Entrant’s Name: Gary Lintern Organization’s Name: Tenzing Communications Inc. and Libro Financial Group Division/Category: Division 1, Category 16: Electronic and Digital Communication Title of Entry: Libro Web Time Period: Fall 2011 Brief Description: Libro Financial Group created a new web site, video-based, financial literacy content and included customer/users in the overall development of the web site. The finished product for this $1.5 Billion credit union was launched at the end of September 2011. Need or Opportunity Based in London, Libro operates 15 full-service banking branches throughout southwestern Ontario. It is a large credit union by Ontario standards and competes successfully with Canada's big banks. Libro's value proposition is based on providing personal, financial Coaching (like private banking services) to every customer. The Need: Consumer and business owner banking patterns are changing. In person visits are decreasing as online and mobile banking increase. As visits decrease, the value proposition of personal service and Coaching based on face-to-face relationships is eroded. Over time, Libro's current point of differentiation will disappear. In that context, Libro needs to create a new platform for its financial Coaching value proposition and the new website project became the perfect starting point. The Opportunity: Libro's opportunity is to demonstrate the value of personal financial Coaching through a web site experience. Intended Audience(s) and Audience Characteristics

Who Why Characteristics Members

Libro's existing customers (members or owners) are the primary drivers of referrals and business growth. Ensuring they were reflected in the site was a creative priority.

- age 20-60 - families - HHI - $75,000 - post-secondary - small business owners - rural and urban mix

Prospects

Libro's business growth targets include 10% new member acquisition per year. All advertising drives traffic to the web site.

- age 20-49 - families - HHI - $75,000+ - post-secondary - small business owners - urban

Employees

Libro staff (Coaches) along with members are the stars of the site. Pride of association in their site is very high.

- 300 staff - 70% female

Influencers

Libro media relations generated about 300% of planned coverage in 2011, and based on media feedback, the web site is an invaluable tool for journalists. It's also a source for referral information; from lawyers and accountants, and between not-for-profits who participate in Libro's Community Builder Program.

- media - Lawyers & CAs - not-for-profits

Goals and Objectives Overall Goals: Recreate the site and all content to reinforce Libro's personal, financial Coaching Value Proposition and primary point of difference (without making product and rate content any tougher to find). Capture Libro's personal experience in a web environment. Objectives: • Differentiate the design, content and writing style compared to traditional bank sites. • Improve site traffic across all metrics: Unique Visitors Bounce Rate Pages/Visit Time on Site New Visits Page Views • Simplify navigation and boost content engagement based on independent analysis. Solution Overview Libro's new web site is a true collaboration of strengths between three stakeholder groups: Branch and marketing staff, customer/users in urban markets and the design team. We asked the right people the right questions at the right stages in the process, and the result is a site that reflects the best of everyone involved. Start Up: The design strategy team audited existing, competitive sites, and scoured financial sites as well as leading relationship sites from around the world. We also explored international museum, gallery and exhibition display and way-finding design to get our heads into a new space for financial services. Audit results were shared with all stakeholders. Town Halls: We invited customer users (heavy web users and new- to-Libro users) to attend evening sessions about website design and content. Three Town Halls focused on customers and an additional Town Hall was delivered to branch staff. We presented ideas, asked for content and navigation input, and reflected their overall input in the design of the final site. Most important, we kept the Town Hall attendees involved in the process (pre-launch) so they could see their ideas come to life. We believe this created up to 100 early adopters and advocates for the new site before it was even launched. Design: Every rate, product, customer video, net worth tutorial, community service and news release is within two easy clicks of the home page and as such, the navigation of the site is remarkably easy to follow. That was Job One. Job Two was to make it look and feel like a Libro brand experience. We used the big image canvas to achieve that - Libro is about people and financial Coaching, not rates and product descriptions. The site design reflects that all the way through. That it also uses real Libro customer and staff images throughout makes the overall design even more relevant. Content: The content framework (consistent landing pages, titles and content formatting) makes navigation easy. But what makes it unique in content is the use of video and embedded video clip 'bumpers'. You can access the video library in the learning/sharing section and get the full story. Or you can click onto relevant shorter video clips in each section. Connect: Finding and hooking up with a Libro Coach is as easy as clicking one link clearly located on every site page. The site has been designed to allow real-time Coach engagement on every page in the site in 2013.

