Oppenheimer 60th Anniversary - 50

Reprinting of From Opportunity to
Legacy: Celebrating the First Fifty Years

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OppenheimerFunds Online
1997 OppenheimerFunds made its

debut on the World Wide Web in 1997.
Like many Company initiatives, the
move online was driven in large part by
ongoing expansion efforts. The Company's Web site, like most of its contemporaries, started from humble beginnings.
"It looked like brochures," recalled Lucy
Zachman, creative director of e-commerce
and the first writer hired for the site. "Our
account manager gathered brochures
from different business units, and we just
put them up on the site. Back in the day,
that was the way most sites looked."
It wasn't long before the Company
realized that this new media channel
presented tremendous opportunities
in terms of marketing, disseminating
information, and focusing on the
Company's main constituency, the
financial advisor. The Internet would
enable the Firm to provide better and

faster service to both shareholders and
advisors, and greatly expand its capabilities
in account information services and other
areas. Over the past decade, the Web
site has developed into a cost-efficient
marketing tool as well as another way for the
Company to control costs for shareholders.
Since 1998 the Company's e-commerce
group has grown to include writers,
content specialists, production associates,
and account managers. The Web site
stands out among its peers in that most
of its competitors rely on a third party
to supply account information, while
OppenheimerFunds uses proprietary
information, which gives it greater control.
The interface and usability options also
rank as standard-setters. "New content goes
up on a daily basis," said Zachman. "We are
always thinking of the user experience." The
Web team's efforts have been recognized
with several awards.

OppenheimerFunds' advisor site
was ranked the No. 1 site for financial
professionals in 2007 and 2008 by Dalbar,
the industry's leading market research
firm, and its investor site was ranked No. 2.
Factors Dalbar evaluates include usefulness,
range of functions, and appearance. n
OppenheimerFunds' Web presence has
come a long way since 1997. By the time
the Company observed its 50th anniversary, substantial activity was taking
place online, as these 2008 statistics
from the investor site demonstrate:

7,732

Visits per day

556

Unique pages

Trackable funds

College-planning
calculators

Retirement-planning
calculators

Daily

Account information
updates
Above: The OppenheimerFunds Web site as it
appeared when it launched in 1997. Right: The new
OppenheimerFunds Web site as it appeared in 2008.

"New content goes up on a daily basis. We are always thinking
of the user experience." LUCY ZACHMAN, CREATIVE DIRECTOR OF E-COMMERCE
50 * OppenheimerFunds: The First Fifty Years

Oppenheimer 60th Anniversary

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Oppenheimer 60th Anniversary