Challenge
■ Mobilize the customer experience: Turn a desktop solution into a mobile platform
■ Optimize engagement and revenues: More than 1.6 million annual visitors come to Chester Zoo Deliver mobile optimization to improve to see and learn about some of the world’s most endangered desktop benchmark conversion rates ■ Enhance customer experience: Boost fun, animals with help from Sitecore® mobile technology. education, and richness of zoo experience Founded: 1931 • Employees: 700 (at peak season) • Revenues: Registered ■ Inspire ongoing loyalty: Encourage people charity • Headquarters: Chester Zoo, Upton-by-Chester, Chester, UK to share experiences, recommend to friends chesterzoo.org and family, while increasing repeat visits
Solution Chester Zoo realized its customers were rapidly going mobile as early as 2010. ® The team anticipated the trend that has seen mobile, as a percentage of overall ■ Sitecore Experience Platform™ 7.2 traffic, rise from a modest 10% to a whopping 70% by 2014. It knew, even at this ■ Mobile API early stage, the current web infrastructure wasn’t equipped to handle customer ■ Mobile app mobile experiences. And so it kickstarted a process that, today, means every single ■ Geolocation including use of iBeacons digital decision is made with mobile in mind. Working with agency partner, Code Computerlove, the zoo embarked on a mobile transformation project to make sure ■ Device detection every customer visit is mobile optimized before, during, and after every zoo visit. ■ Custom pipeline for push notifications
■ Virtual passport Before visit ■ Gamification
The team started with the basics. It wanted to make sure conversion rates ■ Google Analytics integration for mobile site visitors matched desktop metrics, already optimized by Code Computerlove using Sitecore, for driving footfall, booking tickets, memberships, Results donations, and gift sales. ■ Mobile conversion rate: Increased 200% The work, backed by research and persona work, focused on supporting mobile across ticket sales, memberships, and more users when planning a trip to the zoo, looking for information about the opening ■ Engagement rate: Saw a positive impact times or prices, and making the final booking. By introducing adaptive and on dwell times with 20% of visitors using responsive features based on device detection, the initial project delivered a 200% application at the zoo rise in mobile conversions to support the majority of site visitors. ■ Message strength: Built up understanding Today content editors can easily visualize and build the structure and hierarchy of conservation and new Islands innovation of the site. And with a focus on journeys and testing with split testing programs, ■ Customer understanding: Improved with the content team can run tests secure in the knowledge the IT team has created a journey mapping and research robust architecture on Sitecore. ■ Team simplicity: Made digital assets easier to manage and update for marketers Case study // Chester Zoo
During visit
The next stage involved a drive to integrate customer experiences in Islands, a significant new expansion of the zoo with world-class enclosures for some of the world’s most endangered animals.
The team used Sitecore to build a new user app (shown on right) that would enhance, but not distract, from the core zoo experience—and ultimately increase visitor dwell time at the zoo. The app delivers bite-size information where users can get quick facts, share trivia with family and friends, play minigames, and build up a visitor portfolio. New innovations included:
■ Using iBeacons with Bluetooth for geographic integration
■ Enabling mobile ticketing via the online shop
■ Gamification to encourage user engagement By building the entire digital platform on Sitecore, the team has one central Sitecore Solution Partner content repository so editors can test and reuse content based on what best suits the customer, media, and device. Plus, the move to in-app analytics is now helping define the next phase of features that’s expected to expand to new commercial opportunities in catering and retail, including the creation of a personalized Code Computerlove is an award-winning digital experience based on the user’s motivations. agency based in Manchester, UK offering a fully integrated digital marketing approach. After visit
The current stage is focused on driving return visits and referrals. Initial plans on Services offered using data driven from web and app data to cross and upsell based on preferences ■ Full-service digital agency are currently being explored. An example scenario would be a personalized experience for visitors with updates on their last visit, done using the integration of data, analytics, and communication on the Sitecore platform. Industries served
■ Retail Key next steps ■ Charity
From the beginning of the project, the team has been able to leverage the ■ Technology power of Sitecore’s platform play. The software helps the team move to the next ■ Leisure level without worrying about complex integrations, data silos, or major expert investments. The technology exists to help the zoo take on its challenges when it’s ready for them. Size 80 employees A new plan, tied in with Sitecore’s Experience Management, will enable the zoo to tie together their customer knowledge with system personas and open the door Headquarters to personalization rules. Sevendale House, Dale Street, Manchester, UK A link between the zoo’s bespoke CRM database, where all the booking information on visitors is held, is another logical next step. A fusion of analytics, Website database, and personalization rules is expected to deliver the experiences that will codecomputerlove.com see current metrics stretched to even more conversion success.
Sitecore is the global leader in experience management software that enables context marketing. The Sitecore® Experience Platform™ manages content, supplies contextual intelligence, and automates communications, at scale. It empowers marketers to deliver content in context of how customers have engaged with their brand, across every channel, in real time. More than 4,600 customers—including American Express, Carnival Cruise Lines, easyJet, and L’Oréal—trust Sitecore for context marketing to deliver the personalized interactions that delight audiences, build loyalty, and drive revenue. • sitecore.net
Published 2/16. © 2001-2015 Sitecore Corporation A/S. All rights reserved. Sitecore® and Own the Experience® are registered trademarks of Sitecore Corporation A/S. All other brand and product names are the property of their respective owners.