XTERRA Wetsuits approached Jacob Tyler in late 2008 to re-brand the company for 2009 with a new look and feel and brand campaign to cross over all collateral. The goal was to increase their brand recognition in the triathlete market as a leader in wetsuit technology enabling the athletes to swim faster and win races. Of course, the MAIN objective was to sell more wetsuits.
XTERRA had never used an agency before for their marketing collateral and Web site and it was clear when you looked at the materials. There was no cohesive identity in either their Web or print media. The team at Jacob Tyler created a campaign called “First Out” attempting to make a statement that if you wear an XTERRA wetsuit, you’ll be first out of the water.
At our first photo shoot, we creative directed shots with a focus on action and models running out of the water, unlike their previous posed studio shots. The new action shots were to be used on all collateral moving forward with the headline “First Out.”
The old version of the site was dark and out-dated. The product shots were small and the site navigation was confusing. Sections weren’t appropriately organized, as there was no secondary navigation. Lastly, there was no call to action allowing to guide the user to make a purchase or learn about the product technology. The site re-design, focused on the technology and “First Out” campaign. Some of the main changes included were:
A call to action on the home page showcasing new or sale items quickly link to “special deals” and convert users to buyers.
Site navigation was minimized to maintain the usability “rule of 5”.
Enlarged product views with the ability to see both sides of the suit, as well as view the suit both on and off a model.
A clean white background making information easier to read and print.
A quick user guide pop-up linked from each specific product showing users how to choose a suit based on height and weight.
The site was recently launched and now we will be tracking increases in sales from our Eblast campaigns and magazine ads. The main statistic we will be following however is the difference in conversion rate to sales on the new site vs the last version. We are betting big that it will be a large increase. Check out the new site at xterrawestuits.com