EDMOND—The Armstrong International Cultural Foundation launched two fresh websites today: a redesigned ArmstrongAuditorium.org and a new Armstrong.foundation. The sites are designed to attract potential concertgoers and other online and in-person visitors to experience higher culture and the best of the human spirit by visiting Armstrong Auditorium.
Revamping ArmstrongAuditorium.org began last May, when foundation marketing director Shane Granger and social media manager Edwin Trebels interviewed five advertising agencies twice each over the course of two busy weeks. Each agency presented a thorough review of the current auditorium site and proposed ideas for its improvement. Granger and Trebels selected StapleGun, a marketing agency with offices in Chicago, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, perhaps best known for its Oklahoma City Thunder basketball ad campaigns. StapleGun started building the two new sites for the foundation last June.
“The main reason we chose StapleGun was because of their creativity,” Granger said. “They were excellent at creative graphics. When we walked through their offices, we couldn’t take our eyes off their computer screens. Everything they were working on was visually engaging.”
Granger said that StapleGun saw the need for new websites and offered helpful solutions. A big issue was the original site’s lack of mobile optimization, meaning the website did not resize to fit mobile screens, he said.
“Our goal with these new websites is to provide our visitors a first-class experience when learning about Armstrong’s performing arts series and purchasing tickets,” Granger said, “as well as to provide more transparency about the organization supporting the series.”
The old ArmstrongAuditorium.org included a short About page describing the cultural foundation, with just six sentences of information about the institution that supports the concert series. That content has been expanded and transferred to its own home: Armstrong.foundation.
Granger said that visitors will find the new foundation site informative and easy to navigate. A detailed About section links the foundation to its sponsor, the Philadelphia Church of God, and to its predecessor, the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation. Visitors can also read about the foundation’s legacy under Herbert W. Armstrong and learn more about the Armstrong International Cultural Foundation staff.
“The new Armstrong Auditorium website puts the emphasis on what’s playing, how to buy tickets and how to get here,” Granger said. Performance pages provide interactive content and allow the visitor to add events to a desktop calendar or to refine the search for more in-depth program information. The About section introduces Armstrong’s mission and staff, along with links to the foundation website.
The upgraded auditorium website also allows visitors a glimpse of the unique Armstrong experience, contained in its own appropriately named section. “I’m very excited about this new Experience section,” Granger said. “Our current and prospective patrons will find enlightening tidbits about the building itself, such as the fact that over two acres of cherry wood paneling cover Armstrong’s interior.”
The website designs include interactive images and a collage of large boxes leading the user to an increased amount of information about Armstrong Auditorium. “It’s kind of like a game,” Trebels said. “You want to finish the game. If there are 10 boxes, you can’t just click on one.”
Among the new features the site contains are integrated social media buttons for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TripAdvisor and Pinterest. An e-mail signup link is also available on the home page. Granger said he and his public relations assistants will constantly update social media content with helpful information, articles, blogs, newsletters, company announcements and successes.