Broadening appeal.
To a relatively younger audience.
Despite an established reputation for high-quality service, Reader Offers Limited’s brand name, which had been built almost exclusively through printed media, frequently caused confusion when applied to online audiences. Given the focus on growing their digital audience, it made sense to kick—start this project with a full brand review.
Brand development
Creative and design
Development
Market analysis
Optimisation
Strategy
Web UX
Evolving the brand
Our focus was developing a new brand identity that would be applicable to both offline and online audiences. Following a consultation and workshop process, we carefully evolved “Reader Offers Ltd” into “ROL Cruise” and introduced a new logo, set of style guidelines and brand proposition (“Experience the Difference”). We created a brand identity that encapsulates their core values and better appeals to a broader audience, whilst balancing this with continuity.
Planning the site architecture
To expand ROL Cruise’s online reach to relatively younger audiences, we needed to plan and build a new website with this in mind. Research revealed that the 45-64 demographic favour “discovery” based experiences. Therefore, we introduced experiential cruise categories such as “Arts & Entertainment” and “History & Culture”. This transformation was supported by a new, inspirational timeline itinerary format and solo price switch option. Following careful site mapping and wireframing, we also created a powerful yet simple structure allowing most sections, including readymade landing pages, to seamlessly direct users towards featured product or cruise results.
Dynamic search
We placed additional focus on creating a powerful new search feature. Through user testing, we discovered the key areas of frustration, with particular regards to locating and selecting preferred destinations and ports of call. To keep things as simple as possible, additional search options were made available under an ‘advanced search’ option. These powerful tools gave the site the most powerful and effective search interface in the industry.
Quality content
To improve engagement, credibility and to help support a robust content strategy, we significantly expanded the blog section and improved its visibility and promotion across the site. Furthermore, an extensive range of destination guides were added, and we dramatically enhanced the use of photography and video, with a large library of visual media specifically created to support the project.
Ongoing optimisation
Since launch, we have continued to improve the site through a process of conversion rate optimisation, monitoring and analysing thousands of user sessions to fulfil a cycle of ongoing improvements. All new features are rigorously tested, and small changes are tried in order to assess their impact on performance. As a result, the new site is easier to navigate, more user centric and visually engaging. It’s no surprise to us that it continues to win awards for being best in class.
“We are delighted with the new website that Accord has created for us, which has delivered above and beyond our expectations. Following our site launch, conversion rates have improved and bounce rates have been significantly reduced, allowing us to better showcase our excellent cruise opportunities.”
Jeremy Dickinson
Chairman, ROL Cruise