The Power of Science-Driven Care in Digital Formats

Children’s Hospital Boston wanted to showcase its science-driven care in a way that was more welcoming to parents and prospective employees. But this simple trajectory for the redesign meant a serious undertaking for Genuine Interactive. Children’s Hospital is not just one of the world’s leading pediatric hospitals, it’s one of the world’s leading research institutions producing inventions, drugs, instruments, and research that extend outside of the world of pediatrics, and so Genuine needed to capture the full scope of the hospital’s efforts in digital form.

How We Helped

Rather than focusing on building an online brand around the institution itself, Genuine turned its focus on the people within the organization who make it special.  We created a home page that features world-changing Children’s Hospital Boston inventors as well as their inventions in an XML-powered Flash carousel.  Our goal was to think about the site more as the cover of Time rather than the front page of your average website.

We also created the TIDO Invention Database to help Children’s Hospital keep its inventors and researchers fresh in the minds of venture capitalists.  The database opens a continuous line of communication between Children’s TIDO office and potential partners. This custom-developed application is designed to let partners easily search for inventions and researchers through a number of criteria. The active filtering allows the partner to change criteria and change results in real time.

Flash-Based Interactivity Boosts Micro-Donations
in Drupal-Powered CMS

Plimoth Plantation had an array of objectives when it came to the redesign of their museum’s website, chief among them to motivate micro-donations from younger donors, provide an educational resource for students and teachers, and enable visitors to plan their visit to the museum. To that end, Genuine’s strategy was to build a new appeal and interactivity into the micro-donation process.

How We Helped

Genuine selected Drupal as the CMS of choice for Plimoth’s new website. We wanted to immerse visitors in full-screen, panoramic photos and videos that would reflect the immersive experience that the museum’s theater of the past offered.

The Flash-based interactive donations page focused on illustrating ways visitors could help, from helping students “time travel to the 1600s” to keeping the “Mayflower II sailing into history.” Overall, the website’s clean new look and our slimmed-down IA allowed for a breadth of content that made it easier for visitors to find the information they needed quickly and without losing depth. By carrying over the site’s design into the museum’s Magento-powered shopping cart, we made eCommerce a seamless experience for visitors.

Drupal and Flash at the Crossroads of the Web/Video Convergence

In redesigning the MFA website, Genuine wanted to capture the sheer size of the museum and its extensive collections in the user experience. The MFA wanted their new website to reflect the very personal, awe-inspiring experience visitors of the museum share when interacting with its collections. We did this through powerful photography, engaging full-screen video, and a clean, navigable user interface that encouraged exploration.

How We Helped

The museum experience is an interactive experience, so user interaction was a big part of the redesign. On top of implementing a comprehensive search that enables visitors to access all the museum’s artwork online, we carefully categorized all the museum’s collections to make it easy for visitors to find artwork. We also empowered visitors to tag individual pieces, store collections in their My MFA Account, and share artwork with the social web.

Engineering Video Environments on Open Source Foundations

Indoor air-quality monitoring company Aircuity sought an agency who could translate the technical language in their product messaging into an unforgettable experience that visually demonstrated what their technology was all about. Genuine had a few tall-order ideas in mind.

How We Helped

Instead of laying out the effect of Aircuity’s technologies on infrastructure in two dimensions (as you’d expect from a two-dimensional website), we thought it’d make more sense to build Aircuity’s virtual infrastructure in three dimensions just like the real thing.

To that end, we deployed an interactive, 3D virtual city full of video testimonials that explained the benefits of Aircuity’s technology through a completely audiovisual experience. Add to this that all of the website’s content is fully customizable by Aircuity in WordPress, an easy-to-use content-management system for non-technical users.

Building a Digital Community Through Rebranding

LYSOL® wanted a new user experience that would reach beyond its product line and soften its harsh, germ-destroying messaging. Genuine’s rebranding effort would also need to interface with LYSOL’s® other marketing agencies in order to ensure the cohesiveness of its campaign. In our rebranding effort, we created a community of health-conscious moms to make it easier for consumers to connect with the brand.

How We Helped

In the redesign, Genuine used softer whites and blues and a flowing ribbon element in the header to make the site appear more welcoming. We incorporated lots of visual feedback in the site’s search functionality, a geographical cold and flu tracker so consumers could stay ahead of the cold and flu season, and a wealth of health, cleaning, and disinfecting tips in the site’s Healthy Families section.

