In late November 2008 I was lucky enough to be honored as one of San Diego’s most admired CEO’s by the San Diego Business Journal and attended a rather large event in downtown San Diego. One of my peers, Bella Heule was also being honored and I caught her walking by (we had never met) and flashed her my award (yes…only my award!). We began to speak and it seemed as if my timing was impeccable. They were moving locations and while they weren’t really considering a full re-brand, it was the right time to go for it if they could be convinced. Well, I convinced Bella and her full team to hire JTCG to handle the entire job. To be honest, and she would be the first to admit it, the San Diego World Trade Center logo, Web site, and collateral were terrible. There was no consistency to the look and feel, the site was completely unorganized and unusable, and they had no real strategy to set the world on fire in 2009. That’s where we come in.

Our first meeting in early December led to the launch of the new identity and World Trade Center San Diego Web Design. Here’s the catch, they were moving into their new facility and needed everything delivered and live by February 25th for the planned open house at their new location. That gave us 2 months to deliver a new logo, corporate collateral, brand and marketing strategy, and roughly 500 page Web site with a full content management system. Ummmm…what was I thinking?!?!? Okay…so I put a little stress on the staff and we pushed forward. Thank GOD the team at WTCSD was amazing to work with and extremely helpful in following through with requests and approvals. Anyway, we made our deadline and launched the site just in time.

The Web strategy JTCG established moving forward for WTCSD is to sell services and to build and retain membership. FIrst we had to create a new base site with enough functionality to get members using the Web site (Phase 1). We completed changed the logo and look and feel to create a “green” image and allow for site exploration. As well, we used the “rule of 5″ for main navigation to considerably consolidate and organize the site. Minimal uses of flash and video engage visitors and drive them to the most important sections of the site. Phase 2 will be completed by creating a social media platform that will enable members to get the most out of networking opportunities and to generate on-site content through the member base.

We are wrapping this up by adding on-site SEO this week and will continue to optimize moving forward. Anyway… we are extremely happy with the outcome and will make sure it’s a HUGE success. Check it out at http://www.wtcsd.org