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BBC Worldwide
Top Gear
Links to work
We have recently launched the new Top Gear website for BBC Worldwide. Top Gear has reached cult status with its unique format TV show hosted by Clarkson, Hammond and May and draws audiences in excess of 4 million every week. It also boasts one of the most popular consumer titles, Top Gear Magazine, making it one of the BBC’s most valuable properties.
The previous incarnation of the Top Gear website was popular yet it focused heavily on the entertainment related content. Research showed that the majority of revenues were generated in the more commercially focused parts of the website, where users spent more time investigating potential car purchases and were exposed to more advertising.
As the previous version of the site lacked significant focus on commercial content, advertising revenues were falling short of their potential. Our brief therefore was to plan and design a new website for Top Gear that shifted the focus from being mainly an entertainment site to a more balanced offering of entertainment content and content relevant to prospective car buyers.
We were involved from the outset of the project working as a part of the strategic development team at BBC Worldwide. The planning phase was thorough and lasted several months. The output was a comprehensive strategy defining how the new website would meet the dual objectives of remaining relevant to the Top Gear audience and significantly increasing advertising revenues.
Our deliverables for the project included a complete overhaul to the sites Information Architecture, a range of content suggestions, a new design direction and a number of innovative marketing solutions.
One key challenge of the project was to ensure that the resource for car buyers was clear, intuitive and functionally very useful but at the same time still very ‘Top Gear’ – we were definitely not trying to clone What Car? By incorporating much of the brands personality into tools such as the Car Chooser, we managed to ensure this balance was maintained.
Stats remain confidential but we can confirm the site’s performance is exceeding expectations.