Problem
A timeless classic
As the UK’s largest automotive marketplace with a market cap comfortably north of €6bn, not only does AT lead the way from a corporate performance perspective; it’s also one of the few brands to permeate all aspects of British culture — from London to Land’s End, everybody (and their dog) knows the best way to buy or sell a car is by logging on to autotrader.com
Having worked with AT for a few years across their annual and ESG reporting, 330 were approached to turn attentions to the corporate website too.
A product of the past, the AT brand had moved on significantly since the last site was created, going through no fewer than three refreshes. Predating recent best practice around purpose and stakeholder engagement, with bloated IA and clunky UX; the old site was a persisting reminder that everything else had moved on, whilst it was stuck in time.
Outdated and not reflecting the business, it's culture, strategy or leadership in anyway; it was time for the business to practise what it preaches and put its own corporate website right — launching a completely overhauled version in time for FY results.
Solution
The bigger picture
AT is a pretty unique business. Of course, share price is front of mind for investors and analysts, but there’s also often an emotional connection too — certainly for broader stakeholders.
"When I told my Dad I had landed a job at AT, he was buzzing! While I explained my role to him, he explained to me all the cars he had bought on it over the years."
Beyond the more functional objectives that any FTSE 100 site should hit as standard, it also needed to give users an experience that helped them feel what makes AT so different. Those intangible elements of purpose, culture, values and community that are felt more than they are comprehended, needed to ooze through every interaction.
As a creative endeavour, the AT brand is a designer's dream. With a plethora of approaches considered in the first rounds of exploration, it was quiet confidence that really resonated with the AT team.
"Real leaders don't shout about it, they don't need to. We can be bold in our own way."
With people being at the heart of the business, we prioritised them on site, with photoshoots commissioned in both Manchester and London, capturing all aspects of day-to-day life at HQ.
Impact
Continued momentum
Feedback so far has been excellent. Long-term stakeholders feel the site now represents the AT they know and love, while new audiences reference the intuitive nav, informative news & views section and the detailed approach to ESG.
>20%
increase in session duration
From a quantitive point of view, AT had — and to be frank — always will have, substantial traffic; the issue before was the site was such an underwhelming experience, that people didn't stick around for long. And that's something we saw change straight away, with average session duration increasing by more than 20% and bounce rates falling from high teens to single figures, following launch.
"Refreshing our corporate site was on our agenda for a while. It’s now done I couldn't be happier. It represents us perfectly and is a great introduction to what the business is all about."
With the new site bedded in and continuing to receive record levels of traffic — housing game changing products like the Retail Price Index, we’re now working with AT to further digitalise other aspects of their comms, such as their annual and ESG reporting suites.
