EMI Strategic Marketing - Best Banking Website

Company: EMI Strategic Marketing
Company Description: EMI Strategic Marketing is a relationship marketing agency focused on driving profitable growth through integration of digital, direct and human channels to drive profitable growth. For 25 years, EMI has developed imaginative, effective integrated marketing programs for clients in banking, insurance, investments and technology industries.
Nomination Category: Web Achievement Categories - Industry
Nomination Sub Category: Banking

Nomination Title: Supporting Santander Commercial Banking’s aggressive growth with a compelling digital presence

Provide an essay of up to 525 words describing the nominated achievements. Make sure that your essay focuses on your web-related accomplishments since the beginning of 2018, or the judges won't rate your nomination highly:

While Santander is one of the largest banks in the world, awareness of Commercial Banking capabilities in the United States is low. The bank had developed competitive products and expanded capabilities to support large corporate clients, but brand recognition still lagged the market. Growth objectives in 2018 were aggressive, requiring a dramatic increase in sales activity. To support bankers in securing meetings with sophisticated C-suite executives at large commercial enterprises (with annual revenues over $100MM), a compelling website describing newly expanded expertise and competitive advantages was required.

The existing site lacked depth and coverage of key services, failed to emphasize the bank’s differentiating global capabilities, was overly simplistic, and oriented to smaller companies. Bankers reported that the site was eroding their sales efforts, rather than bolstering them.

To support the growth agenda and establish Santander Commercial Banking as a credible player in the competitive landscape, Santander and EMI developed the new Santander Commercial Banking site https://www.santanderbank.com/us/commercial , which:

-Anchored the positioning on the Commercial value proposition which focused on powering client growth through deep expertise and broad global capabilities
-Engaged more than 30 Commercial Banking market and product executives to enable clear articulation of the benefits and strengths of individual offerings, while ensuring communication of a coherent and consistent positioning
-Designed an architecture that enabled intuitive navigation despite the 250% increase in page count required to effectively support expanded capabilities
-Modernized the outdated site to conform with current web standards, including mobile optimization and SEO-friendly technology
-Created a new design that honored the global brand guidelines while better engaging the U.S. executive audience and aligning to the bank’s scale and capabilities to inspire confidence
-Employed expansive images that exemplify growth and prosperity,
-Established a new voice, grounded in the Commercial Bank’s relentless drive to address client needs and powered by a commitment to delivering meaningful expertise and valuable ideas

Launched in late 2018, the site is now described as a business development asset by senior bankers and has received positive response from Santander leaders domestically and around the world.

Optionally you may list the creative and production credits for your nominated web achievements - the people who helped to bring them to life. You may list here their names and titles:

John Falvey
SVP, Commercial & Business Banking Marketing, Santander Bank

Erin Joyce
Product & Segment Marketing Manager, Santander Bank

Charlene Paradise
Managing Director, EMI

Virginia Adams
Senior Account Manager, EMI

Mark Malloy
Executive Creative Director, EMI