Founded in 1905, York-based Benenden Healthcare has a membership of over 940,000 and is open to all public sector workers and their families. fuse8’s first task is to align five existing websites into one website to include the Society and its subsidiaries, phase one of which is due to be launched in January 2010.

Marc Bell, director of marketing & business development at Benenden Healthcare, said: “The web is central to the Society’s ongoing development and will enable us to continue to provide members with an effective and highly responsive service.

“On a project of this importance it was crucial for us to partner with a digital agency that can successfully combine strategic thought with outstanding implementation. fuse8’s innovative response to our brief and the agency’s ability to demonstrate its effectiveness across a number of high value web projects gave us every confidence to appoint them to deliver our web strategy.”

Key project objectives for fuse8 include increasing the acquisition and retention of new members in addition to incorporating online self-service channels. The agency will also develop the foundations for ongoing search engine optimisation (SEO) activity on the new Benenden Healthcare website to enable the mutual to meet its growth targets.

Mark Walton, fuse8’s chief executive, commented: “This is a significant project which will give Benenden Healthcare a dynamic, interactive online presence. The website we are developing will also utilise social media and bespoke applications to target existing and potential members across the UK. It is an exciting project and one which will allow us to fully demonstrate the power of our digital capabilities.”