INMA Media Awards 2020
Category 14
BEST NEW INITIATIVE TO ENHANCE CORPORATE CULTURE
Please open on a desktop computer.
Driving change through innovation
Nearly every company views innovation as a strategic imperative. The need for companies to innovate and stay ahead of the curve has never been more important.
However, while most companies recognize its importance, many continue to view innovation as an addon – a specialist function by a small, secret team of “innovation experts”.
True innovation doesn’t happen in a black box away from the prying eyes of the masses. It’s open, transparent and collaborative. It’s part of everyone’s mindset and responsibility.
It’s a culture.
How the biggest publisher In Northern Europe reduced time to market with 90% on campaigns
By partnering up with a Norwegian tech startup located only three blocks away
Vev is a startup founded in 2017 located in Oslo. Vev is a front-end web design builder, enabling designers, developers and marketers to collaborate on creating and publishing websites and front-end content.
The tool is used to enable designers and marketers to own the web design production process, while developers can create new building blocks and publishing solutions. This enables teams to create a scalable production process, without limiting creativity.
Schibsted Norway Consumer Business's department overall responsibility is to generate subscription revenue, both from new and existing users.
The department is organized in a matrix, where one part of the matrix works across brands, and the other part of the matrix consists of teams working specifically with each brand.
The part of the matrix working across brands are divided in departments specialising in and delivering Sales and marketing, CRM, Analytics, Product Development and Customer Service to the brand teams.
Across the matrix all departments have one common goal:
To optimize subscription revenue and number of subscribers.
The Challenge
Our challenge was that the production process from idea to launching new sales concepts required so much time and resources that it drastically limited our ability to run daily sales and campaign efforts.
We were not able to adapt to changes or proactively communicate with our subscribers and potential new customers.
The process of creating campaigns and launching them across all our brands required involvement from several departments increasing the complexity and time spent on even simple productions.
Make the design in Sketch
UX
Make code happen
Development
Marketing
Text and offer
Approve or iterate on adjustments
Marketing
Launch
Development
Make an order
Deliver InVision sketches
Deliver implemented design
OK or adjust
Old Production Process
The only solution that met technical requirements was hard-coding our campaigns. The alternative, to use banner ad builders generating scripts to add on our sites, would slow down our sites drastically. With clean code as our only alternative, it was clear that our biggest bottleneck was the fact that every design had to be hardcoded. In addition to time spent on coding, designs had to be delivered in time to be included in the development team's sprint, planned and adjusted every two weeks.
Producing code based on prototypes delivered by sales also created more challenges: designs were not always compatible with coding standards, key graphics were missing and subtle ideas were simply lost in the long process.
This led to frustration on all levels – on every campaign, and time to market was too long.
The Solution
By collaborating with a local tech startup, we were able to implement a new tool and set up an entirely new workflow in only 4 weeks.
At the start of 2019, several departments in Schibsted were already using Vev to enable non-tech designers and marketers to create standalone websites, sponsored content and long reads. The teams using Vev were applauding the freedom and creativity it gave them, not depending on help from developers for getting their ideas out on the web. On top of this, the platform also generated clean code, keeping developers happy and sites snappy.
Our developers noticed this new visual builder, and upon researching, our developers had an idea:
Could we integrate Vev with our campaign platform of sales posters and banners, enabling marketers and all the brands to create and control all of the campaign material themselves?
We reached out to Vev who understood our needs and created a way for us to easily send Vev productions to our campaign platform, where we could set up systems to distribute the content freely to any destination on our sites.
By collaborating with this startup, we were able to implement a new tool and set up an entirely new workflow in only 4 weeks. In less than 6 months, we would make up implementation costs.
November 2019 marketers and designers in all our brands produce and launch sales campaigns for the first time, independent of the help of developers
One-click publishing to designated areas on any brand in the portfolio
Visual production process where marketers can design and launch a customized campaign in less than 30 minutes.
QA and Launch
Development
Design and implement in Vev
UX
Marketing
Text and offer
Cooperate
New Digital Sales Material Production Process
We are ready
"This project is a great example of how startups and large corporations can create important innovation through collaboration. Although Vev is used by many large clients, Schibsted Consumer Business was the first who identified and took advantage of our technology's full potential."
Tine Karlsen
CEO of Vev
The Results in Numbers
From testing to launching Vev with all our brands, it only took four weeks. We had a kick-off for all users in-house, and went on a tour to all of our brands spread across the country to train all potential users on how to use this new web design platform. The response and results were amazing.
to thirty minutes.
Time-to-market from three weeks...
The first campaign running on the new platform (Q4/2019) has reduced time spent by developers with 66%
– and is expected to decrease even further as our designers and marketers keep building competence and the the QA is automated by Vev
With Vev
25%
75%
100%
50%
Before Vev
Q1-19
Q2-19
Q3-19
Q4-19
A Happier Corporate Culture
After six months, we conducted a user survey with all parties involved. The tool is in use across almost all areas in the Consumer Business department: Sales and Marketing, the various brands, CRM and development:
“It's much more flexible than previous systems we have used, and the fact that we are united on the use of one tool, is great.”
Marketer
“The amount of work tasks have decreased, and the tasks left are more engaging. It used to be routine work (and quite boring) to make a sales poster or landing page. Now our tasks are more related to development and problem-solving.”
Developer
“It´s lubrication to my workflow”
Marketer
“Tech developers are now focusing on quality assurance, instead of coding a design. This has led to fewer misunderstandings, and also spending time on iterations that are time consuming.”
Developer
“We have cut several joints from idea to complete product. Increased efficiency, and we work together in new ways.”
Marketer
“Enables users to focus on their primary objective. A developer can focus on actually developing, to make integrations better and flawless, whilst a designer can focus on design.”
Developer
“Easy and fun! The instant reuse of design enables making solutions during meetings, so that all stakeholders can get a visual and agree right then and there. Efficient!!”
Business developer
“Fantastic tool. I can work from anywhere and the tool enables me to make design and completely finished sites without much help from developers. I feel I have more control on details, and get a better finish.”
Designer
“Easy, efficient and fun! Plenty of possibilities, and the fact that we can make changes ourselves without having to be dependent on other departments.”
Marketer
New Opportunities
We have reduced the time for sales communication to go live, from idea to actually being visible for our users, drastically! From three weeks to now only thirty minutes, has enabled us to do different and bolder choices when marketing Schibsted products.
We are discovering new fields for usage of Vev, like embedding web content on existing solutions or creating lightweight web applications and prototyping new ideas.
Our development department is more effective – removing repetitive tasks for our valuable developers who can now spend their time building larger strategic solutions.
When we conclude on the change implemented, we find that we have not only managed to decrease time to market on campaigns with 90%.
The change has also provided us with three other positive effects:
- The power to launch campaigns is now in the hands of the teams responsible for the results
We have freed up time in all teams involved
The cooperation with Vev provides an agile solution to continuously meet our changing needs in new tools as we develop our campaigns in an ever-changing market.
Examples
With more time on our hands combined with a flexible web design builder, we can communicate our large variety of products in new and innovative ways. Our marketers are not only creating banners, but they are also creating landing pages to go with our campaigns!
Campaign landing page
Campaign landing page, where you can give a subscription as a Christmas present
Welcome page to new subscribers
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Rethinking things since 1839
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