The intended persona for the website was new and expectant health-conscious moms, so we had LYSOL® partner with well-credentialed health professionals to provide a forum-based community where visitors could ask cold and flu-related questions and receive real answers. LYSOL® also started its “Mission for Health” initiative, a philanthropic front which promotes healthy habits in schools, provides child-rearing advice for new moms, and works with Save the Children to create safe havens for children in disaster situations.

Simplicity in an Open Source Showcase: Enter Drupal

Massachusetts-based Tribe® Hummus needed a new look and new messaging to get across the value of its all natural hummus product. Genuine timed the launch of the site (which we built in popular open source platform Drupal) to follow up the release of their newest product, the Tribe Origins™ organic line, and chief among the goals in the redesign was to represent the product’s wholesome authenticity.

How We Helped

To establish a strong foundation for the brand’s digital presence, first Genuine needed to anchor the company’s social media properties in the website and build a community around its recipes.

We told the story of Tribe in vibrant summer colors, high quality product photography, and animations of the fresh ingredients that go into Tribe’s hummus. Tribe also wanted to showcase the passion of its senior management, who have extensive backgrounds in food prep and distribution. To this end, Genuine created an attractive Ask the Tribe Q&A that featured the staff’s stories.

Goodbye Airfare, Hello Telepresence: Remote Video Presentations

Often, the end result of the convergence of the Web and video is edutainment, one of Genuine’s specialties. MassMutual enjoys a nationwide reach, but when it comes to flying over their prospects to experience a sales presentation in person, the reach can hurt with massive travel budgets. Enter Genuine and a 3D “Rotunda” project.

How We Helped

The Retirement Services team at MassMutual wanted to save money in travel expenses by creating a virtual visit microsite that contained an interactive, video-powered sales presentation. We headed on over to MassMutual’s headquarters, and filmed their staff in the company’s beautiful rotunda, which became the 360 centerpiece of the tool.

By clicking through the three-dimensional space, prospects can visit different halls in MassMutual and engage with virtual sales agents, who provide chaptered video presentations one-on-one with the user. The end result is a face-to-face experience with personalities from MassMutual from the privacy and security of your own office, without the bad airplane food or hassle of checked bags.

Improved Sales Through iPhone App Development

Frank’s® RedHot® wanted to drive product sales during its key seasons and saw an opportunity to provide utility to its fans. Frank’s® also needed to build its consumer database to enhance its reach to more specific niches within its market while providing a fun, interactive way to interact with the brand via mobile devices.

How We Helped

Genuine decided to build an iPhone app that would allow users to tag wing restaurants and bars that use Frank’s® RedHot®.Fans could invite friends from the app for wings, browse reviews about the locations, and use various filters to search. We also focused on providing sharable hot sauce recipes (18 wing recipes and 32 classic recipes) for key tailgating and sports seasons through the app.

Zend Framework and Social Media Integrations
Help Frank’s® Own Tailgaiting

King of hot sauces Frank’s® RedHot® was due for a complete re-envisioning of its web presence, and the company’s reputation as a beloved national supplier preceded it. Genuine’s task was to transform the brand’s aging web property into a shiny new hub for its social media efforts, mobile content, and engagement with its loyal fans. We created a new site from the ground up on top of the Zend framework, with integrations from Twitter, Facebook, and a custom database containing a wealth of RedHot® recipes.

How We Helped

Genuine’s lively new look captured the feeling of the brand’s “I put that sh*t on everything campaign” in front-and-center Flash video, which featured as its mascot the spunky (albeit fictional) septuagenarian “Ethel Herbert.” At the center of the redesign, we created an extensive database of Frank’s® RedHot® recipes from the brand’s celebrated product line that visitors can share with friends and family.

To open a more focused conversation with RedHot® fans, we engineered Twitter contests onsite and delivered an editorial calendar of Facebook conversations to drive leads. We also created a tailgaiting section devoted to usage tips for seasonal sports, and then tied that focus into our mobile efforts through a powerful Wing Finder App that enables visitors to locate wing restaurants across the country.

Stem Cell Research Brought to Life through Engaging Stories

The Stem Cell Program at Children’s Hospital Boston had a mission unlike any institution in the world: Educate the public about the nature of stem cells while encouraging donations from visitors to fund research. Genuine sat down with Children’s stakeholders to design a content strategy that would corral the hospital’s library of data into web-ready chunks of content.

