 2007, Tobias & Tobias was selected from a pitch list of 33 agencies to help the client take the next significant step in its evolution by creating one of the key drivers of this strategic change: the Wealth Portal.

The objectives were ambitious. The Portal needed to:

• Seamlessly integrate the content of six major businesses
• Deliver a highly targeted offering that catered for the needs of a diverse customer base, including high net worth individuals, financial advisors and corporations
• Optimise all key user journeys
• Convey an online substantiation of the brand promise embodied by the client’s emotionally charged, offline launch campaign
• Act as a relationship-building tool that increased brand loyalty and sales
• Deliver a unified user interface experience throughout both the Portal and its surrounding applications

Strategy & execution

We conducted a full, cross-business content audit to define the information that was to be featured throughout the Portal. Cross-referencing this with the stated business goals of the portal and industry best-practice, we then developed a comprehensive content strategy based on these requirements.

One of the project's most significant challenges was the integration of the disparate products, services and marketing propositions that existed across the brand into a unified online experience. We used an agile interpretation of the user-centred design model to define an architecture and design that fulfilled this objective.

The core attributes of the brand are conveyed online through the use of client centric emotive animations and storytelling devices linking through to related products.

We developed a sophisticated visual design that remained true to the brand’s key motif – the bold use of white text on black backgrounds – while at the same time meeting strict usability and accessibility standards.

To help convey the brand promise created by the launch campaign, we incorporated a number of tactics, including:

• Intelligent interaction in the form of live market data
• Rich and emotive storytelling devices
• Compelling content from the client’s research teams

We supplied HTML/CSS coding to the client's IT team and assisted them with the integration of this code with their content management system. This necessitated:

• A high level of communication and collaboration between Tobias & Tobias and the client's technology team
• The provision of quality code built to agreed standards
• An in-depth knowledge of the impact that our deliverables would have upon subsequent releases of the Portal

One of the key success factors of the engagement was the role we played in bringing together marketing and IT to achieve effective delivery of a complex site.

Results

The Portal was launched in November 2007 to great acclaim. It has been recognised by the client as a key driver in its much broader structural change programme. We continue to work with the client and launched a further version of the Portal in summer 2009.