Sample 1: The purpose of this site was to attract and convert non-brand customers. Non-brand customers are people who reach the site by clicking on an ad after searching using non-brand keywords (think “fiber Internet’ or “high-speed Internet” as opposed to “Verizon Internet”). From our research we found that non-brand visitors visit more pages on a website and spend more time on each page compared to a brand visitor. Non-brand visitors are willing to do some research and are up for switching providers if they can find a better deal.

Based on performance from other websites, we knew that a significant portion of non-brand customers are movers. So the messaging centered around three things: Defining FiOS, showing why FiOS is better, and speaking to movers. I also changed the nav options to verbs (Shop, Discover, Compare) to inspire action and exploration. Finally, the hand touching the tablet in the hero is actually a video that loops, which gave the site a nice, premium feeling.

It worked. We saw an immediate lift in response rate from non-brand customers. Design and messaging elements from this were carried over to several other sites as a result.

Sample 2: The Verizon rebrand in 2015 was a monumental effort. In addition to the zillion departments within Verizon, they also work with dozens of agencies and marketing companies. Some companies support in-store design, others work with them on commercials and web ads, etc. Our job was web sales. Because of all those disparate pieces, they rolled out the redesign in stages (read: not everything was finished and ready at once). That meant we had to figure some things out before them (like how to make a whole site work without photography of real people).

For the copy, they wanted something simpler, more human, and direct. They wanted to seem confident, but didn’t want to seem like they were bragging. Every claim needed to be backed up with facts. They also wanted a stronger marriage between the imagery and the words. We were on weekly calls with their CMO and his right hand guy to get these pages approved. This was one of our first successes. The whole page tells a story of better service, built with better technology, and backs it up with a sourced claim.