Website Awards
Since its launch the First Great Western website has won two prestigious digital industry awards.
In the New Media Age Effectiveness Awards 2007, classed as 'The Greatest Prize in New Media', www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk won the Travel category.
The judges said using the site was a lovely experience and it had great usability. 
The panel of expert judges reviewed the site as follows:
"A new entrant to the rail franchise market, First Great Western required a consumer-facing website that delivered a seamless online journey from route planning to ticket sales. The site also had to express the brand, to draw in new customers while retaining those from the previous franchise holder, and to integrate third party information to create a destination site.
The target market was commuters travelling by high-speed train into London Paddington, holiday travellers who used local train services in Cornwall and Devon, and regional rail users travelling between major conurbations in the Thames Valley and South West.
The site delivered by Graphico incorporated third-party information by reskinning it, giving travellers the view that they stay with First Great Western for the duration of their online journey. It came first in a survey carried out by a leading usability company and received positive feedback from users, managing to gain new customers without alienating customers of the previous operator of the south-west lines.
The site’s revenue performance was very strong, generating an enormous return on the initial outlay. The online channel was vital to the new operator’s plans and increasing revenue delivered by the website was a critical objective. It now outperforms all other marketing channels in terms of ticket sales and revenues.
The judges said using the site was a lovely experience and it had great usability in a highly competitive category. They thought the smart integration of third-party content and brand-led design had achieved startling results."
Revolution Award
The First Great Western website also won a prestigious Revolution Award 2007 in the Leisure and Travel category.
The aim of the awards is to recognise the best in digital marketing. While levels of innovation and creativity are taken into account when selecting the winners, the judges primarily look at the extent to which each digital marketing project, in our case our new website www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk, met its objectives.
They also take into account the level of difficulty of objectives and the degree to which they have been met using innovative and creative treatments. Entrants are also rewarded if they are deemed to consider the needs of people with disabilities. The First Great Western website, launched at the start of the franchise, has drawn wide-ranging praise.
Positive endorsement has been received from the digital marketing industry, disabled website users as well as the rail industry.
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