Nasdaq may be best known for their eponymous electronic stock market, but in reality they are a global technology firm with a complex, diverse offering. A series of complicated acquisitions over the last decade has made them a global equities powerhouse – but at a cost.
The problem: an unclear brand presence backed by a hodgepodge of over 200 web properties. Their customers didn’t know who they were, and their digital presence was stuck squarely in the 1990s – an embarrassing predicament for a company that is essentially digital to its core.
“We have four major business segments, and each of those business segments really competes in its own separate ecosystem,” says Robert Greifeld, CEO of Nasdaq, in a video on their web site. “We have to be there to make sure capital and innovative concepts can come together.”
To this end, Nasdaq embarked on a top-to-bottom rebranding campaign, with work commencing in 2013 and formally launching in October 2014. Leading the charge: advertising agency The Gate Worldwide, partnering with BKWLD, a New York-based digital strategy firm.
“We started by looking for common ground among all of Nasdaq’s lines of business, clients and prospects and landed on the idea of ‘ambition’,” explains Beau Fraser, President of The Gate | New York. “Ambition is what Nasdaq has in common with its clients. Nasdaq is home of the ambitious.”
Ambition thus became the theme of their new marketing campaign, Ignite your Ambition. “We wanted to give our clients, the investment community, C-suite executives and the exchange community another reason to take a look at this company and communicate the depth and breadth of our business,” says Jeremy Skule, Nasdaq CMO, discussing the rebranding for Ad Age. “Ambition is a common attribute we share with our clients. Our core value proposition is to serve as a catalyst to our client’s success.”
This new branding drives their web presence. “Nasdaq had a keen eye towards using this site and the content surrounding it to help a global relaunch of their brand,” according to the BKWLD web site. “We needed to be particularly mindful of constructing an experience that would stand the test of time, as well as be able to naturally and effectively bend and morph and squeeze itself up and down to screens of all sizes.”
Read the entire article at http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2015/02/23/digital-struggles-at-digital-leader-nasdaq/.
Intellyx advises companies on their digital transformation initiatives and helps vendors communicate their agility stories. As of the time of writing, none of the organizations mentioned in this article are Intellyx customers. Image credit: Yuya Sekiguchi.
