Company: Florida Dept of Citrus (FDOC)
Agency: GolinHarris
Budget: $115,000
There's nothing like starting the day with a fresh glass of orange juice. But for the Florida Department of Citrus (FDOC) - an executive agency of Florida's state government
charged with the marketing, research and regulation of the Florida citrus industry - its online communications was the digital equivalent of pouring multiple servings of orange
juice in different sized glasses for a multitude of drinkers.
Over the years, FDOC (more by default than design) wound up operating 11 different Web sites with a total of 1,600 pages of content. These Web sites were targeting everyone
from consumers to health professionals to the media to the citrus industry. None of the 11 Web sites had common designs or templates, which created an inconsistent image to the
outside world and endless mechanism problems for those assigned to update each Web site.
In order to bring some degree of unity to the FDOC's Net activities, the Chicago-based agency GolinHarris was brought in. Their recommendation was to unify the various sites
into a single FloridaJuice.com online entity. This Net destination literally offered something for everyone: Nutritional information for those concerned about their health and
diet, recipes for meals and drinks (including citrus-spiced cocktails), educational and scientific resources for teachers and students, a press room to handle media inquiries for
information and photographs, and a data resource for the state's citrus growers.
The result of this effort brought order and increased Web traffic to the FDOC. The FDOC does not publicly report traffic data for FloridaJuice.com, but it did see an immediate
20-fold increase in traffic compared to the composite traffic for the 11-separate destinations operated prior to the new portal's launch. FloridaJuice.com is also the new major
tool in the FDOC's marketing program.
GolinHarris did not go unrewarded, as the agency received an Honorable Mention citation in the 2005 PR News Platinum PR Awards.
PR News recently spoke with Jeff Beringer, director of the GolinHarris Web Relations Group, who led the interactive communications team for the agency's award-worthy
project.
Q. How did you diplomatically break the news to the FDOC that their Web sites were inadequate or worse?
JEFF BERINGER: The FDOC was well aware that its Web communications vehicles were in need of an overhaul. GolinHarris' approach was to audit 11 separate FDOC Web sites which
would eventually be replaced by the FloridaJuice.com portal, and also provide an overview of competitive food and beverage Web sites to identify best practices. The intelligence
gleaned from these exercises was shared with the FDOC and helped impact the eventual design of the new FloridaJuice.com site, as well as prioritize content and features to reach
each audience.
Q: How much input did FDOC put into the new design? Or did they just leave it all in your hands?
JEFF BERINGER: The FDOC played an active role in shaping the look and feel of the new site with the GolinHarris team. The organization's long experience communicating with key
audiences including health-conscious consumers, healthcare professionals, and industry insiders such as growers helped feed in-depth insight into the design and content
activities. GolinHarris took these key learnings, paired them with additional audience research and our experience designing for these target audiences, and developed a fresh,
clean interface for FloridaJuice.com to communicate key FDOC messages in an engaging way.
Q: Where did you get all of those great recipes and nutritional information featured on FloridaJuice.com (including the cocktail tips)? Was that already part of the FDOC's
older sites or did you import that?
JEFF BERINGER: From its myriad of marketing programs, the FDOC had a treasure chest of recipes rich with Florida citrus products. Some of the recipes offered on
FloridaJuice.com were chosen from the best existing recipes and the FDOC also developed a number of new recipes to round out its offerings for consumers.
Q: From an aesthetic standpoint, orange is admittedly not the easiest color to design around. How did you come up with the understated Web pages that didn't clobber the senses
with too much orange?
JEFF BERINGER: The FDOC markets Florida-grown citrus products, and as such, the color palettes for the site were matched with the essential colors of citrus products: lively
orange and pink tones along with green. These colors worked well with crisp, clean white backgrounds which make content easy to read on Web pages and help communicate the
inherent health and vitality of Florida citrus products. The new site's interface was intentionally designed with simplicity and readability in mind, and important messages were
fortified through the use of Flash animation and interactive features on the site.
Q: How did you coordinate the user testing of the new Web site?
JEFF BERINGER: GolinHarris and the FDOC teamed up to conduct user testing with each of the organization's most important audiences. Design concepts and content outlines were
shared with a cross-section of individuals from each target group, whose input helped refine the offerings through the design and development process. One of the biggest
challenges lay in the weighting of the content for each of the audiences. Important information for consumers, health professionals and growers would be co-housed on the site and
needed to live in an inner-linked environment though in separate sections to communicate key messages uniquely for each audience. User testing helped GolinHarris devise the
tiered navigation approach with content subsections broken out by audience.
Q: What are you doing to ensure people will keep coming back to the Web site?
JEFF BERINGER: FloridaJuice.com serves as the online "hub" of FDOC's communications initiatives for key audiences. FDOC's online and offline advertisements are regularly
tagged with the Web site URL and all major offline marketing and PR programs are developed with a complementary Web component to ensure integrated message delivery across
traditional and new media channels.
For example, the current information on the site relating to orange juice and immunity (http://floridajuice.com/cm_nutrition_immune.php) is part of a larger offline public
relations initiative to communicate health benefits of Florida orange juice. FloridaJuice.com helps add additional messaging "touch points" to reach on-the-go audiences in
multiple channels with relevant information.
Contact: Jeff Beringer, 972.341.2508, [email protected].
Mining the PR Gold in the Orange Juice Web Site
What kind of lessons can be squeezed out of the redesign of the Florida Department of Citrus' Web site? Here are some tips when it comes to Web design:
- DON'T LIVE IN THE PAST. Designs and text that were appealing a few years ago often run the risk of being stale and outdated today. Web sites are created in HTML, not
chiseled in stone - updates and changes can help to keep the visual appeal fresh and contemporary. Likewise, be certain to keep the text updated, especially in the Press Room
section of the Web site (old press releases suggest no one is paying attention to the site's upkeep).
- BE INVENTIVE IN YOUR APPROACH. The FDOC literally sliced and diced its citrus fruits into a wide variety of unexpected and imaginative recipes (anyone for grapefruit salsa or
citrus chocolate fudge cake?) and cogent health and nutritional information (including data on using citrus fruits to boost the immune system). Much of the information is
serious, but it is presented with crisp language and it is presented in a contemporary visual style that appeals to today's graphically-oriented readership.
- STAY TECH SAVVY. The FDOC incorporates streaming video to present its television advertisements online and it provides literature in PDF format for online or offline reading.
This may not sound cutting edge, but a surprisingly high number of Web sites aren't even that evolved.