Company: Blackboard Inc., Washington, DC
Company Description: Blackboard Inc. is a global leader in innovative solutions that improve the experience of millions of students and learners around the world every day. Blackboard's solutions allow thousands of higher education, K-12 and professional organizations to extend teaching and learning online, facilitate campus commerce and security, and communicate more effectively with their communities.
Nomination Category: Web Site & Blog Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Computer Software

Nomination Title: Relaunch of Blackboard Inc.'s Web Site

When was this site or blog first published?

January 27, 2009

Briefly describe this entry’s communications objectives and how it met those objectives (up to 100 words). Include here the URL of the nominated web site or blog. IMPORTANT: begin the URL with http://, and enclose the URL in square brackets - e.g., [http://www.ourwebsite.com]:

http://www.blackboard.com
See images of the old website at
http://thestevies.com/ABA09Attachments/Blackboard/
The re-launch of Blackboard’s website was the most prominent manifestation of an
intensive, year-long corporate rebrand project. The goal of the website was to
successfully present the company’s core mission – to improve and extend the
educational experience – to thousands of clients and millions of users
leveraging different Blackboard solutions in different vertical markets in
dozens of different countries.  The project required a totally revamped
interface, 200+ completely rebuilt pages, and support for six languages.  The
site also used custom imagery of actual clients and users, site navigation
connected to issues they need to solve, and a popular social networking site to
encourage collaboration.  Since its launch, the site had 1 million monthly
unique visitors (25% increase) and 40 percent growth in traffic for its blog.

List the appropriate creative and production credits for this entry:

Robert Morton, Vice President Global Marketing
Brian Cooley, Sr Director Marketing Services
Christina Fleming, Director Creative Services
John Savory, Manager Web Operations
Dan Mollen, Senior Manager Creative Services

The Pappas Group, McLean, VA
Anthony Pappas, President
Sean Wallace, Creative
Jeremy Gilman, Creative
Becky Shapiro, Client Manager