Redesign was absolutely worth it
ROI is always hard to define, but positive reader feedback has been strong
So, we always ask clients after a redesign: "Was it worth what you spent on this project?"
It was absolutely worth it.
These papers really needed someone to give them a hard look. It had been a lot of years since the papers were redesigned. Not only in their look but in how they do things.
We would have never gotten here if we did this internally.
The folks here were too comfortable. We have a veteran staff and it’s hard to get people who have been here a while to get them out of their comfort zone but you did that.
What did you like about the process?
I like the flow of the process and it seemed like a logical order. I liked the way you did things in this process. We were able to start working on some things that mattered to readers long before the actual redesign. We had people telling us “I like what you are doing” even though they couldn’t describe what we did.
Do you think you got a solid return on your investment?
The ROI for us was largely anecdotal, but there is a lot of that. We get more comments on our content than the design itself. They tell us “We like what you’ve done.” We get a lot of comments about how we cover things and what we cover — we cover things now and in ways now than we never did before. We write more people oriented stories now. They are doing more pro-active stories. Our editorial pages are getting better because we’re talking more about why these things matter to people.
What was the best part of the process?
The training was the best part of it. Everyone here got something out of this.
I’ve been through this process before and this was different. It was usually two or three alternatives. But you gave us a lot of options from the very beginning. Even the stuff I hated, I loved seeing. I like that you invited all the different departments in to participate. I thought that went well and allowed us to capture something that felt like it represented our paper.
Is there anything you think we should have done differently or that we can improve? Do you think we were too tough or demanding?
Don’t soften up on people. Being tough on the staffs is an important part of this process. I think it’s important that you insist on something they need to buy into.
What would you say to someone who is considering a redesign?
Do it. Unless you have a really big organization where you can pull people offline to do a redesign, it won’t work. Get someone in who will take an entirely fresh look at they way you do things — your budget meetings, your content, your layout, the way you work.
I loved the way you guys handled the entire process.
Is there anything you would have done differently?
Yes, I wish we had done classifieds, too.
We always ask our clients at the end of the process whether a redesign with Creative Circle was worth the time, effort and cost. After more than 650 print redesigns, every single client has said "Yes!" and many have said it would have been worth two or three times the cost. We're proud to say we have 100% satistication with our print redesign work!