Advertising Educational Foundation

Animus Rex has been working with the AEF for more than a decade. The original project included online strategy, identity/rebranding, information architecture, content development, and site build (from scratch). The site was one of the first database driven sites we developed. The original site established the AEF's online presence and lasted more than five years.

Aef.com subsequently went through a comprehensive redesign and restructuring of their original Web site. We reassessed their strategy and existing content and restructured the site into three main areas. The process of 're-skinning' and reorganizing the content was fast and cost effective. The overall cost was approximately 10% of the original development budget. The entire redesign took less than two months (compared to over a year for the previous version).

Architect and design a Web site that has no content.

We identified the primary target then brainstormed ideas about the type of content that might be desirable. After several rounds of refinement and prioritization, we conducted focus groups to test our ideas. Our approach was to create areas where content could live and outline the minimal amount that needed to be developed for each area. A small amount of content was developed prior to launch and an editorial plan was put into place for continuing development over time.

When the site was later redesigned, we reorganized the content that had been amassed during the previous five years into a logical hierarchy that worked going forward.

Build consensus among a diverse group of high-powered advertising executives.

If you've ever tried to get five people to agree on something, try 50. Then make all of them heads of competing advertising agencies. Then give them a budget and a deadline.

We worked with a small interactive committee to do the bulk of the decision-making. The items that needed full board support were packaged into discrete elements. We then strategically framed each element and presented a limited number of viable options. The board voted and we proceeded.

This process was repeated during the later upgrade to the site.

One person with limited technical knowledge needed to maintain and grow a Web site with thousands of pages of content.

For the first version of the site we created custom tools to streamline workflow. This was fine during the first several years. Over time, however, this became inflexible, as new content types were needed. We migrated the backend to our more flexible platform, EsKort, but kept the same design. This allowed for greater flexibility and much more efficient content management tools.

• HTML newsletter engine.
  
  
• Home page content rotates randomly to provide a sense of 'freshness' for each view.
  
  
• User registration.
  
  
• Simple and advanced search capabilities.
  
  
• Integration with John Hopkins "Project MUSE" Registered AEF.com users can use the service for free.
  
  
• Automatic print version.
  
  
• Search Engine Optimized: #1 in several target keyword searches in both Google and Yahoo!
  
  
• Automatic color scheme selection based on the area of the site you're viewing.
  
  
• Large collection of advertising exhibits, most notably, the last ten years of Clio awards.
  
  
• Rich media used throughout the site.
  

"The Advertising Educational Foundation has had a very successful six-year-plus partnership with Animus Rex, who created and continues to develop, enhance and maintain www.aef.com, the Web site of the Advertising Educational Foundation. The Animus Rex staff is creative, thoughtful and responsive. They not only look for a "better" resolution to a situation, they search for the "best" resolution. The AEF and Animus Rex will continue to work together to make aef.com the best it can be."

Paula Alex
Chief Executive Officer
The Advertising Educational Foundation