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Case Study
Table of Contents
Innovation in the Midst of Change .......................................................................... 1 In Their Own Words ................................................................................................ 2
About Astral ..................................................................................................................................... 2
Need and Solution: New WCMS Technology for CTAs Digital Business ..................3
WCMS Search and Selection ............................................................................................................ 4 Project Planning and Implementation ............................................................................................. 5
Current State and Results to Date ......................................................................... 12 Conclusion: Applying CTAs Lessons in Practical Innovation ................................. 13 A Partners Voice .................................................................................................. 15
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digital presence serving diverse, active, and expanding audiences and the advertisers who want to reach them. The case study describes the business need and the technology solution, acquisition and implementation processes, content and system architecture, and results to date. It offers Outsells perspectives on best practices that are leading to winning performance for CTA, its audiences, and its advertiser partners. Our goal is to provide insight into the experience and success factors within a single company, and offer guidance on applying those insights and lessons learned to other businesses and industries where digital transformation is essential for survival. We hope that readers will take away deeper understanding of how practical innovation can be applied within their own organizations.
About Astral
Astral is one of Canada's largest media companies. It operates several of the country's most popular pay and specialty television, radio, out-of-home advertising and digital media properties. Astral plays a central role in community life across the country by offering diverse, rich and vibrant programming that meets the tastes and needs of consumers and advertisers. To learn more about Astral, visit astral.com.
Need and Solution: New WCMS Technology for CTAs Digital Business
Astral CTA formed its interactive group 12 years ago, with the goal of creating websites supporting its eight specialty French-language TV stations. Core philosophies (then as now) are that web presence is complementary to TV broadcasting and that audience experience can be enhanced with content that goes beyond programming itself while supporting the vision of the brand. These concepts shaped the evolution of CTA websites from first-generation static programming guides and promotional/content activities. Leveraging a very strong television presence in its French market, CanalVie.com rapidly became a popular portal by mid-2000. The site publishes a huge variety of content for women in the 30-45 age group and features very active forums. On Ztele.com, topic-oriented blogs and a car section draw men in the 20-35 age group. Vrak.tv, for children 9-14 years of age, operates as a strong community with a gaming structure. MusiquePlus.com, another strong site, delivers a branded online experience with an active community using social media and a news-based content strategy.
In 2009, CTA set itself on a course to leverage its existing success and grow into true digital media presence in its markets. This would require a digital content strategy that was both deeper, ensuring richer audience engagement, and broader, extending into mobile channels eventually. To guide strategy execution, CTA formed a steering committee comprising stakeholders representing executive, business, production, content development, and IT groups. The committee is responsible for driving and overseeing all technology decisions (including acquisition) and for ensuring alignment with Astral-wide efforts and vision. One of its first tasks was due diligence on the existing content management infrastructure supporting the websites. CTA had in place a custom content management system (CMS) that was functional but aging. A gap analysis compared requirements for true digital presence with the current capabilities and the workflows and processes that had grown up around it. It became obvious that the existing technologies and processes for content and web publishing could not be evolved to support CTAs business direction. Without new technology, the content and production teams would not be able to support the volume and breadth of content that would be required, nor would they be able to publish it in a timely manner. In addition, concurrent projects involving other technologies were underway (such as the system supporting web video management and delivery). Time was right for reconsidering all of the processes and workflows driving web presence. Thus began the search for a new web content management system (WCMS). On the bottom line, the business case was driven by the need for efficient, state-of-the-art web publishing. The steering committees investigation was shaped by a clear understanding that content is
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the companys businessnot website design and development. This squarely grounded the target solution as a CMS optimized for web publishing and media asset organization, rather than a web production system. All decisions were driven by a vision of content anywhere, as determined by consumer preferences. The right solution would put control in the hands of the content owners, ensure that the content could be managed independently of platform or device constraints, and enable high degrees of automation and streamlined workflows. On the top line, the business case addressed two primary opportunities. First, by aiming for more profitable web production through optimized content management, CTA would have time, tools, and expertise to devote to new commercial and added-value projects. Second, one business argument for investment was driven by profound and fundamental changes in media advertising. Today advertisers demand consistent messaging across all channels (web, mobile, broadcast, and print). They want advertising messaging tied to relevant editorial content, and they want data, data, and more data. The right WCMS would be critical to CTAs ability to continue to attract and serve high-quality sponsors and advertisers across the breadth of its digital business.
