New Zealand National Party
In March 2004 Enlighten Designs were approached by the New Zealand National Party and asked to review their current website and provide recommendations for improving the website's ability to meet their organisations' objectives.
This review highlighted that the New Zealand National Party's web presence was lacking in several areas including usability, security, functionality, and was falling behind those of competing political parties.
The Solution
2004 Website Re-development
Speed, accuracy, and a clearly defined game plan were essential for the successful re-development of the New Zealand National Party website. Within one week of commencement the entire site, comprising of several hundred pages, had been moved into a new content management system and a revised website template. With one swift move Enlighten Designs had resolved many of the technical issues that had been plaguing the website; allowing the focus to move from "fixing problems" to "extending and improving" functionality.
The new features, functions and systems needed for the website and the way they would interact were clearly defined during the scoping process. These were then broken into development stages based on priority, with each stage achieving a clear objective and delivering a real and noticeable improvement to the New Zealand National Party's website.
Using the Vadmin range of website maintenance tools and online marketing systems (developed in close consultation with New Zealand National Party stakeholders), Enlighten Designs created a highly functional and information rich website that is maintained almost entirely by National Party staff and volunteers across locations throughout New Zealand. New Zealand National Party staff can manage web page content, event listings, news articles, member registrations, email newsletters, press releases, and more.
2008 Website Refresh
In 2008 Enlighten was again approached by The New Zealand National Party to further refine the website design, information presentation, and functionality. The release of the 2008 New Zealand National Party website again represented major improvements to the political party’s online offer.
A major focus was creating a more engaging user experience through the inclusion of rich media and mechanisms for user input and feedback. Functions to enable National Party staff to more easily manage, embed, and present Flash video content were implemented. The latest video messages from John Key are updated and embedded in the centre of the homepage to add a personal touch. Website users can respond to the videos by leaving text, audio or video comments.
Social networking websites are more fully utilised and are effectively promoted within the website design including John Key’s Face book page and The New Zealand National Party’s video collection on You Tube. These encourage the website users to be more engaged with the blogs and participate more actively in the conversations of policy topics.
The new design provides the users easier access to National Party’s policies, candidate information, news, events, and press releases. Voters can download PDF copies of the policy as well as watch related videos or read speeches on the topic. A series of drop boxes on the homepage helps voters locate relevant information easily on policies, MPs, candidates, and electoral boundaries.
The refined website layout also helps promote the National Party’s off-line advertising campaigns by displaying their latest billboards on the left sidebar of the homepage.
The Result
2004 Website Re-development
The website has become a powerful tool enabling the New Zealand National Party to communicate their message directly with voters and garner new support. In the lead up to the 2005 election, the New Zealand National Party website consistently served tens of thousands of website visitors daily and at one stage received over 1 million hits in a single day.
The New Zealand National Party has won the NBR (National Business Review) Advertising Campaign of the Year for their 2005 Election campaign. This was the first time the National Business Review award has been received by a political party or a campaign that was not managed by a major advertising agency. Enlighten Designs, as one of the New Zealand National Party's preferred suppliers, was responsible for effectively redeveloping the New Zealand National Party website; as well as designing several additional related websites.
2008 Website Re-refresh
The refreshed website is now equipped with a more organised layout, improved navigation structure, and better integration of multimedia resources. The new enhancements have enabled the website to more effectively promote the National Party's policies and visions through obtaining greater interaction and stronger support from their potential and existing voters.
A number of independent reviews have rated the National Party’s website highly for its communication strategy and creative execution.
For more information on these reviews, please see: How web savvy are New Zealand’s political parties
RadioNZ podcast with Colin Jackson
Vadmin 3.5
Some of the Vadmin website maintenance tools and online marketing systems used include:
Vadmin 3.5 Content Management System (Enterprise Edition)
A website management application that allows web editors and administrators of the New Zealand National Party to modify, create and delete website content from any computer with an Internet connection.
Vadmin 3.5 News System
Manages the display of articles, media releases and speeches across a wide range of topics and categories. It also automates the movement of news items through the site from release to archiving.
Vadmin 3.5 Events System
Gives the partys staff the ability to easily manage the event calendar and centralise information regarding New Zealand National Party events to increase event awareness and attendance.
Vadmin 3.5 Email Marketing
Gives the New Zealand National Party the freedom and flexibility to create professional email campaigns easily for delivering promotional and organisational information to multiple audiences.
Vadmin 3.5 Category System
Allows the New Zealand National Party website to categorise different types of published files over multiple systems including news items, content pages, events and even email newsletters.
Vadmin 3.5 Registration and Security
Enables the New Zealand National Party website users to sign up to the website, email newsletters or other items. The party staffs can control the access and security of specific sections and web pages.
Vadmin 3.5 User Management
Provides a centralised point for administering information about website users, as well as to assign security roles to users.
Contact Us about Enlighten's Vadmin 3.5 Content Management System.