Episerver was a software company offering web content management, digital commerce, and digital marketing, through the Episerver Digital Experience Platform Cloud Service. In January 2021, Episerver announced that they were rebranding as Optimizely, a company they acquired in October, 2020, and that provided A/B testing and multivariate testing tools, website experimentation and personalization.
Following the acquisition of Optimizely by Episerver, Vertic worked closely with both companies to understand the implications of the consolidation of their brands, their content, value propositions, and the digital channels through which they went to market.
Discussions with Optimizely showed that there was a digital brand objective that required the digital experience to communicate the new value of the joint company, a commercial objective to create future business revenue, as well as an operational objective that aligned with the traditional cost-saving opportunities that come from M&A.
Vertic was subsequently tasked with defining the digital experience. Rather than see the task purely as a ‘consolidation’ project, Vertic saw the opportunities that arose from being able ‘start from scratch’ and create a completely new digital customer experience.
"We are seeing immediate impact following our successful digital transformation, with an entirely new front-end visual design, digital customer journeys and back-end architecture. 120 days. 80+ stakeholders. 6,000+ pages of content. And the business outcomes are impressive! Thank you for your continued partnership in our digital-first growth strategy."
"We are seeing immediate impact following our successful digital transformation, with an entirely new front-end visual design, digital customer journeys and back-end architecture. 120 days. 80+ stakeholders. 6,000+ pages of content. And the business outcomes are impressive! Thank you for your continued partnership in our digital-first growth strategy."
Vertic’s research and search engine analysis showed that the legacy Optimizely.com had a relatively stronger ‘digital gravity’ and digital maturity than the legacy Episerver.com. Moreover, because insights revealed a stronger customer affinity for the Optimizely brand, it made sense re-brand the combined company as Optimizely, even though Episerver was the acquiring company.
With internal objectives in mind, Vertic focused on digital stakeholders ranging from customers to partners and beyond. Using interviews and surveys with internal and external stakeholders and insights from search behavior, analytics, and social listening, Vertic designed the experience strategy.
Vertic's roadmap for the digital experience was based on various core behaviors, ranging from a focus on customer outcomes to embracing inclusion to the mantra "never stop improving" – the latter of which aligned with Optimizely's core belief in experimentation and optimization.
To ensure the experience was not just marketing ‘fluff’, Vertic’s overarching digital experience definition ensured that Optimizely would ‘walk-the-walk’, delivering personalized experiences that guide customers at every step of their journey, and leading the industry with performance marketing capabilities.
A results-based, multi-touch focused measurement plan would be empowered by an operating model that leaned on automated machine learning from data-driven insights.
