Savoir Flair

In 2009, Savior Flair made history as the Middle East’s first-ever digital publication. Launching during the rise of smartphones and iPads, the company quickly capitalized on the shift to hyper-connectivity, positioning itself as a forward-thinker in the digital space. With roots predating Instagram, Savoir Flair’s growth mirrored the boom of social media, solidifying its influence across the region.

Overcoming rigid platforms to unlock creative freedom

For years, Savoir Flair relied on WordPress after an earlier stint with Drupal. Despite being the industry standard, WordPress hindered their ability to innovate due to its rigid ecosystem. “It was difficult to launch creative formats,” shared Xandi Eleazar, Content Manager at Savoir Flair. “The team would come up with amazing ideas, design them beautifully in Figma, and present them to the development team. But then they’d have to say, ‘We can’t do that—it’s impossible.’ It was heartbreaking, really, like having to admit, ‘We can’t have nice things.’”

The challenges extended beyond creative limitations. Developers faced a cascade of plugin conflicts, where fixing one issue often led to ten others. For content creators, even basic tasks were cumbersome—they had to manually save every few minutes to avoid losing changes, disrupting focus and efficiency.

The tipping point came with a growing need for creative freedom and faster publishing. Aratech, Savoir Flair’s implementation partner, shortlisted three CMSs. The entire editorial team at Savoir Flair participated in testing, rigorously evaluating each platform’s performance by creating articles and uploading content to ensure it met their high standards. They ultimately selected Kontent.ai for its flexibility, ease of use, and 24/7 support.

Accelerating collaboration with powerful tools and clear focus

The Savoir Flair team began by reimagining their existing formats while introducing new ones in Figma. The team completed the transition in just three months.

The migration process was selective. Instead of a one-to-one migration of the legacy WordPress content, only high-value pieces that aligned with the new publishing ethos—focusing on quality, big visuals, and beautifully curated experiences—were transferred. “We let go of more than half of the old content,” noted Xandi Eleazar. “This is a new era of publishing for us, and we’re now focused on slow publishing with an emphasis on quality.”

Kontent.ai’s collaborative tools improved Savoir Flair’s content creation process. Simultaneous editing allowed multiple team members to work on the same article, eliminating bottlenecks and improving efficiency. “In WordPress, only one person could edit at a time. Now, with Kontent.ai, ten people can collaborate on a long piece, and it just saves so much time,” said Xandi. The preview feature enabled team members to share live previews of content for approval without needing to publish it prematurely—a significant improvement over past practices.

One of the most appreciated upgrades was autosave. As was mentioned, content creators had to previously save manually every few minutes to avoid losing changes, which disrupted their workflow. Xandi explained, “With the previous solution, we had to remind everyone to hit save every five minutes. It completely threw off our concentration. With Kontent.ai, autosave lets us focus entirely on the content without worrying about losing our work.”

A bold new era of visual storytelling at Savoir Flair

Savoir Flair’s new website has transformed visual storytelling, delighting their visually driven audience with rich media, including captivating imagery, videos, guides, and interactive lists. This redesign has earned widespread praise from clients, readers, and PR partners eager to showcase their brands on the platform. As Xandi Eleazar noted, “Our audience doesn’t just want to read—they want to immerse themselves in beautiful pictures, videos, and guides. With the new website, we’ve not only met these expectations but exceeded them.” 

Other results are equally impressive. Average engagement time has doubled, jumping from under 30 seconds to 52–60 seconds on the revamped site. Faster load times and improved navigation have further enhanced the user experience, allowing readers to engage with content without friction. 

For the editorial team, the new solution has unlocked greater productivity and creative freedom. They can now launch new content formats in just one week, compared to months on their previous platform. This has encouraged continuous innovation and exploration of bold new layouts. 

Operational efficiency has also improved dramatically. The migration to Kontent.ai resulted in an 80% reduction in hosting costs, making the new tech stack both powerful and cost-effective. Together, these changes mark a significant leap forward for Savoir Flair’s content operations.