Table of Contents 6 2012 OVATION Awards Winning Entries

• People‐oriented vs. regulation‐oriented – RECO’s website would need to focus on how the
regulations affect people – both registrants and consumers – and not on the regulations
themselves; and
• Effective use of technology – both registrants and consumers search for information on‐the‐go,
thus making it vital to incorporate flash technology, smartphone accessibility and a host of
interactive tools to enhance the visitor experience.
Intended Audiences:
The two main audience groups for RECO’s website are:
Registrants: this group encompasses the 60,000 registered real estate professionals in Ontario. Real
estate professionals prefer to access information on‐the‐go, making it important to provide them with
an easy‐to‐navigate resource.
Home buyers and sellers: this group encompasses all consumers in Ontario that are current or
prospective home buyers or sellers. This group has been identified as being unaware of the consumer
protection options available through RECO.
Goals/Objectives:
Goals:
• Raise awareness among the public of RECO’s activities and programs that enhance consumer
protection;
• Be seen by stakeholders and the public as a leader in the area of real estate regulation and
consumer protection; and
• Deliver timely and relevant information via the website to both real estate professionals and home
buyers and sellers in Ontario.
Objective:
• Increase registration to MyWeb portal to 85 per cent of all registered real estate professionals in
Ontario;
• Increase registrants’ satisfaction level of consumer awareness and education activities; and
• Obtain click‐through rate of at least 30 per cent for the consumer section of the website.
Solution Overview:
Strategies: RECO’s strategies for creating an informative and visually‐appealing website included:
• Delivering information in a way that is easy‐to‐understand for both registrants and consumers,
without using heavy regulatory or legal language;
• Putting a human face to RECO by focusing on the benefits and outcomes of a regulated real estate
industry; and
• Creating a strong visual identity for RECO by using consistent colours, visuals and language
throughout the website that are also present in other communications materials.
Tactics: RECO’s tactics included:
• Drafting and distributing a request for proposal to website designers to select an appropriate
development partner. This document summarized our needs and key strategies: o Create a
clean, easy‐to‐navigate website that visually separates content intended for registrants and
consumers.