Open architecture
Prior success delivering WCMS solutions to publishers, particularly in digital media and broadcasting industries Table 1: CTA Key Vendor Criteria
If a vendor met these key criteria, the committee then considered other factors including timing (deployment, training, and adoption), pricing (licensing, maintenance, and support), and technology fit with the existing CTA environment. This evaluation process distilled a list of six WCMS vendors who would receive the RFP. The candidates represented a variety of solution approaches: open source WCM deployed by a systems integrator, licensed software configured and installed by an integrator, and vendors deploying with their own professional services. One of the key steps in the CTA selection process is worth calling out as a best practice. Too many times, new technology fails to realize its full potential due to compromised user adoption. This is often because the needs of the people using the system to do everyday work are not considered during requirements gathering. Or if they are considered, users are not given the opportunity to experience the technology first-hand in a real work scenario. To its great credit, CTA mitigated adoption risk with a hands-on evaluation by CTA end-users, who test drove the systems and completed a solution appreciation questionnaire that rated their experiences with each. This process gave users a sense of ownership in the new solution; it also teased out problems and issues that may not otherwise have surfaced during evaluation. After this well-planned and managed technology acquisition process, CTA chose Polopoly from Atex, a UK-based software company providing solutions for media-rich industries. The following factors were keys to the final decision: Most closely aligned with CTAs key requirements and highest rated by CTA users. Offers features that specifically address challenges in the media industry, including integrations with tools that enable brand websites to improve and monetize web presence. Addresses page creation and content organization efforts with dynamic page generation and text mining technologies. Offers content management features supporting publishing workflows and asset reuse. In-context analytics. Tablet publishing capabilities. Flexible and extensible software architecture, plus met the CTA profile for scalability and performance. Software-as-a-Service delivery model.
strategies for content migration, integration with current assets and repositories, and reimplementations of custom applications within the new WCMS. The introduction of new technology created an opportunity for CTA to rethink the web content strategy for each site, including the information architecture and design. A key design decision was reuseelements developed in Polopoly would be appropriate to the experience on a particular site, but would also suit broader needs to the extent possible. For specific element needs, the approach was to ensure that behavior was consistent across sites. To CTAs audiences, the Polopoly-driven sites would be similar in look, style, and behavior. This strategy offered two benefits. First, it would enable CTA to get to deployment faster, reducing the effort to design individual websites. Second, it would ensure consistent experience for consumers, reducing the negative impact that sometimes occurs with noticeable differences in site design. The actual transitioning of the websites from the existing to the new platform would initially be staged one site at a time. This deployment strategy ensured business continuity for the majority of the websites and minimized the risk of disruption due to new technology introduction. CTAs thoughtful approach included an assessment of the scope of content migration issues. The roll-out started with Musimax.com, a small site in terms of number of content assets, and moved on to Ztele.com, a medium-sized site. CanalVie.com is the third to move to the new platform. This will be the largest effort due to the amount of content that will be migrated.
Sep 2010 to Mar 2011 Apr and May 2011 Requirements definition, vendor investigation, and technology selection Jun 2011 Contracting with Atex Implementation start Feb 2012 Two sites running on new WCMS Mar 2012 Two sites in development
Technology in Action
Under the hood, the ways that the sites and pages worked would be completely different from the existing approaches. These new capabilities are fundamental to innovation at CTAthe introduction of new capabilities that deliver new value. CTA would be able to engage audiences, serve advertisers, and position for growth in ways that it could not without an updated content technology infrastructure.
Taken together, these features would enable CTA to create, in effect, an unlimited inventory of pages and accompanying advertising, and to readily build out custom content sets, micro-sites, and other content packages that could be blended with advertising. CTAs solution of choice, Atex Polopoly, is optimized for this kind of delivery, which is why it is widely used in news and media companies. Content is stored in a neutral XML structure. Each content element can be tagged with a variety of metadata. Pages are then dynamically assembled based on the metadata. For example, articles tagged as being about a particular television show or movie can be assembled on the fly into a landing page about that show, and married with advertising about that show, movie, or other related products. In addition: The format-neutral XML content will allow CTA to dynamically make content available for publication on any digital device. Polopolys integrated text mining tools simplify content tagging. CTAs content creators can efficiently tag content sets, thereby driving the dynamic assembly of content products and landing pages displaying related content and advertising. The content categorization has the added benefit of helping to keep visitors on the site longer by directing them to related and interesting content, thereby generating additional advertising revenue.
