The orangutans and bonobos at Great Ape Trust work hand-in-hand, face-to-face with researchers every day. One day soon, researchers and educators on the other side of the globe will be able to observe the outcomes of their own primate studies at Great Ape Trust via the Internet.

This unprecedented ability to share information in real time has challenged Great Ape Trust and its online development partner, Trilix Marketing Group, to devise ways to demonstrate the importance of primate language research, provide teaching opportunities and expose a global audience to the plight of great apes in the wild.

To design and maintain its Web site, www.greatapetrust.org, Great Ape Trust counts on the services of Trilix a full-service advertising, marketing, public relations and online technology firm headquartered in Urbandale, Iowa.

Trilix has been a part of the Great Ape Trust team from the organization’s inception. Early on, Trilix assisted in marketing communications and public relations for the Trust and, later, designed the award-winning www.greatapetrust.org. Trilix now maintains the site and provides consulting services in online development and communications.

“One of the benefits of working in a marketing agency is that we get to learn about all different kinds of businesses and organizations,” says Todd Senne, President of Trilix Marketing Group. “Working with Great Ape Trust has made us all more aware of what we can gain from this research as well as the plight of great apes in the world. We are honored to be tasked with making this wealth of information available to everyone.”

Trilix places a great deal of emphasis on the importance of a content-driven Web presence. More than just a flashy site, each topic contains layers of information, providing a depth of learning for multiple audiences.

“The key to a highly functional Web site is to provide relevant information in a compelling manner,” says Brett Adams, Account Executive at Trilix Marketing Group. “A Web site can be a powerful tool but before you can build it you have to decide what you want it to do for you. You have to develop a strategy and determine how it integrates with your organization’s overall purpose and mission.”

From university researchers to high school science teachers to grade school children, even interested persons visiting the site on their home computers, www.greatapetrust.org brings to life the great ape experience. Resources available on the site include video clips of the arrival of the apes, research sessions with the apes and scientists, animated tours of the bonobo building and an award-winning short film on Great Ape Trust.

For the media, which covers Great Ape Trust extensively, the Web site includes a comprehensive media section complete with news releases, video and audio clips, published articles and a glossary of terms. By providing such depth of information, the Great Ape Trust site provides journalists with everything they need for complete and accurate reporting.

To help bring visitors to the site regularly, Trilix and Great Ape Trust produce and distribute a monthly email newsletter that provides news and information important to a growing list of persons who have an interest in the facility and its work. The newsletter provides a link to the Web site which makes it easy for readers to get even more information.

The Great Ape Trust Web site has been awarded three consecutive WebAwards by the international Web Marketing Association, a group dedicated to recognizing excellence in Web design, copy writing, innovation, content interactivity, navigation and the use of technology. The 2005 WebAwards included more than 2,100 sites from 33 countries.

Trilix Marketing Group, Urbandale, Iowa, is a strategic marketing consultation firm offering online and traditional creative services. As well as Great Ape Trust, Trilix clients include EMC Insurance, Iowa Games, Iowa State Fair, American Republic Insurance, Des Moines Home and Garden Show, the City of Waukee and Delta Dental. For more information, visit the Trilix Marketing Group Web site, www.trilixgroup.com.

Great Ape Trust began as the Iowa Primate Learning Sanctuary in early 2002. In June of 2003, work crews began developing the former sand and gravel quarry near the Des Moines River. Located about five miles southeast of downtown Des Moines on nearly 230 acres of lowlands, river forest and lakes, Great Ape Trust of Iowa will be largest great ape facility in North America and one of the first worldwide to include all four types of great ape – bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans – for noninvasive interdisciplinary studies of their cognitive and communicative capabilities.

Great Ape Trust is dedicated to providing sanctuary and an honorable life for great apes, studying the intelligence of great apes, advancing conservation of great apes and providing unique educational experiences about great apes. Great Ape Trust of Iowa is a 501© 3 not-for-profit organization and is certified by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA). To learn more about Great Ape Trust of Iowa, go to www.GreatApeTrust.org.