“ We are confident with Sitecore’s technology, and we know the system will be robust enough for our extensive future developments. „

- Lawrence Hamilton, Marketing General Manager, Kia

Challenge

The previous Kia website needed to be more interactive and brought right up-to-date. The site heavily featured content from multiple campaign sites and other third party sources and the content needed to be housed in a more user-friendly and accessible manner.

Kia needed a solution that could be deployed quickly, integrated seamlessly with a myriad of existing systems and easily supported by an existing internal team, who lacked deep IT skills.

Sitecore and partner E3

Kia turned to long-term digital partner E3, to develop the project.

The partnership was already strong after eight years working together and Kia was pleased with recent and successful digital campaigns such as the new model launch of the Kia ‘Soul – A new shape’ and Kia Red Nose Day 09.

E3’s expertise in strategy, creativity and technology, supported by their reputation for assured delivery, made them an obvious partner.

Following a review of requirements, E3 recommended Sitecore, the leading provider of .NET Web Content Management (WCM) and portal software.

Sitecore was chosen for the following reasons:

• Scalable, open architecture: The Sitecore platform is powerful, extensible and fully scalable.  Based upon the .NET Framework and with its extensive API, E3 is confident that the site architecture will withstand all future development and is as future-proof as possible
• Ease of use: The intuitive interface means it is simple for content editors and administrators to work with, and with the extensible desktop, additional admin tools can be easily integrated
• Security and workflow: Flexible workflow and granular security allow Sitecore to fit with organisation needs
• Separation of content and presentation: With effective separation, Sitecore has the ability to publish the same content in multiple ways (content published as accessible HTML and as XML for the Flash front-end) and is managed in a way that best suits the content, rather than following site structure
• Version control and time-released content: A high degree of control and management of content
• Cost: Sitecore was able to supply a cost effective solution which came within budget. The license model suited the client’s needs well.

Solution

The vision for the new site was to reflect the new confidence of the brand. This was achieved through a combination of elegant design and interactive functionality. The homepage uses a vibrant palette of ‘living’ colours. It features an innovative panoramic scrollscape that showcases highlights from the expansive site and allows users to enjoy an immersive experience from the moment they arrive. The solution was required to allow implementation of time released content. The scrollscape also gives Kia the ability to edit the content of the panels to support individual business needs. The content within the panels is pulled in and managed through Sitecore.

Further highlights of phase 1 include:

• Rich model pages that allow users to explore every facet of each model
• Offers section that supports Kia’s tactical objectives
• A range overview tool that shows the entire range at a glance and helps users find the model that is right for them
• Improved find a dealer, request a brochure and test drive request functionality to drive footfall
• ‘Design my Kia’ allows users to select a range of accessories for the model
• Rich Flash interface alongside accessible HTML content

Delivering with Sitecore

The tight timescales that the project had to be delivered in, (less than 3 months from approval to live) presented a challenging project environment. The reality of the situation was anything but, as Sitecore’s advanced feature-functionality, flexibility as a development platform and general ease of use meant implementation was relatively simple and the project was able to remain on schedule.

Additionally, throughout the development cycle, Sitecore provided plenty of support, which allowed developers to overcome hurdles with comparative ease.

“Development of the Kia site ran like clockwork – it was one of the most straightforward technical projects that the agency has been involved in, despite the complexity and tight schedule” commented Stuart Avery, Joint Managing Director, E3.

One element that particularly impressed Kia was the user interface for content editors. The editing environment was familiar, user friendly and gave plenty of scope in terms of what was editable. Flexible workflow and granular security meant that it was able to easily fit into Kia’s business process.

Result

The site has had an instant impact on the business and results have exceeded all expectations with a massive increase across all key metrics.

Users now spend more time on the site engaging with the content; time spent by users is up by a minute for the average visit.

The site is driving increased footfall to the dealerships:

• Brochure downloads up 338% and 135% increase in offline brochure requests compared to a target increase of only 50%.
• Dealer searches rose by 104% to over 60,000 a month
• Calls to dealers originating from the site are up by 35%.

In fact, market share has risen from 1.4% to 2.93%. This is partly due to the launch of new models, but the new site has undoubtedly contributed to this.

Kia is working on a phased approach to the development over the coming months. Longer term they intend to leverage many of Sitecore’s other features such as personalised content.

Lawrence Hamilton, Marketing General Manager, Kia commented “We are confident with Sitecore’s technology, as we are know the system will be robust enough for our extensive future developments.”

Technical Description

Technology Highlights

One of the key technical objectives of the site was to provide a rich user experience without compromising accessibility. This needed to be managed in a way that did not place a burden on content managers.

The main interface was developed using Flash, with content also available as accessible HTML. The Sitecore project was set-up to publish content both in HTML and as XML for consumption by the Flash. E3 developed a content structure that allows Kia to manage content and data in an intuitive way which is used throughout, for example vehicle data is stored centrally rather than in many places. The structure also provides much flexibility within the Flash interface, so that Kia can customise features through Sitecore.

The site was built to integrate with a number of other systems include Kia’s CRM provider, Multimap, and other external content and service providers. Search was implemented by a Google appliance via web services to provide an intuitive and feature-rich search experience.