*Challenge*Between a rock
and a hard place
Cisco's agency-led approach couldn't keep pace
with the demand for cheaper, faster, better content
A broken agency-led approach
Faith Wheller, Director of Segment, Brand and Advocacy Marketing EMEAR at Cisco, was faced with a seemingly impossible set of constraints to overcome
Located in multiple offices across the EMEAR region, Faith's team is tasked with producing a steady stream of content materials for partners, sales teams, internal comms, and more.
In early 2018, the team found themselves under growing pressure to deliver better content in less time without increasing costs. The existing agency-led approach to content was creaking under the strain, resulting in five key content challenges being identified. These would need to be overcome if the team was to meet their ambitious new objectives.
1. Cost of creation
The high price of agency design time was severely restricting the amount of content that could be produced.
2. Long lead-times
Slow agency turnaround times meant people were waiting too long for the materials they needed.
3. Out-of-date on arrival
Worse still, these long lead-times meant that content was often out-of-date before it was even delivered.
4. Lack of consistency
With every agency interpreting the Cisco brand differently, each piece looked different, diluting the corporate brand and visual impact.
5. Limited insights
After all this time and cost, the inability to show performance beyond simple download counts was becoming increasingly hard to justify.
As soon as you’ve created a PDF, it becomes redundant because content becomes out of date so quickly, especially when you start localizing.
Faith Wheller, Director of Segment, Brand and Advocacy Marketing EMEAR
*Solution & results* Enter Turtl
Seven times the engagement at ten percent of the cost
Results you can't ignore
In early 2018, the EMEAR team began putting Turtl through its paces to see if it could solve their pressing content challenges. What they saw led them to quickly roll out Turtl across their content operations.
Watch: Marketing Director Faith Wheller on the impact of Turtl
The idea that a single platform could solve every one of the team's content challenges was almost too good to be true, so Turtl was put to the test with a set of internal communications pieces.
From the very start, it was obvious that Turtl was not just solving the five key content challenges, but also allowing the team to work in an entirely new and more empowered way.
We have reduced the production time of content by weeks, if not months in some cases, as this is a self-service tool. You don’t need any agency involvement.
Kay Armstrong, Audience Campaign Manager (EMEAR)
Head-to-head
Same content, different format: See how the Turtl version performed vs the PDF.
-
7 times more readers
-
Average read times of 7½ mins
-
Delivered in days not weeks
-
All at a tenth of the cost
1. 90% cost savings
Using Turtl resulted in instant savings on content production versus agencies, freeing the team up to consider a wider range of materials.
2. Ready in days not weeks
No more arduous briefing, drafting, and reviewing with agencies – the team could now jump straight into Turtl and start delivering results, shaving weeks – or even months – off production times.
3. Always up-to-date
Faster production times ensured materials were always accurate on delivery, and the ability for Turtl content to be modified on the fly allowed things to be kept up-to-date over time with ease.
Given the amount of localization the team has to undertake, this unlocked even more cost savings.
4. Always on brand
Turtl's brand lockdown ensured that content was always faithful to the corporate brand and consistent across all materials without exception.
And the fact that no design or technical skills are needed to create, publish or measure content performance allowed Faith's whole team to get involved with the end-to-end content process.
5. Incredible insights
The team had grown used to content performance metrics being limited to PDF download counts.
With Turtl, they could suddenly report on read times, page conversion rates, interaction rates, and even individual reader journeys, allowing them to see clearly what was working best and improve future materials in response to the data.
Moreover, they saw Turtl content receiving more shares and generating greater reach due to the compelling nature of Turtl's reading format. It was not uncommon for a Turtl piece to perform between five and seven times better across all metrics versus its PDF predecessor.
Bonus benefit: Team empowerment
By enabling her team to create content themselves in Turtl, rather than through agencies, Faith saw attitudes shift. Team members were suddenly excited about their content as never before. This increased ownership also brought greater alignment with the business objectives of the content they were delivering, leading to better results and higher team-satisfaction all-round.
As content budget has been declining, it gave my team a chance to step up and explore some of their creative skills. By training some of those individuals into learning those skills, it saved us money and also increased overall employee satisfaction.
Faith Wheller, Director, EMEAR
