We gave a leading marine research organization the digital presence they needed to do more good.

A Marketing Story by Big Sea about Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium

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Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium

Improve User Experience

Challenge

Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium, named by TripAdvisor as one of the top ten best aquariums in the United States, is a vital part of the local culture in Sarasota, Florida. People of all ages flock to Mote for educational fun. But Mote does far more than just show visitors a good time. The non-profit marine research organization boasts a 10.5 acre aquaculture campus and aquarium in Sarasota, a field station and public exhibit in Key West, and field stations in Summerland Key and Charlotte Harbor. They not only use these world class facilities to put on a wide array of educational programs for the public year-round, but they are also heavily-involved in marine research — studying sustainable fishing practices, reef restoration, new technologies for assessing ocean health, and more.

Solution

Offering visitors insight — and delight — so they can get involved. It was clear site visitors were leaving uncertain about the extent of what Mote Marine Laboratory did and how they could contribute. Big Sea implemented a thorough discovery process to unearth the organization’s true goals and strategic focus for the next five to ten years. With a better idea of where they were going, we structured a more encompassing and intuitive information architecture to showcase the greatest areas of importance for the institute (research), while still making obvious allusions to their public-engaging aquarium and educational programs. forward with curated content. We made sure all new content and headlines focused on impressing visitors with the power and importance of Mote Marine Laboratory’s extensive research undertakings. Our ongoing SEO contract allows us to spend time tweaking on-site search engine indicators as well as guide their content creation process. Just keep swimming. Since the launch of their new website, we continue to partner with Mote. Whenever they have a new exhibit opening or a special event, we design and develop the materials that accompany. (Particularly adorable are the Otters and Their Waters exhibit page and The Teeth Beneath exhibit page.) Mote also turned to Big Sea to design and develop a 4-person experiential trivia game for their Oh Baby! exhibit at their aquarium. We then expanded that game to build a web-based version (launching in summer 2018) and continue to add to the library of trivia questions.

Website Creation

Results

Mote Marine’s website now works for them instead of against them. They can rest assured that it works around the clock to educate the public, raise financing, and inspire change while researchers work on saving our oceans and changing the world! Key metrics are up across the board, with more visitors landing on the site and spending more time on each page. The site functions exactly how we intended it to, and it looks beautiful in the process.