Bond Aviation Group suffers PR failure with new website

Bond Aviation Group suffers PR failure with new website

26-Apr-2012 Source: HeliHub.com

Bond Aviation Group has merged separate websites for each of its onshore and offshore operations into one Group website.  Gone are www.BondOffshoreHelicopters.com and www.BondAirServices.com – both replaced by www.BondAviationGroup.com

While the intent to merge two websites into one is understandable, and the willingness to expand on the predecessor sites with a new “Media” section, the new website has suffered in the design stage and fallen short with a long list of issues to be addressed.  Here are some of them:-

* the gross misuse of space and the unforgivable gap clearly evident in our screenshot below
* details of Bond’s UK EMS work – the vast majority of its UK onshore work – are passed over with just a token paragraph and no list of bases when huge PR mileage could be gained
* the careers page advises applicants to “look at our current vacancies”, but there is no such page
* the careers page also suggests applicants apply via an online form – suggesting a bespoke form for applications, attaching your CV etc.  No such luck – the “online form” is a basic “contact us” page with no file upload/attachment facility – and the email address for you to email a CV to is not given.
* the careers page also mentions pilots from an RAF background, but omits the possibility of some from the Army or Navy – or even from a civil market background.  Perhaps they want to focus on just ex-RAF for their recruitment policy?  Odd!
* the home page proudly announces “Our locations” and an inviting “Read more…” under each of the UK and Australia.  No surprises then that these links go to a small page which simply says they operate in more than one country and you have to click again on (say) “Australia” to find that the only information is the office address and phone number.  They have a base in Ireland (see HeliHub.com story) which seems to be a secret now?
* the Engineering section has a page called “Fleet” where you would expect to find a complete list of the tyeps operated by the group.  But no, they only list some of the current offshore types, none of the onshore ones or the new types on order.  Just so you know, in addition to the types on the website, in the UK alone Bond also operate twenty-one EC135s, five Bo105s and three AW139s, plus they have Sikorsky S92s on order and a “Memorandum of Understanding” which hints at some sort of commitment to both AW169s and AW189s from AgustaWestland.
* the Polution Control page – oh yes, that is how they spelled it…..
* No mention of supporting windfarms, but then HeliHub.com did break the story in September 2011 that despite the razzamatazz at Helitech 2009 showing off the dedicated aircraft, they had not flown that operation in the two years up to Helitech 2011, and our recent research suggests this is still the case with the EC135 noted in March both filling in on lighthouse support in Scotland and supporting the horse-racing at Cheltenham.
* failure to integrate their scheduled movements website into the new group website.  You have to go to http://www.bondflights.com/ for that.  If you are going to the expense of merging two websites, the additional cost of merging a third website would be relatively insignificant.
* Press Kit page – but no press kit!  Just says to contact their PR agents if you cannot find what you want on the website – so why is there a Press Kit page?  {incidentally, it looks like they have ditched their long-time Aberdeen-based PR agents Mearns & Gill for a company called BCM based in Surrey, well away from their UK operational bases}
* Image gallery – at last a positive improvement on the previous website, linking through to their Flickr.com page, but some images are appalling.  Whoever let this massively over-exposed image be published needs to be named and shamed.  No photos of EMS EC135s either.
* Events page – no content there, or apology and polite request to call back later.
* Blog – yes, someone told them it was trendy to have a blog so they put a page in called “Blog” with one token story largely based on the most recent press release.  Let’s hope they are serious about their blog – we would expect regular postings, perhaps 3 or 4 a month from a company this size.  But a blog is only worth it if you are committed to regular updates, and on our general findings here we have to doubt that.  A blog also needs a dedicated RSS feed, and this one does not have one – the only RSS feed on the site contains the press releases.

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The HeliHub.com team is shocked by the missed opportunities of this new website – frankly amount to a massive PR failure on Bond’s part.  Come on, Bond, you can do better than this!

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com

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