UNLEASH
The starting point
The old UNLEASH site was on the right track by attracting audiences with consistently produced content. However, the site did not allow editors to create content in a flexible way or support a memorable brand experience. The site was also in need of technical improvements as well as content and mobile optimization in order to provide a better user experience.
Originally known as a leading HR event producer, UNLEASH pivoted to a digital media platform in October 2020 due to the global pandemic. The shift meant changes to the website as the business became focused on the digital environment.
Our goal was to create a media platform that provides the latest content on HR tech.
The new site had to engage users to read more content and introduce the UNLEASH brand to global audiences. Even though the business had heavily shifted to digital publishing, UNLEASH aimed to continue organizing events after the pandemic, which meant that the site had to support both the old and the new business models.
Delighting customers and growing brand recognition
The media section is the platform for bringing in readers and growing the user base. In addition to this, UNLEASH provides industry events and webinars for HR professionals. All activities are aimed at growing the active user base and the number of sign-ups. The business objectives for UNLEASH were to delight customers with leading HR industry content, to grow the global customer base in North America, DACH, and the UK, and to become a leading online resource on the future of work and HR tech. UNLEASH wanted to grow their brand recognition and deliver value for their clients through inspiring content.
Better performance and tools
The site administrators also needed better tools to update content and a more solid implementation of integrations. The website had to be better optimized for mobile and search engines. Users, on the other hand, had to be encouraged to read more content and to sign up. We wanted to provide them with a smooth browsing experience, better performance, improved site design and increased visibility of partnership opportunities and events.
Creating the concept for the new site
Media, Corporate & Events: one UNLEASH experience
The site consists of three major sections: Media, Corporate, and Events. The media is the most prominent part of the site. The sections had different needs for content presentation and calls to action. From the user’s perspective, navigating between the sections had to be easy and straightforward.
We considered every aspect of the website from the user’s perspective, which is why we started by identifying the target groups. The main target groups are HR professionals as well as clients and partners. HR professionals look for interesting and inspiring content in the HR field, consume the media and participate in events. Client organizations participate in the events as partners and provide sponsored content for the media section.
Positioning UNLEASH in the minds of these target audiences as a thought leader in the future of work and HR technology was essential. We wanted UNLEASH to stand out in the B2B sector by providing a memorable consumer-like browsing experience.
Designing the new look and feel
Our goal was to create a unified visual look and feel for the whole UNLEASH experience. We wanted the site to be more consumer-oriented than traditional B2B media and be readable on all devices. It had to be visually interesting and grow brand recognition. The new visuals improved upon the UNLEASH brand guidelines, taking it to a new level and shaping it to be modern and fresh. We designed the UI to be simple but detailed and determined the new usage of typography and colors.
The project in a nutshell
Separate sites that provide a unified user experience
A complete renewal of the visual look
Multiple integrations
Efficient lead generation tools
A custom analytics setup
Flexible content management tools for editorials
Technical functions
The UNLEASH website was implemented using WordPress CMS and our own modular Everblox tool. WordPress was set up as a multisite installation with separate sites for the media content, corporate communications and individual event sites.
The media site consists of visually rich posts and articles that are easy to edit. Each article page can be customized from content building blocks to make them unique and visually engaging.
The AI-based suggestion feature Bibblio was also integrated into the site. It gives recommendations based on the currently viewed content. Bibblio also provides personalized recommendations based on the users reading behavior to further engage users with the media content.
Search functions for the different sections of the site were implemented with React. We also implemented a dynamic search function that finds content from the whole multisite network.
Integration with the Piano engagement platform provides users access to the media site. Access to premium content and exclusive third-party sponsored content is provided via user registration and marketing consent, all handled by Piano and integrated into WordPress-managed content.
The Media site also features webinar content hosted on Bizzabo, with registration integrated into WordPress.
Individual Event sites were integrated with the BigMarker event platform to provide agenda information, registration, and ticket sales via embedded widgets.
ActiveCampaign forms were integrated into the sites via the official plugin.
Analytics and SEO
As online media, UNLEASH is publishing lots of new content daily, so ranking well in organic search was an important goal for the renewal. We supported the UNLEASH content team by providing tools for efficient content optimization and focusing on making the site indexable and crawlable by search engines.
We focused on identifying business goals and target groups, deciding taxonomy for the measurement, and determining what dimensions and metrics are part of the reporting base. User tracking was a crucial part of the project and created a base for further development. We focused on identifying content with different dimensions and integrated multiple events from the different platforms to analytics. This way, we could get a comprehensive understanding of the user paths and examine them from different perspectives.
