2019 Winners & Shortlists

Background.

Uniquely positioned, Saudi Aramco is a global leader and producer of energy and chemicals. As well as being one of largest companies in the world, its core business is also known for driving innovative, technological solutions and pioneering initiatives. The saudiaramco.com website redesign was a fantastic opportunity for Saudi Aramco to better tell their story to a global audience. The new site needed to reflect Saudi Aramco's unique brand and proposition, whilst inviting users to learn about their diversified business strategy, positive community impact and ground breaking projects. The objectives: • Connect Saudi Aramco's audiences to the diverse story of the company, expressing the full scope and breadth of Saudi Aramco's business through rich, engaging content • Design a website, delivering a digital experience that's reflective of the best-in-class reputation and leading position of Aramco within the industry • Create a seamless, personalised experience for Aramco's diverse audiences across devices

Describe the creative idea.

The new website needed to connect and guide audiences to learn more about Saudi Aramco's rich and diverse journey, through engaging content and a clean, modern design. In order to bring to life the stories behind Saudi Aramco's outstanding achievements we created mega project articles. These long-form articles include rich and inspiring content with a fantastic story-telling element, which shares a flowing narrative in chapters, complimented with wonderful imagery; enticing users to learn more about the journey and technological solutions that Saudi Aramco have achieved. Whilst the more traditional sections of a corporate site still exist, such as News and Careers, the site introduces an intuitive topic-based filtering system, allowing users to self-segment, and providing a personalised experience. The prominent search navigation also makes it far easier for all audiences to find the content they need.

Describe the strategy.

The ambition for the new website was to provide a more personalised, guided and immersive experience that would meet the needs of all Saudi Aramco’s audiences - including business partners, suppliers, and job seekers. Sitecore was elected as the website platform of choice to support key user requirements and we were able to define global designs and templates that were flexible for multiple languages. A user-centric approach was taken to ensure that a wide variety of components were flexible enough to tell any story in an engaging way for site visitors, that also could scale and reformat according to the device the site visitor is accessing content. Whilst the modularity of the site allows content editors to interject snippets of highlights, inviting users to discover more, showcasing the breadth of achievements of the world's leading producer of energy, throughout the user journey.

Describe the execution.

In order to connect all audiences to the diverse story of Saudi Aramco we focused on key experience pillars: Immersive: The homepage is the embodiment of the new website, with dynamic content that ensures the homepage feels constantly refreshed and up to date. Guided: There is a prominent position for promoted content, to feature significant news stories or a case study, directing site visitors to relevant content. Personalised: Using one of the strengths of the new Sitecore platform to tag content, allowing site visitors to easily filter the content to their interests. Uniquely Saudi Aramco: Dynamic infographics demonstrate the breadth and depth of Aramco at a glance, whilst long-form articles show how Saudi Aramco is making a difference in the world. The articles include rich and inspiring content with a fantastic story-telling element that really brings to life the innovative and leading initiatives by Saudi Aramco.

List the results.

Increased engagement on-site: We have seen a 32% increase in the average time spent on page* which indicates that users are finding the content more appealing. There has also been a fantastic response from Saudi Aramco employees: One employee stated - "One of the marvels of digital communication is the opportunity it provides for personalisation. To have our revamped website give pre-eminence to our visitors, teams from across Saudi Aramco's corporate affairs, legal, and security areas collaborated to innovate a site design and content that puts visitors at the forefront." Another employee stated - "Beautiful balance between simplicity and substance. Great connection between the company and country narrative. Complexity is covered - with no loss of detail. Navigation is very engaging - while one doesn't get lost. Fabulous photography and storytelling. Reinforces one's pride to work for Aramco." * Date range: January 1- January 31 (2018 vs. 2019)