Digital brand overhaul creates cost savings and synergy for Ontario Government

The Problem: The Government of Ontario’s web properties lacked brand cohesion. Most of the provincial ministries developed their own websites and marketing collateral independent of the other ministries and lacked any type of formal branding process other than standards for provincial logo treatment. This resulted in a large sample of graphic treatments and standards across 400 government web properties. This large mixture of both design styles and usability issues created frustrations for the public trying to access information and services via these websites.

The Solution: The solution was to bring the process in house to a core team of digital design and marketing professionals who would operate like a small advertising unit within the government structure. This group deployed a brand definition process with key stakeholders to establish a parent brand that would roll out graphic standards across the provincial government web properties.

Key Benefits:

• Large cost savings over a three-year period ($8M+)

• Development of a brand standards document that was rolled out across government to act as a road map

• Synergies with both web and print campaigns to strengthen both on and offline marketing programs

• Usability and functionality increased exponentially