ETI Digital Transformation
The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) approached Kind initially to help them redesign their website but, as we began working with them, it became clear they needed help making an overall digital transformation to their organisation.
“We have worked with Kind to produce digital strategies and platforms that allow easy access to and the sharing of our research. The solutions have all had an ease of use for the multiple stakeholders we interact with allowing us to inform the debate on a low carbon transition for the UK.”
Challenge
Previously, the ETI would publish and print reports, reviews and leaflets in an attempt to spread key messages and raise awareness of their work. Hosting and attending events armed with this information and worked tirelessly to raise awareness.
It became apparent that its digital presence could do more to help them with their objectives but, while their marketing and communications team was keen to make the transition and quickly, the rest of the organisation needed convincing.
Kind worked closely with the team to understand not only their current needs but to help them establish a strategic direction for them to work to in the future to enable a full digital transition and not just a website refresh.
Delivery
A long-term digital partnership
Due to the busy nature of the ETI and their marketing team, they needed an agency who were reliable, responsive and able to offer guidance on digital tools and strategies. Over the 5 years we actively worked with them before they closed, we supported them with regular maintenance on their site, created a suite of usable email campaign templates, and built integrated tools to merge some of their systems such as event management into the website. They also trusted us to take care of their site after their closure and we will be keeping their data online until 2025.
Taking digital content online
Typically the ETI were producing 50-100 page report style brochures for its yearly Annual Review. A long, cumbersome and expensive process. The marketing team asked us to help revolutionise the way they approached this and, working closely with them, we delivered highly visual, digital annual reviews which helped to present all of the content they required in a much more appealing and dynamic format.
Internally, they were able to convince stakeholders that this was the better approach, being the more cost effective option, trackable and shareable through social media.
Smarter, more engaging website
The ETI needed a website that could handle a lot of information, help users to navigate around the content intuitively and, most importantly, help to demystify extremely challenging and detailed content without losing the integrity of their work.
We worked closely with them to understand their users and their needs and it soon became clear that the content for the website would benefit from a layered approach. Presenting the key challenges and takeaway statistics upfront and then guiding audiences through clear journeys to get to the level of information they require.
Receiving strong engagement from their communities with the online content they were able to make the shift from expensive print-based brochures, reports and direct mail campaigns to more environmentally and cost-effective digital presence which was available to all and not just known audiences to the ETI.
Searchable data library
Fresh off the back of the successful website launch it became clear to the ETI that they had a great deal of knowledge to share with the world, which needed to last longer than the organisations 10-year tenure.
Much of this additional research and knowledge the ETI had was stored across multiple platforms such as internal intranets, cloud storage and at partner organisations.
As they started to prepare for the end of the organisations 10-year tenure, the ETI wanted to ensure everything it had worked for and learned during that time could be accessed whilst they operated and afterwards.
We worked to create a knowledge base, integrated within the existing website, thus leaving behind a much more detailed and useful resource for their users.
