Introducing APEX’s New Website & Branding
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APEX is proud to unveil our refreshed brand identity and website. The new brand, developed by Bookmark, and website, created by Kellen, both launched today.
The upgraded website provides richer events, membership and awards sections. An enhanced industry news section also features new categories that align with the association’s objectives.
APEX’s sister-association, IFSA, also launched a new complementary brand, which shares the same colors and fonts as APEX, while maintaining its own identity.
Below, APEX’s key stakeholders behind the new brand and website highlight some of the features and share insight into the process and strategy.
What are some of the key features of the new site?
“Building upon APEX’s new branding, the new visual design of the website provides a unified and cohesive look. Members will notice an improved user experience for both desktop and mobile, an enhanced navigation with events easily accessed in a sub-navigation, and a new way to easily “toggle” between APEX, IFSA and FTE. In addition to creating richer event, membership, and award sections, we also worked closely with APEX Media to develop a more robust industry news section with new categories that align with the association’s objectives. This includes in-flight services, which is prominently featured on the IFSA website.” – Robin Applebaum, director, Marketing & Communications, APEX
“The new apex.aero provides a robust platform for news. It now features a specific landing page for our five key content categories of IFEC, Aircraft Interiors, Airport Experience, Inflight Services and Thought Leadership & Brand. From an advertising perspective, we are now able to tag campaigns so that banners run alongside content in one or more of these categories, depending on the objectives of the client. We look forward to sharing these opportunities with our values partners and building out the industry’s leading news resource together.” – Maryann Simson, director, APEX Media
What will APEX members find the most useful about the new site?
“Universal navigation is smoother on both computers and mobile devices with a visual approach rather than endless drop-down menus. Most importantly, the website will remember members as individuals from their devices without requiring log-in each time. Also, our Association Management System (AMS) allows APEX/IFSA to send single-click secure log-in links to our members. Events across APEX, IFSA and FTE directly flow in a continuous manner. Like APEX’s news across airline passenger experience, IFSA also now features APEX Media articles on in-flight service. The entire website experience ‘flows’ around our members with the latest industry news.” – Dr. Joe Leader, APEX/IFSA CEO
Why did APEX decide to launch a new brand and redesign the website?
“APEX’s previous logo served the association well for many years, however as we look ahead, APEX wanted to have a brand that is easily identifiable as part of the aviation industry, and that can grow with our association and industry. Since the launch of our last website more than five years ago, APEX has evolved considerably as an association. Technologically, however, our website was not able to develop at the same pace to help the association meet its goals. We therefore set out to develop a site that is indicative of APEX’s innovative spirit, displays a streamlined design, and delivers a better user experience for our members.” – Robin Applebaum, director, Marketing & Communications, APEX
Was the project affected by the pandemic?
“The Boards of APEX and IFSA, alongside senior staff last year, took the bold step of investing in new logos for the decade ahead. While paid for last year, we delayed the launch of these logos in the wake of COVID-19. The new APEX/IFSA integrated website was also delayed in order to defer amortization costs.” – Dr. Joe Leader, APEX/IFSA CEO
What does the new APEX brand represent?
“APEX defines the standard and future of the airline industry by continuing to grow and attract airline and supplier members. As the second-largest international airline association in the world, we need a brand that conveys APEX’s global influence and authority in the airline industry.” – Robin Applebaum, director, Marketing & Communications, APEX
What was the strategy behind the creation of the new brand?
“While we wanted a new, recognizable and prominent brand, we were mindful that APEX has a rich history and more than four-decades of brand equity. We therefore wanted to incorporate and build off elements of the most recent brand. The rebrand also needed to have an architecture that not only included our event and award brands, but that could also visually position APEX as an “umbrella brand” for other brands within the APEX family – such as IFSA and FTE. During the process, we also worked with the IFSA Board to develop a new and complementary brand for IFSA. While using the same brand color palette (with different primary colors) and fonts, the IFSA maintains its own identity rooted in its food and beverage core.” – Robin Applebaum, director, Marketing & Communications, APEX
What was the strategy behind the redesign of the website?
“APEX members were top-of-mind as we developed the new website. APEX wanted to ensure the new site was association-centric, aligning with, and supporting APEX’s strategic goals around events, thought leadership, and community. The new site was also built for the first time with IFSA fully integrated. This will not only provide a more comprehensive experience for APEX and IFSA members, but will support a new and strong SEO plan.” – Robin Applebaum, director, Marketing & Communications, APEX