GTIA: Building A New Brand And Launching Their Online Presence In 2 Months

We were approached by the Global Technology Industry Association to assist with their move from being part of CompTIA to instead become an independent organization exclusively focusing on serving IT channel organizations and industry professionals. This was a large project with a lot to consider, like moving user data into their new CRM, Hubpot, developing a new brand identity from scratch, and creating a new website to connect with their audience and debut their new identity.

What is GTIA?

The Global Technology Industry Association (GTIA), previously known as the CompTIA Community, creates a space where IT professionals and enthusiasts can connect, collaborate, and share knowledge. It serves as a hub for people in the tech industry to interact with one another, exchange ideas, and get advice on certifications, career development, and various technology topics.

GTIA members get perks from their membership such as discussion forums, networking events, training, resources, and webinars. It’s a great space for both newcomers to IT and seasoned professionals to stay updated on trends, gain support, and advance in their careers.

Creating a new brand identity

Part of becoming the Global Technology Industry Association was developing a new brand identity to better represent their values and mission as an independent organization. Our process was:

• Ideation and discovery: Learning about the brand, competitors, and finding brand inspiration.
• Moodboarding & iteration: Developing multiple directions for the brand to consider and iterating based on feedback. During this process we created 3 brand directions and decided to move forward with a combination of 2 directions.
• Logo creation: From the brand directions, we deep-dived into the logo creation process, exhausting our options and presenting 3 of our strongest identities to the client.
• Final brand: After determining the brand direction and logo, we took these elements and created a final brand book to standardize use across mediums.
• Applying the brand: Based on the brand book, we applied the identity to several sub brands, banners, table treatments, and more.

Migrating user data

Arguably the largest portion of the project was migrating the user data. For this project, it was critical that GTIA receive the relevant data for their membership and that be imported into Hubspot. This process, however, came with several challenges.

First of all, the previous system they used for managing their members used generic text fields to capture the majority of their data. This was an issue because the following issues wouldn’t be caught:

• Information entered in the wrong field
• Typos in emails or phone numbers
• Formatting discrepancies between users

Due to these issues, any exports we received needed to be thoroughly reviewed. We went through several rounds of review and data updates to catch and standardize the data.

Another issue was that their previous system didn’t have the concept of companies. Meaning employees of a company had no way of formally being associated with that company. Due to that limitation, a user’s company affiliation needed to be inferred based on the company email associated with their profile.

Overall, this process helped improve the state of their data immensely and standardized the fields across all users. The result has streamlined finding user information, associating users with other contacts or companies, and making it easier for GTIA staff to connect with their membership.

Launching a new website

The biggest goal from this portion of the project was to have a website that their marketing team could easily update. Because they had picked Hubspot as their CRM, it was a natural decision to also use Hubspot for their website. Hubspot has a rich website builder that makes it easy for their team to create landing pages or edit text, but beyond that, it also gives us the opportunity to make it our own by custom developing reusable components that don’t require development knowledge to use.

We also wanted to consider the ideal site setup here. Since this was a new site we were creating from scratch, we considered the site map as well as the content strategy to ensure that everything made sense based on the new independent brand and new focus on philanthropic giving.

Testimonial from GTIA

I first met the Audentio team six years ago while leading a project to create a new membership offering. This included an online engagement platform, protected reports, and a secure single sign-on solution. Audentio delivered a timely, affordable, and excellent user experience.

Recently, I asked Audentio to help us rebrand, create a new website, migrate and scrub data, and implement a new back-end architecture—all within 60 days during the holiday season. Mike and his team exceeded expectations, showcasing the power of a committed partnership.

Audentio is more than a partner; they are an extension of our team, understanding our unique needs and delivering outstanding results. If you want a partner who invests in your relationship, Audentio is the one.

Launch & Sentiment

The launch was an overwhelming success and the client and GTIA members were extremely excited to see the new brand identity and website. We have continued to work closely with the GTIA team after the launch and have received positive feedback about how easy it is to manage data within their new CRM and update the website, making it easy for the GTIA team to meet their goals without being blocked by development needs.

Conclusion

We loved working with the GTIA team on this project and were honored to be part of the process to develop their new brand identity and assets. We’re excited to continue working with them to reach IT channel professionals and if you need to develop a new brand, let us know, we’d be happy to help!