Part One: ACME Media Overview
ACME Media was launched as an alternative for communications people - and others - to take advantage of new methods, ideas and needs with respect to media relations strategy and distribution.
ACME Media has many service offerings, from total turnkey solutions to tactic-specific items such as news release writing, distribution and tracking. Since ACME Media offers two basic service categories (development and distribution) there is an opportunity to offer services, not just to 'media-savvy' people, but to those who recognize the value of media relations but don't have the skill or the initiative to pull it off.
The essence of the ACME Media offering is not as clear as it could be on the homepage so a new approach is outlined in this report.
These key areas were examined in making this assessment:
Overall appeal and user experience: Although the site is nice and clean and easy to navigate, there is an opportunity to strengthen the ACME Media sales message, extend the appeal to a less-knowledgeable audience and to increase the value of ACME Media for clients. The key issue is that the essence of ACME Media's value is not immediately clear on the homepage.
Language style and tone: There is a minimal amount of copy on the site, but a disproportionate number of minor typos - mainly due to HTML. Overall, the site could use more words in various areas to add context to client content (i.e., teasers and abstracts beside MediaRoom links), and information on the value (or potential) of media relations on one's business, and with respect to selling ACME Media services. The recommendations section of this report deals with this opportunity in greater detail.
Visual appeal: This site is simple and uncluttered, except in some of the actual MediaRooms, and this should be maintained in any redesign activities. The ACME Media toolbar header, on the other hand, is bulkier than it needs to be. The font size on most of the pages is smaller than ideal on a 17" monitor with 1024 resolution.
Navigation: Very simple/basic navigation system which is excellent (never do more than you really need); however, the distinction between 'MediaRooms' and 'Media Relations' is not clear, which might confuse some browsers with respect to your true offering. Again, this is addressed in the recommendations.
Functionality: Overall functionality is good, except for a few slow-loading PDF files, a bullet reload issue on one specific page, and a few page-not-found errors. These errors are specified in the next section.
Positive and negative elements: The ACME Media concept is sound and there's probably an opportunity to really expand the site's use within several audience groups. A straightforward messaging approach that describes 'what ACME Media is' could do wonders for increasing traffic and referrals.
Consistency: The main pages are quite consistent (except for the 'Why have ACME Media design your site' page) but there is a fair amount of inconsistency with respect to how you present virtual pressrooms and/or other client content. This issue is also dealt with in the recommendations.
Missing content identification/opportunities: A key finding in this assessment is the missed opportunity to appeal to less media-savvy customers, and an approach to this opportunity is outlined in the recommendations.
