MONTRÉAL – Québec’s top ranked sports website, RDS.ca, with nearly one million unique visitors monthly, has been completely redesigned to maximize both the user experience and appeal to advertisers.
The website relaunch is a joint collaborative effort involving the digital, marketing and art direction departments of RDS, Bell's web experience team as well as technology platform supplier Atex.
RDS says the new sports portal’s redesign is consistent with other corporate initiatives undertaken over the last few months (RDS2, RDS INFO, renewed technologies, HD, new studios and sets.)
“Launching the new RDS.ca is another major step in our strategic development and it constitutes the fulfillment of a series of commitments made by RDS” says Patrick Jutras, Vice President, Sales & Marketing at RDS. “We are in a position to serve our customers and advertisers better than ever across all platforms. At the same time, this is a structural improvement that will facilitate the evolution of our offering over time, as new realities transform the marketplace. We can proudly claim that we have kept our promise!”
The new RDS.ca features a modern and uncluttered look, and the cutting-edge technology behind the site provides an enhanced and immersive user experience. It has dedicated pages for each local professional team (Canadiens, Alouettes, Impact) as well as improved stats and more videos.
“In essence, we based our development on the best practices of website design, and took them a step further,” explains Martin Ceré, Senior Director, Digital at RDS. “We are lucky enough to be able to rely on the unparalleled strengths of the RDS network, with our experts, our journalists, our privileged access to major stakeholders as well as our extensive community of committed sports fans, in order to produce relevant and exciting online content.”
The new site features:
• Permanent page-top navigation bar
• Permanent social media access bar at bottom of page
• Dynamic breadcrumbs to assist navigation
• "Elevator navigation"
RDS says the clutter-free display is designed to offer heightened brand visibility for section sponsorships and provides new advertising formats and positioning options. Contests and sweepstakes will also benefit from increased visibility it adds. The interface also promotes vertical browsing, thus increasing exposure to advertiser messaging.