How We Helped

Genuine developed a content strategy to sieve out of a mountain of heavily technical articles a set of documents that would serve as an educational guide to laymen, concerning science of stem cells. Using WordPress as a CMS, we created a site that incorporates both emotional testimonials of stem cell patients in text and informative explanations of the nature of stem cell research by doctors in Flash-based video presentations. An XML-driven front page Flash carousel houses an engaging video introduction to the program.

In addition to the educational purpose of the website, the website was designed with strong “Give Today” calls-to-action to attract philanthropists to become benefactors of the project.

Driving Results with Comprehensive Search and Guided Navigation

Grand Circle Travel had attracted a large base of repeat customers with huge brand loyalty, but their existing website was not attractive, provided no way for customers to search for specific trips, and was difficult to navigate. Genuine’s challenge was to rebuild GCT from the ground up and to help travelers explore GCT’s amazing tours with ease.

How We Helped

Genuine’s first step was to zero in on GCT’s older demographic with usable IA and a powerful, comprehensive, site-wide search. Our extensive work on IA helped direct users to valuable information quickly, which increased sales and client engagement. As a result of the new website, GCT saw improvements in overall visits, an increase in time spent on the site, and an increase in returning visitors.

Audience Segmentation from a Home Page Ain’t Easy

Serving multiple audiences with very different goals can create a home page “turf war,” where different segments of companies engage in mortal combat for that valuable front-page real estate.  Genuine didn’t want the outcome of this struggle to result in a home page jammed with irrelevant content, busy call outs, and house ads, because the impact on usability would be a high bounce rate due to the confused user’s divided attention.

How We Helped

Careful research was central in redesigning ASA’s website. In order to rebrand ASA, Genuine had to fully understand ASA’s audience, their fears, and their motivations. We knew this would involve cultivating deep insights about ASA’s audience through user testing and persona development.

Genuine partnered with Bentley University to survey 100,000+ students with educational loans while conducting focus groups and running usability tests in order to develop new, user-friendly IA. In order to help the user self-select and dig deeper into the site, we created an innovative quiz that immediately seized control of that coveted first-click. In a few seconds, the user self identifies in an engaging fashion and is delivered to the internal page based on their user goals and persona. We transformed ASA into a warm, helpful guide for students struggling with loan debt by directing the site’s content strategy and reorganization. The end result was a comprehensive wealth of well-organized information architecture.

Superefficiency in Search: LINQ-Based Filtering via Cached Datasets

Sullivan Tire needed two key features to succeed on the Web: a powerful online pricing and lead generation tool, and a more robust method for searching for tires online. Genuine also saw an opportunity to strengthen the tire company’s web presence through enhanced online marketing.

How We Helped

Just as Sullivan Tire’s needs were twofold, Genuine’s approach was two-pronged: We provided an engaging and creative new interface for the end user while building powerful integrations in the back end. We featured an interactive, Flash-based, behind-the-wheel front page design and streamlined navigation to guide the user seamlessly from point of origin to intended destination.

Behind the scenes, we optimized Sullivan’s tire search functionality to improve speed and efficiency, while creating an online tool that provides a tire diagnosis in real time. Our back-end developers created a LINQ-based searching and filtering module that queried a cached dataset in .NET which we parsed nightly into an XML dataset. Our goal was to cater to users’ needs by minimizing distractions and maximizing usability through carefully designed site architecture.

Bing, RentWiki, & Flash Converge to Power Real Estate Search

Camden had two goals in launching CamdenLiving: to showcase their property portfolio and to attract prospective employees to join a company culture Camden prides itself on. Genuine saw the two aims as not only congruent, but complementary.

How We Helped

Camden’s deep appreciation for its employees and its emphasis on a strong company culture were key values around which the company wanted to build its web presence. But Camden also had to serve its primary audience at the same time: apartment hunters looking for a place to live.

To balance these goals, Genuine created a friendly, easy-to-navigate site powered by Flash-based maps and the Bing search engine. The simple, yet powerful apartment search feature makes drilling down to individual listings a matter of three clicks. We enhanced each listing with photo galleries, neighborhood overviews powered by RentWiki, and extensive floorplans, leaving nothing to be desired. And to top it all off, Camden is 508 compliant, making surfing the website for visitors with accessibility needs a breeze.

Increased Revenue Thru Organic SEO and Search/Display Advertising

During its “The Skinny on Mustard” marketing campaign, FRENCH’S® opened a dialogue with its consumers that required a central hub on the Web to facilitate the conversation. FRENCH’S® teamed up with Genuine to commit a big chunk of its media budget to online search and display advertising over two years. Genuine’s challenge was to make the most out of the massive traffic directed to the dotcom. Everything we did in the social media sphere needed to support the brand’s #1 objective: Get consumers to buy more product.

