The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) is the largest single seller of wheat and barley in the world, holding more than 20 per cent of the international market. First launched in 1996, its Web site served largely as an organizational library for farmers. Key audiences, such as customers, media and industry, were not addressed on the Web site.

In 2006 High Road provided the CWB with a complete e-communication solution for the reorganization and redesign of its Web site for farmers and international customers. The Web site goals were three-fold:

1. Redesign the CWB site to better serve the needs of both farmers and customers.
2. Create greater access to e-business services, forms, and contract information.
3. Improve navigability of information through careful usability analysis, content review, and usability testing.

High Road developed a strategic plan that mapped out a new framework for the CWB site to meet its audiences’ needs and provide room for future growth. The planning process included extensive consultation with CWB business divisions and direct usability testing with farmers.

High Road developed and documented a technical approach and rebuilt the entire Web site using a fully-updated navigational structure for greater usability. Key features of the site include full-integration of multiple e-service registrations into a single interface, audience-specific categorization, and faster more intuitive access to both e-services and critical business forms and contracts.

Since the launch in October 2006, audience feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Many farmers and customers note that the updated structure has allowed them to spend less time searching and more time using the information to help their businesses succeed.

Magna International Inc., the most diversified automotive supplier in the world and one of Canada’s largest corporations, needed a Web strategy that served their global business by best representing their international reach, depth of experience, diverse capabilities and innovative products.

High Road’s relationship with Magna dates back to 2004 when we were asked to redesign the corporate website.

The second phase in the relationship began in early 2007 when Magna needed to consolidate all 10 of its global operating groups and present them in one consistent online property. This represented a large shift for Magna online – the company now speaks to vastly broader audiences in three new languages (German, Japanese and Chinese). Furthermore, for the first time in any medium, Magna presents a consolidated global view of its many products and capabilities. Anyone who understands the current climate in the auto sector knows that the value of a more efficient and more unified channel to communicate with customers, investors and media is immense.

High Road’s strategists worked with Magna to develop a plan that would satisfy the company’s broadened marketing, media and investor needs. High Road developed a creative design that would accommodate an increasing variety of content, meet the functional requirements of the site, and have a engaging look and feel. In addition, a host of interactive Flash-based elements were developed to improve site engagement and product interest, ranging from simple service overviews to detailed product schematics and dynamic maps.

The High Road team is now working on a measurement strategy that assesses the comparative value of the site to different business functions (marketing vs. investor vs. corporate reputation). With this new measurement program, Magna can better demonstrate the value of the project.

As part of a new public affairs campaign and communications strategy, the CBA required a Web site that delivered tailored messages to its target audiences including media, government regulators, and the general public.  The site had to integrate and support its Building a Better Understanding program, which included a national advertising campaign and 14-booklet series on a variety of financial topics.

An extensive audit was conducted to establish key objectives and identify audiences, define measurement benchmarks and outline criteria for appropriate site content. The results of the audit allowed High Road to design an information architecture that was both usable and intuitive, delivering the key messages to a particular audience in as few clicks as possible.

The CBA’s publication ordering process and information dissemination processes were reviewed and changed to be deployed over the web site.  After the launch, more than 80 percent of publication orders were handled on-line and call volume to the CBA Public Affairs department was reduced by fifty per cent.

A comprehensive back-end database was also built to handle publication order fulfillment, measure site statistics and track site usage. In addition, a content development plan was used to organize and create new content for the Web site. iStudio oversaw the entire site development process, and worked closely with the CBA’s small public affairs team to deliver a new Web site in a tight time frame.

Since its release, the site has received positive reviews by the CBA’s key audiences and has become an integral part of their communications program.  As a result, requests for information have decreased and site traffic has increased exponentially, now averaging 40,000 unique visits a day.  More than 95% of the CBA publications have now been fulfilled through its Web site, with over three million booklets ordered by the general public, teachers and bankers.