“ Updating and monitoring one site versus the multiple we maintained in the past has provided many synergies and efficiencies, in particular, allowing us to change content quickly to keep visitors coming back for more. „

- David Rodgers, web specialist, Duck Brand

Challenge

The Duck® brand offers quality, care and extraordinary value to consumers looking for friendly and convenient solutions to everyday problems. The brand is known for delivering excellent quality products at an everyday value in several household product categories, including DIY, stationery and housewares.

Duck® tape is its number one brand – and it has a strong and loyal brand following (nearly 1 million fans on Facebook). The brand’s biggest promotion is the Stuck at Prom® scholarship contest, in which high school students create their prom attire out of duct tape for a chance to win scholarships. 

DigitalDay won the online marketing business for the Duck® brand about a year ago. At that time, the Duck brand had several legacy websites, including sites for its different products and brand extensions, a site for the Duck Tape Club™ and some additional promotional sites. All of the sites were built by different agencies and done in various technologies, and many dated back to 2000. As a result, the sites were inconsistent and confusing to consumers. Plus, control and maintenance of content were difficult.

DigitalDay was hired by the Duck® brand to help overhaul its entire online presence. DigitalDay evaluated the situation and recommended that the Duck® brand consolidate its sites into one. This would allow the brand to have all of its promotions and online marketing messages on one site. Some of the goals set for the new Duck® brand site included:

• Carry a new look and feel throughout the new site: The Duck® brand wanted to extend its newly rebranded messaging and look and feel to all of its products.
• Online community: With an avid brand following for Duck® tape, the Duck® brand wanted to allow users to review products, add comments and create other content for the site.
• Generate membership: In order to add content to the site, users would need to register on the site – giving them special privileges. In addition, site visitors could register to sign up for email campaigns. Over time, this would continue to build up.
• Expand the market: The Duck® brand wanted to get consumers to think about the brand as more than just tape – but as a crafting solution (wallets, home decorations, costumes, etc.)
• Increase site traffic/leads: In addition to increasing overall site traffic, the Duck® brand wanted to increase the number of people who registered online and signed up for email campaigns – through things like online coupons and other promotions.

Solution

DigitalDay’s mission was to develop a web site strategy that would engage visitors by getting inside the mind of the Duck® brand consumer. To do this, DigitalDay created categories, content and information that was relevant to online searches and would increase SEO. Once DigitalDay determined the site strategy, it began looking at CMS technologies that offered design freedom and customization capabilities to build a highly recognizable, branded site. In the past, DigitalDay felt handcuffed with some CMS systems, because it had to use the user controls in a very specific way.

“With Sitecore and the XML technology behind it,” said Mark Vitullo, partner, DigitalDay, “we have complete flexibility to design exactly how we want – and in the case of the Duck® brand, that means a very fun, colorful and graphic look.”  He continued, “The price point for Sitecore, along with the flexibility and all the functionality, meant that it fit perfectly into the entire web strategy.”

DigitalDay integrated Sitecore, in addition to integrating to and pulling data from the SAP system.

Result

As a result, all five sites have been consolidated into one, www.duckbrand.com, and the overall site traffic has increased by more than 200 percent – and in some cases, traffic is up by 700 percent.

Some highlights of the new site include:

• Consumer-generated content:  The new site is highly interactive, and site visitors can rate products, leave comments, and submit ideas and solutions. All of this content is reviewed and then approved and posted through Sitecore.
• Store and SKU locator: Consumers can find exactly where a specific SKU is being sold. If it’s not available in their area, the product can be purchased online through My Brands. All of these links and relationships are managed seamlessly through Sitecore.
• SEO: Within a month of being launched, the Duck® brand ranking on search jumped up dramatically for all keywords. When DigitalDay designed and built the site, it optimized for search -- and Sitecore facilitated this by making sure all relevant metatags were included. In addition, previously the Duck® brand had five sites, with moderate traffic. Today, the brand has one site, with a lot of traffic, more relevance, more link backs and more content – and all of this leads to more relevance on the search engines.
• Reusable content: DigitalDay structured the site so links to the newest blogs, comments, Tweets and solutions are automatically featured on the homepage. In addition, the newest product-related comments, Tweets and blogs are featured on the product page, the most recent solutions-related content appears on the solutions page, and the latest promotions content is highlighted on the promotions page.
• Successful online promotions: The Duck® brand is in the midst of the 10^th anniversary of its Stuck at Prom® scholarship contest – which generates a large amount of traffic. High school students are encouraged to create prom attire with duct tape and then submit their pictures. The top 10 will be featured on the web site and the public will vote for their favorite. Each week, the two couples with the least amount of votes will be removed, until finally, the first and second place winners are determined. In order to vote, visitors have to register on the site.

Moving forward, DigitalDay plans to add more interactive elements, such as the ability to change background color.

“With so many new technologies, social media integration and opportunities available to engage visitors, it was time to give our web sites an overhaul,” said David Rodgers, web specialist, Duck Brand. “Updating and monitoring one site versus the multiple we maintained in the past has provided many synergies and efficiencies, in particular, allowing us to change content quickly to keep visitors coming back for more.”

Technical Description

Solution Special Ingredients

• Google Maps
• My Brands for ecommerce
• Membership management is through Sitecore
• Sitecore blog module
• Proprietary coupon system