North Sea Port Website
Question
How do you give a bilingual, cross-border port one clear voice?
North Sea Port brings together three locations across two countries, connecting industries, communities and cultures. Following its merger, the port needed a unified tone of voice to accompany the new branding and website.
The challenge was to capture its bold, boundary leaping character while keeping complex information clear, accessible and human for a wide range of audiences.
Approach
Diving deep
We defined a shared brand personality and translated it into a bilingual tone of voice: bold, clear, and human, with maritime witticism deeply anchored in its character.
With that voice firmly in place, we immersed ourselves in the world of North Sea Port, interviewing 32 departments over more than 80 hours. These conversations helped us understand the organisation from every angle and uncover the stories, language and ambitions that connected it.
We developed 72 strategic storylines and wrote the complete website copy in Dutch and English. Every subject required its own course, while always sounding like the same port.
Impact
Making waves
Seven months of close, boundary-pushing collaboration resulted in one recognisable voice across three locations, two countries and two languages.
North Sea Port now communicates with greater clarity, consistency and character. Its verbal identity brings the merged organisation together, makes complex port information easier to navigate and gives this small but significant European port a voice strong enough to carry across borders and make waves.
