CHALLENGE

The University of British Columbia worked closely with students, faculty, staff and alumni to determine how they wanted to redefine their position in the global university marketplace. A new positioning statement and tagline (A place of mind) resulted, which is intended to represent the sense of space and openness that is special and unique to the UBC community.

Fjord was chosen to bring the updated brand to online market. New corporate website templates were required, as well as a microsite for the community. All deliverables were required within a tight development schedule and required approval by numerous stakeholders.

STRATEGY

Represent the uniqueness, diversity and program choice through a compelling corporate website design that effectively positions UBC as a tier-one university.

The community microsite needed to illustrate how UBC is "an inspiring place where open thought and open speech can open doors to thinking that can change the world." The design, content and structure of the site should bring the new positioning statement to life and encourage community involvement.

CREATIVE AND EXECUTION

To effectively redesign ubc.ca we analyzed available research - technical and content analyses, online surveys, and key stakeholder input. In addition to a new look and feel, our solution incorporated an efficient and highly usable navigation system that effectively addressed the sheer size and variety of content of the site.

Through a feature area on the community microsite, regularly updated videos and content on thought-provoking work done at UBC demonstrates the university's commitment to big ideas. The content comes from the community - faculty, staff and students - and in various formats including RSS, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter.

Site visitors are encouraged to be part of the discussion by commenting on aggregated content and adding opinions of their own by answering the question "What can you do from here?".

To support the site launch Cossette Digital built, deployed and managed a mobile campaign.

RESULTS

Within three weeks of campaign launch, the community site had:

• 11,675 unique visitors to the site and stayed for an average of 2+ minutes
• 279 user-generated content items on the microblog feature
• 3,271 text messages delivered to interested mobile users

 

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