Case Studies

Comcast Self-Serve Marketing Tool

Multi-Channel Publishing

Comcast Corporation is the nation’s leading provider of cable, entertainment
and communications products and services, with more than 24 million cable customers,
12 million high-speed Internet customers and 3 million voice customers. Comcast
is principally involved in the development, management and operation of broadband
cable networks and in the delivery of programming content.

To support its field sales operations, Comcast developed a marketing Web portal,
the ComcastStore, to streamline the creation, customization and fulfillment
of promotional pieces and direct mail collateral, internally known as “tactics.” Comcast’s
corporate marketing department uses the ComcastStore not only to manage all
aspects of these marketing tactics, but also to reinforce branding initiatives
and message consistency. A combination of internal personnel and external agency
resources and vendors produce the tactics processed through the ComcastStore.

The Challenge

Comcast’s growth, including the acquisition of business units from other
companies, has led to greater diversity of markets served, as well as an array
of business practices among the field offices. In the highly competitive cable
market, driven by double-play, triple-play and even quadruple-play service
bundles, there is a tremendous need for aggressive marketing campaigns to acquire
and retain customers. The ComcastStore facilitates such campaigns and allows
Comcast to support its growth initiatives.

While the ComcastStore serves as the central repository to streamline various
ordering processes, the production of marketing materials still required manual,
time-consuming processes to design, proof, approve and print each tactic. Comcast’s
corporate marketing department estimated that 65 to 70% of the tactics produced
through the ComcastStore needed to be localized; the company needed to get
these tactics out to the field without increasing time and costs. The ComcastStore
needed new tools to give local field agents more control over the process without
compromising quality, consistency or brand identity.

Comcast commissioned DPCI, an interactive technology agency based in New York
City, to audit its existing processes and provide a business case for expanding
the features of the ComcastStore by integrating Online Publishing Services
(OPS) functionality. The business case helped Comcast’s executive management
team identify the value in updating the Web portal with self-service customization
and proofing tools and prove the return on investment (ROI) of the expansion.

“Through our collaboration with DPCI, we identified several areas that
would allow Comcast field personnel to create and customize their orders, in
the office or on the road, without wasting time and money,” said Sean
McKenzie, Senior Director, Marketing Business Applications at Comcast.

The Solution

Taking the ComcastStore to the next level, DPCI expanded the Web portal by
adding comprehensive online publishing capabilities, including new, self-service
tools designed to simplify the process of creating targeted marketing and
advertising tactics.

“Prior to enhancing the Web portal, Comcast recognized the opportunity
to empower its users to be more hands-on in the creative process,” said
Joseph Bachana, President of DPCI. “We worked in tandem with Comcast
to design a multi-channel solution that served as an integrated extension of
the newly re-designed ComcastStore, allowing field marketing personnel to easily
create, proof and order customized marketing tactics online – anywhere,
anytime – without requiring any technical expertise in Adobe InDesign
or QuarkXPress.”

The online publishing solution leverages DPCI’s Digital Flywheel, a
Microsoft .NET framework on top of Microsoft SQL Server, Adobe InDesign Server
and QuarkXPress Server. The interface incorporates Web 2.0 technologies such
as AJAX, creating a user-friendly interface that is similar to a desktop application.

To aid in the reuse of newly generated marketing materials, DPCI and Comcast
are working together to integrate the ComcastStore and DigitalFlywheel with
OpenText’s Artesia DAM, which will store all marketing images, layouts
and templates. DPCI built a gateway to enable the integration with Artesia
DAM, allowing users to pull an approved template from the central repository
for customization, without the need for archiving multiple “localized” versions.

The Results

The new Online Publishing System transformed the ComcastStore into a comprehensive
self-service Web portal that drives a broad range of Comcast’s marketing
tactics. Authorized staff can now access the ComcastStore and its wide array
of design, publishing and proofing tools to change template-based tactics,
customize text and images, and apply sophisticated formatting rules, all
via a Web browser interface. This new functionality eliminates the need to
rely on graphic designers to create or update tactics, and more importantly
accelerates the time cycles to expedite printing and fulfillment from weeks
to days.

The Online Publishing System puts the power in the hands of field marketing
personnel to create, edit, and soft proof materials, and significantly reduces
delays that were previously caused by incorrect information and relying on
multiple resources to complete the design and production processes.

Beyond text changes and soft proofing, the Online Publishing System allows
users to merge text and image data, enabling them to create customized pieces
using a library of approved templates and materials. By offering the Online
Publishing System and other enhancements to its print management program, Comcast
expects to reduce versioning and distribution cost by more than 60%. This includes
reducing recurring hard costs such as shipping, printing, overnight couriers,
and more. In terms of branding, Comcast now has message and logo consistency
on all marketing documents, including offers and disclaimers.

Of greatest value, Comcast can move more quickly to market with competitive
offers with accurate, localized messaging. The Online Publishing System allows
Comcast to proactively manage marketing programs at the local level while maintaining
brand and marketing consistency. This reduces the cost of producing new materials
while providing the flexibility for field marketing personnel to respond quickly
to their respective local market needs.

“DPCI has been a true pleasure to work with. Their willingness to modify
their approach and work environment to best fit the culture and needs of our
organization has helped ensure the success of this project,” said McKenzie.

The new ComcastStore with the integrated Online Publishing System has improved
Comcast’s marketing and brand initiatives and further positioned the
company to be compliant with all legal regulations. Through the efforts of
DPCI, Comcast’s corporate marketing department and field personnel have
an innovative design and collaboration platform. Additionally, the Online Publishing
System offers better metrics to measure tactic and campaign effectiveness,
increased customization and targeting of marketing messages, and faster time
to market.

“From a business perspective, the cost savings of this project was a
no-brainer, but what really sold us was how DPCI understood our challenges
and designed an innovative publishing platform that extended the functionality
of the ComcastStore,” said McKenzie.