Dentsu

Transforming a standalone website into a business asset

How does a multinational marketing group switch an outdated brochure site into a powerful business-building tool while keeping costs low? And how does it address the needs of hundreds of content managers whilst delivering real marketing ROI?

These were the challenges faced by Dentsu, whose previous website—built on a proprietary CMS—was falling short. Sabrina Rodriguez, Global Head of Digital Marketing at Dentsu, says: “We spent a lot of time running surveys and focus groups to build a business case for the investment required to rebuild the site. It was a big job—we were bringing 26 markets onto one dotcom domain—so value was key. We looked at several options, including Adobe Experience Manager, but it was just way too expensive for what we needed. If we were going to bring our website into the 21st century it had to go far beyond a redesign, it had to work harder for us—for both lead generation and talent acquisition.”

Dentsu turned to one of its leadership agencies, Isobar Ireland, to design and build the website.

An ROI-focused platform to reignite growth

Sabrina continues: “Isobar recommended Kontent.ai for its headless capabilities. The team are huge advocates of the platform, not only because it’s more affordable than other solutions, but it has the functionality and flexibility we needed.”

Using Kontent.ai’s headless CMS enabled Dentsu to:

• Unite their branding across all 26 of their regional offices with the flexibility to manage content independently.
• Drive agility across teams: Users can easily share and reuse content, without burning through their budgets on development costs.
• Leverage integrations: Kontent.ai easily integrates with the agency’s marketing automation platforms such as Salesforce, Pardot, and Workday.

A now frictionless content experience that maximizes budget

Since choosing Kontent.ai, the website has delivered significant ROI and cost-savings across the business. For instance, where uploading new content via Dentsu’s outsourced development team would have taken three hours and cost $200, it can now be done in minutes at no cost.

“Kontent.ai has given users complete control over their content,” says Greg Watson, Global Social Media and Content Manager at Dentsu. “The CMS we had before was incredibly rigid. Now we can just do things ourselves. If something goes wrong, we can fix it instantly. No more waiting for the development team to get back to us.”

Ultimately this means:

• 10X faster time to market: A 90% reduction in time spent making content changes, delivering excellent marketing ROI.
• Repeatable but custom content: Dentsu now has 26 consistently branded websites with their own unique content.
• Thousands in cost savings: An annual saving of $81,000 in CMS and hosting costs, and $47,000 in development costs across all markets—Adobe Experience Manager would have skyrocketed costs to thousands in implementation and license fees.