BBC.com flourishes from advertisers wanting to leverage from the number one trusted news site. To make BBC.com particularly appealing, the feature sites that offer softer news desire a luxurious makeover to target high-income earners, millennials, gen x and other new names.
Brand Refresh
WORKLIFE
#1752A1
FUTURE
#072856
CULTURE
#482878
TRAVEL
#579E50
Assets & TX
Article Background
#FDFDFD
Assets & TX 2
#D8D8D8
Culture’s Secondary Navigation
#222222
Assets & TX 1
#121212
Typography
Aa
Article Tag,
BBC Reith Sans XBold
Aa
Article Titles,
BBC Reith Serif Light
Aa
Headings & Long Summary,
BBC Reith Sans Medium
Aa
Author and Date,
BBC Reith Sans Multiple
AA
Drop Cap,
BBC Reith Sans Bold Italic
Aa
Pull Quotes,
BBC Reith Sans Light Italic
Aa
Body TX,
BBC Reith Sans Regular
Aa
Image Captions,
BBC Reith Sans Regular
GEL Design System, Grid
The latest updates will now transfer the entire site of Culture’s typography over to the BBC family set of Reith.
This will be accompanied by closely aligning to the Reith brand guidelines for colour and GEL navigation practice.
Before GEL Grid
Need to work on 10 breakpoints. Inconsistent experience across BBC.com. Android device unfriendly
After GEL Grid Foundation
Optimised breakpoints to match AD Groups. Cut down design, development and testing time & cost.
Luxury Refresh
The luxurious makeover was a collaboration piece that included Editorial, Marketing, Sales and BBC Storyworks.
As the task was focused on B2B sales, a desktop-to-desktop approach was taken. However, where possible optimised for mobile and the progressive web app platform.
Global & Local Mastheads
The masthead area must always sit at the top of every page. Local mastheads must always sit between global navigation and local navigation. The font on local mastheads should be BBC Reith regular, at 48 pixels. Any branding in the local masthead must always line up with the BBC blocks
Premium Collection
Collaborating with marketing, sales and editorial, a luxurious dark UI will be offered to sponsors which desire their curated collections to be showcased. A one-up approach was taken from the non-sponsored collections, and specific modules were created based on business needs.
Articles
Flawless ad and image handling, and optimised readability across all devices.
Sponsorship
Centering and increasing the Sponsorship logo size from 88×31 to 132×64 will excite new sponsorship opportunities. Furthermore, the article page now features a highly visible new link back to collections.
An increase in resolution (up to 8K) and image handling now completes a luxurious look and feel for sponsors.
Songbird Integration
It uses artificial intelligence to convert text articles into speech, ‘reading’ them aloud with a synthetic voice. The BBC worked with Microsoft to create the new voice and AI software, using deep neural networks to create a synthetic voice with a natural tone and clear articulation of words.
Launching globally, the initial content will be part of a series within BBC Worklife called ‘The Life Project’. Its 16 feature articles, which focus on giving readers the tools they need to make life-changing decisions during the pandemic, are now available in audio.
AirPlay & Chromecast
Standard Media Player (SMP) function to allow AirPlay and Chromecast videos directly from the Article, will open new opportunities for sponsors who desire their ads and content to be seen on the big screen.
