1. Issue 04
Corporate website trends
The evolution of
the corporate website
viewpoint
Corporate digital communications

2. Issue 04
19
Corporate website trends 90
1969
1980
A brief history of the internet
If the history of the internet teaches
us anything, it’s not to underestimate
the pace of change. The first tweet is less
than five years old. Mobile phones and
email are ubiquitous. Google is barely
a teenager, but it’s a $165bn business.
Digital communication now underpins
virtually every facet of life in the western
world, and is growing exponentially in
the emerging economies. Getting your
digital communication strategy right can
be like nailing jelly to a wall. But a bit
of attention to detail can go a long way.
Which is where View can help.

3. 2000
9 95
1
2005
07
20
2009
10
20

4. Issue 04
Corporate website trends
viewpoint
Is your brand ready
for an explosion of
personality?
Want to get noticed? If anything captures the imagination of the corporate brand
right now, it is the potential to differentiate using digital media. How? Simply by
being your corporate self.
Enterprising brands are reaching over the picket-fences of their own websites
to meet their stakeholders in other places. Corporate content is following.
Increasingly it exists and flourishes in independent environments and works to
power business interest back to your brand. Thoughtful corporate web properties
now build pages to the specific needs of individual users based on preferences,
geo-location, search history, purchases, or any amount of other leveraged data.
The delivery method is changing too. It’s a cliché almost as old as the web that
‘content is king’ – but that maxim is as bullet-proof today as it was back in 1995.
Getting the quality of communication right is the most important challenge because
trotting out the same old social media twaddle will just not cut the mustard.
Sure, there’s an ever-expanding range of options like RSS, Twitter, Apps, LinkedIn
and many, many more. But that doesn’t make it right to use them just because
you can.
More than ever, getting the right message, delivered in the right way is critical to
getting heard. The good news is, that with the right strategic partner, the digital
landscape right now is awash with emerging opportunities to help your corporate
communications stand out.

5. THE SHIFTING
DIGITAL LANDSCAPE
Reputation is everything Connecting people
Following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill earlier this year, More than 20% of Nokia’s 68,000 worldwide
BP faced the monumental challenge of managing its employees now use wiki pages to collaborate,
reputation and clearly communicating its response. update schedules and project statuses,
Negative comment spread like wildfire, the pinnacle exchange ideas, and edit shared files.
of which was a fake Twitter account set up by
environmental activists – BP Global PR.
www.twitter.com/bpglobalpr
The IT crowd
Community spirit Dell Computers taps into its own customers as
a source of talent and innovation. Customers can
In an example of a major consumer goods company submit ideas for new products or improvements
using social media to market itself via a sustainability to existing services and vote on ideas they would
message, PepsiCo’s Project Refresh initiative, most like to see developed.
a grants scheme providing millions of dollars to www.ideastorm.com
fund good ideas, big and small is presented as
Pepsi’s alternative to spending millions on
television advertising campaigns.
www.refresheverything.com
Come fly with me
Virgin America has partnered with Klout,
an analytics service that tracks users’ influence on
Twitter (based on variables such as the quality and
number of followers and retweets), to offer flights
to digital influencers in Toronto.
http://bit.ly/dqc9GF

6. Issue 04
Corporate website trends
viewpoint
Five trends for the
‘now’ that’s just round
the corner
Technology is constantly facilitating new experiences and enabling innovative
brands to differentiate themselves through the digital channel. So where do
we start?
1 HTML 5 – it sounds boring, but it isn’t. The new version of HTML is about
to redefine the way in which we expect web pages to work, and unleash a
new layer of creativity and potential communication effectiveness on an
unsuspecting web. Now your site can start doing (almost) all the things it
once tried and failed to achieve.
2 Influence the influencers – proactive corporate brands are already using digital
media to engage with and convince the right people. That way they can cascade
messages through independent sources, using technology to aggregate.
3 Embrace platform diversity – iPads, BlackBerrys, even your fridge freezer.
Whatever the delivery mode, your communication has to come across loud,
clear and consistent. Your site can do that, right?
4 Apps – you have a defined stakeholder audience with well-understood needs.
How do you service them? Simple. It’s an app. It may allow customers to pay
invoices, manage a shareholding, or apply for a job. But once it’s installed,
it’s an inviolable conduit between you and your stakeholder.
5 The Cloud – it’s out there and it’s on demand. The Cloud gives corporate brands
capacity-on-demand to achieve a volume of communication that used to take
sustained investment and effort. It also enables a new layer of communication
possibilities that are only just emerging based around multiple data sources.
Watch this space…
2014

7. Issue 04
Corporate website trends
viewpoint
“ Whoever’s attention you’re
chasing online, it pays to
remember that your audience
of millions is actually a
million audiences of one”
Jason Ross, CEO
Corporate websites have to be geared to provide visitors with a unique and
individual experience. But the carefully-won unity of brand and corporate strategic
messaging has to be preserved and, if possible, enhanced. The online retail
industry has already moved away from the one-size-fits-all approach to a more
tailored communication which acknowledges the preferences, location and
character of the individual user. Now corporate sites are following suit.
While corporate websites are evolving into more fluid and organic entities,
beyond the confines of the corporate URL, forward-thinking enterprises are already
using their greatest asset – their people – to act as brand ambassadors, raising and
maintaining their profile and establishing thought-leadership online within
their sectors.
Thousands of corporate individuals are representing their employers in social
media, and engaging customers, competitors and stakeholders in often-frank
conversations online. Against this background, organisations have to
guard against many things – data leakage, compromised security, brand
dilution - but the opportunities for those who reach out are compelling.
At the same time, the technical restrictions that once compelled so many corporate
sites to mimic each other in the name of convention and usability are falling away.
Technology advances are breaking down barriers to creativity and opening up a riot
of new delivery channels – corporate brands are only starting to scratch the surface
of the potential this offers.
Faced with such a sea of opportunity, it’s tempting to wait in port for others to
set sail. But first-come almost always means first-served. If your corporate brand
is looking for ways to navigate its way to greater communications effectiveness,
you need the right long-term strategic partner to help you avoid the shallows
and chart the right course. At View we’ve been creating effective corporate
communications in any media for years and we have the expertise, creativity
and strategic insight to help you develop your corporate website in the way
your business deserves.
To find out more about the technologies
and trends which are shaping the future
of the corporate website, visit our blog.
www.viewplc.com/wesay

8. View is a corporate digital communications agency.
We help FTSE and global companies engage with their business stakeholders.
We do communications and content strategy; stakeholder engagement;
corporate websites, intranets and microsites; bespoke application development;
integrated marcomms campaigns; digital design, build and support services.
For more information please contact:
Jason Ross, CEO
jross@viewplc.com
Tel: +44 (0)20 8811 8651
View
The Penthouse
Block A, Long Island House
Warple Way
London
W3 0RG
+44 (0)20 8811 8600
www.viewplc.com
Corporate digital communications