Over the last 18 months, Nationwide Insurance has stepped up its marketing efforts behind the theme "life comes at you fast," and now the financial services and property/casualty carrier has brought its Internet presence into that branding initiative. In December, Nationwide.com was relaunched. "The Internet is a major customer touch point, so we wanted to make sure from a brand standpoint our Internet presence aligns with what our customers see in local agencies–from the service they receive through call centers to the TV ads they see," says marketing officer Sue McManus.

The initial plan was simply to redesign the site, according to McManus, but once work began, she indicates they quickly realized more was needed than merely a coat of paint. The company also wanted to establish a Web strategy for the entire enterprise. "We've got dozens of customer-facing Web sites that have been built over the last 10 years," she says. "We really didn't have a comprehensive master plan. We now have one and implemented the first phase of it to combine some of our larger consumer sites into nationwide.com."

Guru Vasudeva, associate vice president and chief architect for Nationwide, is pleased with what has been accomplished thus far and believes the carrier's marketing department has done a great job of positioning the company. "There is humor and, at the same time, a gut reaction when you see our [TV] ads," he says. "We've tried to recreate some of that in our Web site consistently across the various lines of business. We do have a lot of work to do in terms of making our transaction capabilities up to speed."