How We Helped

Through market research, we learned that 85% of moms who came to the site—a market that made up the largest slice of FRENCH’S® audience—were looking for recipes.  So Genuine created a community around the new recipe database with real-time search filtering capabilities and an emphasis on social sharing.

To support the concept of the all-American “FRENCH’S® kitchen,” we filmed FRENCH’S® own chefs cooking recipes and encouraged visitors to participate in the FRENCH’S® Cook-Off Recipe Contest, which gave away $25,000 to the first-prize winner. We also sought to improve recipe dissemination by drastically improving search results on Google for recipe entries and non-FRENCH’S® related searches.  Because organic SEO was a main strategy that guided site development and content creation, we created an SEO optimization plan that involved optimizing each of FRENCH’S® 2,000+ recipes individually.

Immersive Video Experiences Through Flash-Based 3D Architecture

Creat Studios wanted to revamp their brand with a portfolio that showcased their creativity and passion for creating digitally immersive games. They also wanted to foster social networking and video-sharing to enhance the experience for clients and extend their reach to potential employees.

How We Helped

Genuine created a powerful 3D wheel of games through a combination of Flash wizardry and Papervision3D as the initial front page experience. Visitors could select titles from this 3D wall of games to dive directly into Creat’s portfolio.

Individual titles in the portfolio have sharable widescreen video and interrelated title recommendations, which encourages users to further explore the site. Genuine also devoted a good portion of the website’s infrastructure to detailed team profiles and an in-depth company overview, so as to attract prospective hires to consider working at Creat Studios.

Driving Leads with Flash-Based 3D Architecture

3DVIA needed a way to build leads to promote their 3D rendering software as a fast new tool for developers attending an upcoming gaming conference. Your everyday contact form wasn’t going to suffice for 3DVIA’s tech-savvy audience, so they called on Genuine to design an engaging microsite.

How We Helped

Genuine helped the brand signify “fast.” So fast—in fact—that the two actors build the site right before your eyes. The Find Your Fast microsite constructs itself around a green-screened video subject to reinforce the central concept of speed and performance specific to the brand’s product.

Genuine overcame a number of production challenges during the filming, but the end result showcases the lifelike 3D performance of 3DVIA’s product in a fluid, Flash-based environment. Due to the high level of interaction encouraged by the immersive environment, we captured over six times as many leads than anticipated.

Digital Urbania and the Speed of Life in Motion

New England developer Samuel & Associates describes Fenway Triangle as a “stylish, energetic neighborhood” with an eclectic array of hip must-haves for Boston urbanites. Genuine’s challenge was to capture the energy and excitement of the neighborhood’s fast-paced lifestyle and translate that into an engaging Web-based experience.

How We Helped

One of Genuine’s trademark approaches to rendering lifelike digital experiences is rooted in the convergence of the Web and video. Genuine’s Motion team used Flash to generate a fully immersive digital environment rich with video footage from the Fenway Triangle community.

We also incorporated frenetic, asymmetrical geometries into the website’s visual design to simulate a sense of excitement. And central to the experience is the website’s neighborhood video tour, which features the wide variety of personalities residents may encounter at Fenway Triangle, from doctors to hair stylists to Red Sox all-star pitcher Jonathan Papelbon.

Driving Ticket Sales Online Through Comprehensive Online Marketing

Boston Harbor Cruises had a lot of value to offer its customers, but zero visibility on the web and no way to drive ticket sales online. BHC’s colorful selection of sightseeing cruises needed powerful illustrations and a simple solution for customers to buy tickets. And above and beyond the scaffolding, the company needed a way to consistently drive traffic to the platform.

How We Helped

Genuine built a custom CMS based in .NET as a foundation for the agency’s comprehensive performance marketing campaign, which would ultimately cause BHC to rank in the top three for searches in its industry. We also put together a WordPress-powered mobile site to capture mobile leads, which accounted for 10% of all traffic. Our attractive design featured Flash-powered visuals of visitors on sightseeing cruises. We provided a wealth of information, such as schedule rates, concierge, and candid photo galleries of cruises.

At the same time, Genuine helped Boston Harbor Cruises establish a fan database so it could reap deep insights about its audience to further drive ticket sales.