fuel4arts.com

Much more than a website, fuel4arts.com offered members free access to an international community of artists and arts professionals, connecting inspiring people, ideas and leading arts marketing practice. The fuel4arts initiative has been one of RipeOnline's major achievements and allowed us to develop a leadership position in online community building.

The Challenge

The Australia Council for the Arts, the Australian Government's arts funding and advisory body, came to RipeOnline in 1997 to design and build an online facility aimed at fostering professional development and knowledge networking for arts marketers.

What we did

In developing a conceptual framework for the initiative, Ripe Online consulted extensively with individual stakeholders and focus groups. Their input informed the development of a user engagement strategy which, in turn, informed the process of building the content and membership management solution. At the same time, we designed and integrated a brand identity. The final step was to source, commission and publish content carefully tailored to fill identified knowledge gaps within the sector.

To support the launch and ongoing promotion of the initiative, Ripe Online created a range of marketing materials, including logos, letterhead, promotional brochures, event banners, e-cards and e-newsletters.

Results

The outcome was fuel4arts.com, a membership-based arts marketing resource. With an average of 72,576 monthly user sessions, it is the undisputed world leader in its field. The fuel4arts global knowledge base of several thousand resources served a membership of 29,600 arts professionals in 162 countries. Since its inception in 1998, fuel4arts has received hundreds of testimonials from appreciative members.

fuel4arts.com incorporated many interactive features which fostered a sense of belonging to, and participation in a global community of shared interest including dynamic forums with guest specialists, weekly publishing of the latest resources and research into priority areas, RSS, self-managed membership profiles, user generated content and in-depth member reporting. In 2007 RipeOnline also facilitated online learning and leadership collaboration with fuellers internationally on digital distribution and opportunities for the arts in the new marketplace.