Sky High or Free Fall: All Aboard the Web RollerCoaster

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Sky High or Free Fall All Aboard the Web
Roller-Coaster

• David Sweeney
• Vice-Principal, Royal Holloway

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Evolution
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Research-led

• RANKING INSTITUTION
• Cambridge
• London School of Economics
• Oxford
• Imperial College London
• Warwick
• York
• University College London
• Bristol
• ROYAL HOLLOWAY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
• St Andrews

(Research Assessment Exercise 2001)
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Web First Car or Last

• IT First
• Marketing Last
• Looking through each others eyes?

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Web Aims Objectives

• Improve communication to widen knowledge and
  understanding of the College
• Promote a consistent visual identity and
  navigation to present a united front
• Add value to activities and relationships
• Develop online services to enhance interaction
• Replace paper where appropriate

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A Bumpy Ride

• Successes and Failures
• Understanding customer needs
• Benchmarking
• Understanding why web-sites really work
• Varying literacy skills
• Different styles of information engagement
• Some very flawed research

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Holy Grails

• Often Technology-driven
• Open-Standards
• Accessibility
• The Mobile revolution
• Content Management
• E-learning
• Blogs
• E-commerce
• Personalisation
• How much time wasted?

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Marketing
Marketing is the management process responsible
for identifying, anticipating and satisfying
customer requirements profitably CIM

• Dare we learn from the experts?
• Should we trust the experts?
• Can we engage with the experts?
• Budgets?

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Branding

• What you think about yourself and your key
  messages
• Customer perception
• Useful framework for thinking but dont take
  yourself too seriously
• Poses some very hard questions

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Who are we?

• Whats special about us?
• What are our key messages?
• Who are our key audiences?

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Why students like Royal Holloway
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Consultation

• Focus Groups
• Surveys
• Market Research
• Lots of meetings
• Internal Roadshow
• Comparator research

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A Rallying Cry

• Distilling the Essence
• Developing the Messages
• Creating a Visual Style
• Going for broke
• Rolling out in all media

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Lessons learned?

• Not all consultants are hopeless.but most are.
• IT people arent always right
• Whats wrong with blinkers anyway?
• Marketeers contribute a stream of consciousness
• Market Research helps
• Creative people think theyre always in charge

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Lessons learnt?

• VCs think they are in charge
• Direct marketing to VCs is awful
• Its going to take time
• Working together can make a difference.

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Work together

• and learn from each other