Implementation and Challenges Implementation: The design and content partner (Tenzing) worked with the strategy and marketing team (Libro staff) to populate, test and post the final site with all content in place for launch day. The site was 'warmed up' with a preview e-blast and link for employees about one week prior to launch. The online and mobile banking platforms were incorporated at the same time, and the entire site was switched over on schedule and without bugs or glitches in the Fall of 2011. Upgrades and updates are performed regularly now and site traffic growth has been notable (and rising). Challenges: The usual web refresh challenges of timing, coordination of resources, collaboration, content checking and hitting a firm date with a work in progress were all present in the development of Libro's site. It's far more than a design and writing project. But three specific challenges come to mind: (1) While a fresh canvas is a wonderful thing, the amount of original content and writing is massive, and the potential for mixed messages was high. We used one writer to ensure every word delivered exactly the same message as the next. Staying true to one brand personality was far easier as a result. (2) Creating member-story videos with interview content that could be dissected and used in small pieces through the site was also a challenge. So we created a grid of site content, matched it to video interview questions and derived appropriate video clips for embedding as a result. Traditional product and service text comes alive with candid, video commentary. (3) Creating an e-zine style site requires many still images in addition to video content. Stock images in financial services are over-used and meaningless. Original photography in volume is cost prohibitive. So we used special HD video cameras to create a high-res, high quality, Libro owned library of customer, location and employee still images from the video shoots. Libro now has an almost inexhaustible supply of fresh and meaningful photos for their web site and other communications. Measurement of Outcomes and Outputs The new site was measured against objectives in three ways.

(1) By comparison in design (subjective). (2) Based on Web Statistics; traffic visits and breakouts that measure actual engagement online (statistical). (3) Independent site 'Mystery Shopper' survey. (qualitative)

Direct Results: • Differentiate the design compared to traditional bank web sites.

RBC CIBC Libro

Based on customer/member input and a complete audit of existing Canadian banking sites, the Libro design is a refreshing, tablet-friendly, e-zine format that is unique in both design and content. • Improve site traffic across all metrics:

October 2010 October 2011 Unique Visitors 37,900 42,800 Page Views 268,300 365,400 Pages/Visits 1.81 2.53 Time on Site 1:49 3:01 Bounce Rate 46.8% 15.7% New Visits 15.5% 18.35%

Notes:

- While all numbers increased and that's very good, the Time On Site and Bounce Rate numbers are especially impressive. 42,800 unique visitors engaged in Libro's brand deliberately for (on average) 3 minutes. That's a Libro brand experience. - Traffic, page views and time, bounce rates and visits all remained consistently higher through to the end of December and have trended even higher starting in January.

• Design a site that is easy to navigate, useful/interesting in its content.

Libro employed an online Mystery Shopper service to test the new site's navigation, information flow, content and usefulness. Here's a summary of the findings:

• All shoppers found the Libro site easy to navigate, well-laid out and easy to understand. • The majority of shoppers said the videos and format made locating financial planning information easy (financial planning growth is a core objective of the Libro business plan). • What shoppers liked the most were the videos (real people) • More than 50% of shoppers liked contests and other meaningful incentives. • 33+% of the shoppers would go on to make an appointment with a Libro Coach. • The site is designed logically so it is easy to follow. Summary Mystery Shopper Quote: "I'd be encouraged to call for a meeting with a Coach - they seem dedicated to helping you plan for your financial security." Indirect Results: • Libro year over year business growth during the launch of the new site was significant: 15% higher new prospect acquisition. • Employee response has been positive and supportive (they like the video coaching content and resources that are now online).