The underlying content model is simple but powerful. In essence, all content is stored as Articles (the content or information carrying unit) and in Departments, which are content containers that can be used to build hierarchies or lists of articles. Both the Articles and Departments are linked to one or more
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input templates and one or more output templates. The input templates provide a graphical user interface to the content, enabling editors to create and manage content objects. The output templates are then used to render the content. With this model, an article on a movie could be married with one or more output templatesone for the primary landing page, one for an alternate landing page design, one for a mobile version of the website, and so on. In addition, content managed in the platform is: Cached and distributed, enabling dynamic delivery of the content to various distribution points and formats. Versioned, enabling continuous and flexible updating of the content, as well as functions such as rollback when necessary. Indexed, enabling search and ongoing text mining and refinement. Importable and exportable, enabling API-level access and flexible models of syndication.
CTAs architecture for its Publish Anywhere Web CMS is illustrated in Figure 2.
Within the Polopoly platform, the core content management services (storage, indexing, versioning, access by users, etc.) are separate from the run-time versions of product that are used for delivery, which are shown at the top of the diagram (Website A, B, and so on). This separation enables scaling to accommodate very high traffic, which will be essential as traffic grows and websites become replete with video, audio, animation, and other resource-intensive content. Multiple logical layers dedicated to specific services make it possible to isolate capabilities for performance optimization and management of infrastructure costs. Features of the Publish Everywhere architecture include: Dynamic content delivery for mobile and web browsers. A content administration and publishing layer managing content creation, workflows, content tagging, and site structure. Application templates or plugins for integrating key third party services such as BrightCove for video delivery, Google Analytics, and Adobe Omniture.
The platform supports standard release management best practices, deployed with a continuous integration development approach using development, staging and production environments as illustrated in Figure 3. Developers have a protected environment in which to create new features, while QA teams have a separate space for ensuring that all new elements integrate well and function properly. This greatly reduces risk that content or sites fail in production.
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simpler workflow of creating the content, enriching it with tagging, and then submitting it to a workflow, as illustrated in Figure 4.
Content creators enter raw content into a simple user interface that separates key elements such as the title and lead from the full text of the article. Users are trained in the interface and have a guide instructing them on what elements are allowed in the content. Content is then tagged for subject and other key metadata. Users are presented with an interface that includes the subject categories and metadata elements such as artists who are mentioned in the content, geographical tags, and whether a video clip or other media are included in the content. Users then submit the content to a workflow. Users can save drafts, preview the content, or publish it directly to the website.
This same overall process drives the taxonomy and text mining for the published websites. The content is tagged for subject and other metadata. Articles tagged for a specific artist, for example, can be used to dynamically generate pages and queues of articles that can be embedded in other pages. These articles can then be married with appropriate advertising or even tagged for specific campaigns. The tagging also enriches the search experience for users, providing better results and more ways of filtering the results.
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Bursts of additional bandwidth can be accommodated when traffic spikes for special events or periods of increased traffic. System and performance monitoring can be continuous and proactive.
These improvements will enable CTA to meet its larger business goal of leveraging the same resources to create new value, instead of consuming time and money with repetitive manual processes. CTA is monitoring metrics designed to assess the impact of the new technology on audience engagement, including increase in number of consumers accessing video or other content specific to the site (such as blog entries on Ztele.com), and more page views of video content. Increases in traffic and engagement plus new technical and process capabilities delivered by the web publishing CMS will lead to the longer-term strategic benefits that are targeted for three years after full deployment.
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Although top-line revenues related specifically to the new technology are still in the future, CTAs ability to deliver more content on dynamic pages is currently having positive impact on partnerships with advertisers and sponsors. Premium ad placement programs are selling out more quickly. And as a marketing benefit, media agencies and clients can see the difference in the sites supported by the new WCMS, resulting in additional competitive advantage for CTA. Over the longer term, one of CTAs goals for the new WCMS is the ability to deliver behavioral advertising, which it was not able to do at all with the in-place technology.
Behavioral advertising is the delivery of advertising content based on the collection of data online from a particular computer or device capturing Web viewing behaviors over time and across non-afliate Web sites for the purpose of using such data to predict user preferences or interests to deliver advertising to that computer or device based on the preferences or interests inferred from such Web viewing behaviors. Behavioral advertising is distinguished from contextual advertising, where ads are based on the content of a Web page, a search query, or a users contemporaneous behavior on the site.
The overall rate of cost savings and pace of productivity -- Self-Regulatory Principles for Online improvements is currently moderated by the need to run the new Behavioral Advertising, July 2009 web publishing CMS in parallel with the existing system on which the other six systems run. To mitigate risk, any new features are designed to operate on both platforms, and new integrations are developed once but tested in both environments. Today CTAs content is delivered in a web browser on its websites. When the transition to the new web publishing CMS is completed, CTA intends to expand to content delivery to web-based mobile apps and possibly to native app platforms, depending upon the state of the market and on audience preferences. With a common pool of content that can be published and promoted in compelling, value-added ways across channels, CTAs vision of a true digital media business will be reality.
