AREC
MESSAGING. WEB DESIGN. PHOTOGRAPHY
Animal Referral & Emergency Centre (AREC) provides specialist, emergency healthcare 24/7 for pets throughout Newcastle and the Hunter region.
Project Overview
AREC’s previous website was seven years old and had lost its structure. Like many older websites, it had been added to over time but without any consistency of style, structure or purpose. Pages had been added that were no longer required, imagery was out of date, there had been lots of staff turnover and facilities had been significantly upgraded.
While it was important that the website be easy to find and helpful to owners who need care for their pet, the site also needed to work well for recruitment and building trust with referring vets.
The old website was missing these key functions, and so not supporting the business goals. In scoping the project with the CEO and Practice Manager, it became obvious that for this project to be successful and make life easier for staff, the focus on recruitment and information for referring vets was key.
What we did
Keeping the business and project goals front and centre, we built a detailed site map to ensure that all the relevant content was included. Blogs from the existing website were exported as they provided helpful information for pet owners which streamlined people’s experience once they were on-site at the hospital maximizing the best possible outcomes for their pet.
With newly built surgical theatres on-site, we arranged a photoshoot to capture the breadth of services and cutting edge technology AREC offers. With a staff of over 100 and a business that operates 24/7, the hospital is a busy place, which made capturing photos both easy and hard. There was lots happening, but in a life and death situation, the last thing we wanted to do was get in the way.
This was one of the biggest website projects I’ve worked on, and it was important to get things right. AREC is a well-established brand in Newcastle having been in business since 2004 and they provide a valuable service to local vets and pet owners, by offering animal healthcare 24/7. Working with AREC’s in-house marketing staff was a crucial part of making sure the website was fit for purpose strategically, and practically.
What our client said
