Using web content to redefine a global business

The client
BP Aromatics & Acetyls, known as A&A, is a global chemicals business and provides essential raw materials for products as diverse as carbonated drinks bottles and paracetamol tablets.

The challenge
A&A was part of BP Chemicals. A major restructuring involved the sale of the plastic derivative activities last year. It was critical that the remaining A&A activities had a strong, dynamic identity. Given the global nature of the business, their web presence had a vital role to play.

Two week website

Using existing structure but refreshing the content to create an identity

What CDA did
We already knew a lot about A&A as we had been working with BP for some time on a number of projects, including how the petrochemicals industry represented itself online. This involved carrying out a competitor audit. We worked both with A&A and the business that was sold off in 2006.

A critical tactical step was developing a "two-week website". This was a revision, restructuring and content development process, which had to remove references to the divested business activities on the BP global web platform and be completed within a two-week time frame.

This involved developing a workable structure for the content, defining navigation and developing an online "tone of voice" for A&A. The web pages had to engage with customers and broader, knowledge-seeking audiences (from schoolchildren researching projects through to chemistry graduates seeking jobs, on and offline marketplaces, production centres and their surrounding communities).

New microsite

Same home page template but transformed content, visuals and site structure on a microsite

The next stage was the creation of a new A&A microsite, accessible from the BP global internet platform, to support a major relaunch of the brand and its identity. As well as working on both the structure and the content, CDA also created a "content inspiration module", delivered to A&A global communications network personnel, designed to raise the profile of the business's online presence and encourage active participation in content creation. Another crucial part of the relaunch involved maturing A&A's intranet - a critical communications platform because of the global nature of the business - and the development of a social software portal.

What A&A says about us
"They helped us understand that what we needed to do was very different to writing brochure copy. They kept our focus on creating an experience that was tailored to the audience's needs. Most importantly CDA helped us develop a personal tone of voice for our website."
Rosanda McGrath, Culture & Communications Manager

Content inspiration

Workshops designed by CDA to encourage greater ownership and higher standards online

What we learnt from the project
"How a brand and business expresses itself online is increasingly vital. This project showed us how redefining something as basic as web pages can have an immediate, global impact on how a business is viewed by multiple audiences. And because this online presence isn't static, it can be evolved even while work on other aspects of the brand, such as its visual identity, are being undertaken."
Clare O'Brien, CDA

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