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vision for digital media presence. Its feet are firmly planted in both its current business and the business it aspires to become. We can point to three specific examples: ROI in the new WCMS platform is focused on the bottom line for the first three years, with topline revenue expected thereafter. The steering committee set realistic expectations regarding top-line timeframe. Although change is occurring rapidly, it is not happening so fast that reliable, sustainable revenue can be promised in the near term. The initial one-site-at-a-time approach to implementing the new platform is designed to minimize interruption of the current business, and at the same time orchestrate the development of internal capabilities by starting with the smallest sites and moving onto the larger projects. The decision to deploy with a cloud model and outsource much of the IT infrastructure is essential to CTAs ability to meet current and future project goals. Through a strategic relationship with its technology partner Atex, CTA is addressing current management realities as well as ensuring cost-effective scalability as content publishing demands grow over time.
Establishing and maintaining the balance between improving the current business and realizing future vision is always a difficult management challenge. Temptations to favor one over the other are sometimes too great to ignore, particularly when the pressures of rapid and inexorable change create urgency to do something. Readers of this case study would do well to consider CTAs approach: Stay focused on the core business in the midst of change. CTA never loses sight of the fact that its business is content. Strategies and tactics are constantly trained on developing capabilities and competencies that establish the company as the premier content provider in its markets across all media. Bring all of the stakeholders to the table. The composition of the steering committee ensured that every organization impacted by the new WCMS was represented, and that all groups were ready to act once the technology decisions had been made. Develop strategic partnerships with technology providers. CTA sought out a supplier with a depth of experience working with media companies, establishing vertical market expertise as a key criteria during the selection process. With its cloud deployment of WCMS, CTA and Atex are working together on a daily basis and in collaboration to reduce CTAs risk. This cannot happen if the supplier simply installs the software and sends a bill. Other best practices well illustrated by CTAs WCMS success include: Take an organized, methodical process to technology acquisition that is consciously inclusive of all stakeholders and users. CTA excelled in its approach to finding the best-fit WCMS. Putting the systems in the hands of the users before buying may have taken a little more time during the evaluation process, but will pay significant benefits in terms of adoption.
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Never underestimate the content migration issues. In hindsight, CTAs production director Sophie Thberge identifies this as an important lesson learned. In the end, content migration will be the largest portion of project effort by far, and it is essential to manage the effort consciously and rigorously. Migrating while deploying has presented some unexpected developer challenges, and the process is resource intensive, as there is no way to automate the migration. CTAs story is one of growth and evolution, not immediate and wholesale transformation. Innovation is sometimes mistaken as important only in the latter case. As CTAs success has shown, investment in new content technology and practices can introduce new capabilities that make innovation practical, manageable, and essential to impacting current as well as future business.
A Partners Voice
We thank Atex for contributing the following content to this case study. The broadcast industry, like all media sectors, is facing increased competition for audience time and attention. An abundance of choice allows consumers to be more selective. As a result, broadcasters need unparalleled flexibility in delivering content and creating a more engaging user experience. The Atex Polopoly Web Content Management System (Polopoly) is an integrated software platform boasting a suite of tools designed to empower broadcast news departments, enrich websites, and expand customer marketing efforts across all media channels. Global broadcast companies like Astral Media are selecting Polopoly to expand and enrich their online presence and to deliver on their metadata-driven publishing model. Polopoly is based on open standards and a highly scalable architecture. The system is simple to use, yet powerful and flexible, and which currently manages some of the largest traffic web sites in the world. Having worked with some of the most advanced and demanding digital publishers, Polopoly addresses the diverse and complex demands of global broadcasters. Polopoly supports the planning, creation, enrichment, delivery and access of content across all media channels. In addition, the system enables consolidated newsroom organizational and workflow models, with a focus on quality local content and greater community participation. With todays media organizations being continuously challenged to sustain their positions as the information centers of their local communities, Polopoly provides competency in this changing business model, powering the flow of information and managing a broadcasters audience, contributors, and communities.
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In short, Polopoly provides the infrastructure to extend a broadcast companys media reach, delivering any content, anywhere, anytime, and in any format. We are very proud of our relationship with Astral Media, and we look forward to continuing our partnership of collaboration and innovation.
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Outsell, Inc., is a research and advisory firm that helps the worlds publishers, information providers, and enterprise marketers grow revenue, deliver superior solutions, optimize their clients performance, and thrive in a fast-changing global digital market.
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