News

February 3, 2011

IRVINE, CA – Earthbound Media Group (EMG) is proud to announce that La Sierra University launched its new website at http://lasierra.edu on Wednesday, November 3, 2010. La Sierra University along with their branding agency, Lime Twig, approached EMG to concentrate on new architecture and completely redesign and redevelop the university’s website in their current content management system (CMS) TYPO3 in order to increase usability, relevancy, functionality, and to make the site a more useful resource for all visitors.

During an extensive discovery phase including approximately 200 hours of research, documentation, competitor analysis, stakeholder interviews and focus groups, EMG was able to deliver a marketing assessment with business, functional and technical requirements of the site to La Sierra University. The focus group participants consisted of faculty and administration, current students and prospective students who were interviewed about their website needs and their perceptions of La Sierra University online. Using these assessments and Lime Twig’s brand recommendations for La Sierra University, the two agencies recreated the University’s web presence from the ground up.

“The extensive research and auditing process was key to the success of the project,” said Kevin Lorenz, EMG’s Director of Consulting. “Using the information gathered from stakeholder interviews and focus groups with prospective students, EMG was able to specifically identify some of the site’s navigational challenges and give the site an extensive overhaul from front-end usability to back-end functionality.”

To accomplish this project, EMG’s team became experts in the Danish software, having never implemented the TYPO3 CMS before. From there EMG upgraded La Sierra’s TYPO3 components to be able to accommodate the more complex, compliant and dynamic templating system constructed by EMG’s developers.

Throughout the ten-month process, EMG replaced La Sierra’s existing two templates with five new templates. Lime Twig updated content on the 100 pages that were determined to need those updates the most, while EMG La Sierra migrated more than 1300 pages of content into their newly created templates. Just a few of the new features include: quicklinks to the site’s 11 most requested resources allowing for easier navigation and a news and calendar section that is automatically updated on the homepage when changes are made elsewhere on the site, together making management easier.

The entire project proved to truly be a collaborative effort with members of La Sierra’s in-house team lending their time and expertise as crucial elements to the development process. Rick MacMillan, La Sierra’s Webmaster, acted as a liaison between the EMG and La Sierra teams, organizing the people, content and assets. Natan Vigna, Director of Marketing for La Sierra, made sure the new templates maintained the university’s current branding and marketing efforts by adding hundreds of photos and updating many pages of content. The partnership of La Sierra, EMG and Lime Twig was the epitome of synergy, ultimately propelling a successful site launch.

"We are very pleased to have reached this milestone in our branding efforts," says Marilyn Thomsen, Vice President for Communications and Integrated Marketing at La Sierra University. "We appreciate the support of our partners at EMG and also the creative team at the Lime Twig Group who participated in the project."

With this website launch, La Sierra now has a transformed website that is now a more useful transaction oriented resource with information organized and designed with the user in mind. Visit the website at http://lasierra.edu, and experience for yourself how EMG, Lime Twig and the La Sierra team partnered together to meet the University’s challenges.

About EMG

EMG is a one-of-a-kind, technology-driven strategic marketing agency. Our singular goal is to evolve the digital and visual landscapes of business for corporations, brands and non-profits worldwide.

As a leader in the marketplace, EMG has single-handedly set a benchmark for complexity, creativity and vitality in the solutions we have provided for both our partners and clients alike.

About La Sierra University

La Sierra University is a Seventh-Day Adventist institution located in Riverside, California. Through its College of Arts and Sciences and schools of business, education, and religion it offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees and a doctorate in education. Current enrollment is about 2,000. La Sierra University has received national recognition for its diversity and community engagement.

About Lime Twig

As marketing specialists in the world of education, Lime Twig understands that an institution has a unique personality, its own way of seeing things, and a place in the educational landscape all its own.

Our job is to help you tell your story. In your own voice.