Raising the profile of a worldwide software provider in the Italian library community.
Quick stats: 36% increase in average session durations, 74% decrease in bounce rate and 44% increase in form enquiries within the first six months of launch.
OCLC is a global nonprofit organisation that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for libraries worldwide. Founded in 1967, OCLC connects thousands of libraries in over 100 countries, enabling them to collaborate on cataloguing, resource sharing, and discovery services. OCLC’s mission is to make information more accessible and useful through collective library cooperation.
OCLC has teams around the world that support libraries in their respective countries. The Italian team approached us with a goal: to raise their profile within Italy’s library community. While we needed to stay true to OCLC’s established parent brand, the team wanted to infuse the identity with a distinctively Italian character - one that reflected not only the country’s rich cultural heritage, but also the unique spirit of their home city, Florence.
The existing Italian microsite was lacking in detail about the capabilities of the services and software OCLC provides worldwide. It also lacked the credibility it prides itself on, OCLC serves some of the most prestigious universities and cultural institutions in the world, but lacked the evidence points and substantial case studies they deserved.
During the insights phase, we ran workshops with the Italian team to identify the key personas the website needed to engage. Three stood out: two leadership figures - Analytical Analisa and Precious Paola - and an influential peer, Cataloguing Carlo. Analisa and Paola were primarily focused on understanding how OCLC supports the global library community, as well as how it would assist them in adopting the software locally. While Carlo wasn’t a final decision-maker, he played a significant role in influencing leaders like Analisa and Paola. For users like Carlo, thought leadership content would be essential - providing the insight and evidence needed to help him advocate for OCLC internally.
Another challenge was the requirement to build the website using Pardot landing pages. Although an unconventional approach that comes with some front- and back-end limitations, we embraced it as a team and were ready to find creative solutions within those constraints.
We designed clear user journeys for solution-focused personas like Paola and Analisa, ensuring they had access to detailed information on how OCLC supports both academic and special libraries. Rather than overloading solution and product pages with heavy technical details, we focused on clearly communicating the benefits of how OCLC helps institutions. We recognised that in-depth technical information becomes more relevant further down the marketing funnel - when users are ready to engage directly with OCLC through an enquiry.
To reinforce OCLC’s role as more than just a software provider, we also integrated valuable resources - such as research papers and webinars - throughout these pages, positioning the brand as a trusted leader in knowledge sharing, a core element of the OCLC ethos.
OCLC’s products, especially the world reknowned WorldCat, deserved their own individual pages to show off their capabilities, evidenced by the case studies of institutions that use them.
While the core OCLC brand was consistently applied throughout the UI, creative calibration sessions with the Italian team allowed us to introduce a unique twist that celebrated Italian heritage and applied the parent brand in a fresh, previously unexplored way. These sessions also gave us the opportunity to brief a photographer to capture original imagery of some of the academic and special libraries OCLC partners with in Florence and the rest of Italy, which were then used throughout the site.
OCLC Italia received positive feedback from both OCLC HQ and respective local teams internationally on the launch of the new website, sparking conversations within other local teams to rejuvenate their own micro sites.
OCLC Italia also saw a 36% increase in average session durations, 74% decrease in bounce rate and 44% increase in form enquiries within the first six months of launch.
Crafted and coded at Don’t be Shy.