Martin Coady of VML Presents - The Cartoon Network - When Your Site Cant Be a Joke

11.30.10

When Your Site Can’t Be a Joke

•Can’t Limit Creative•Must Support key elements of

‘enterprise’ architecture•Must be easy to use for us and our

clients•Must be easy to customize and extend•Must be easy to reuse work•Must be able to integrate with our

client’s larger marketing ecosystem•Must have outside support

We felt Drupal was a good fit against these criteria and we had two projects where we got to try it out…

What we are looking for in a CMS

When Your Site Can’t be a JokeCase Study - Cartoon Network EMEA

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Cartoon Network EMEAIn mid 2008 we were approached by the Cartoon Network in EMEA to do fullsite redesigns and implement an new CMS platform to power 11 of theirEuropean sites.

They needed a system to support • multiple sites in multiple languages but that shared common

elements• very flexible design on a per page basis that could be easily updated• easy to use for non-technical staff• integration with video services, games and ads• the ability to create a community for the users

Based on the success of the Pets.com community and the creative freedom and video integration from Manga.com we recommended the CartoonNetwork use Drupal as the basis for their new platform.

When Your Site Can’t be a JokeCase Study - Cartoon Network EMEA 8

My Cartoon NetworkVML redesigned the existingCartoon Network websiteadding MyCN, a socialnetworking element for kids.Members create a

personalizedaccount, add favorite videos

andgames, send MyCN friendsmessages, earn activity

coins,and store trophies won byplaying site games.

The experience is optimizedthrough safeguards. Kids

joinMyCN through a print-offparental approval form or

email.Friends are added by e-mail

or aprinted form, members areunsearchable and photos are

notused as avatars. Kids choose

afavorite Cartoon Networkcharacter to represent them

inMyCN reflecting the fun,

When Your Site Can’t be a JokeCase Study - Cartoon Network EMEA 9

Flexible DesignSite is designed for

eachshow to have their

owntheme or inherit fromthe the core site

theme.

This approach hasallowed the localcountries to providelocal agencies/

freelancetalent an easyframework to provide‘seasonal andpromotional’ designsthroughout the year.

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Make all Content ManageableWe set up the

mainflash navigationelement at the

topof the page to befully editable toallow them to

easilyadd new shows

orupdate one of

thesethree elements

•HNTB•Constellation Brands•Kansas City Art Institute•Collective Brands•Gavilon•Y&R

Make all content and functionality manageable -- leveraging the success of the Cartoon Network

When Your Site Can’t be a JokeCase Study - Cartoon Network EMEA

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•vml.com - managing content in a non-Drupal site•LG Fame Us - managing content and functionality in a non-Drupal site•WIP - video solution provides integration with a CDN/Streaming server •WIP - Administration for content in Facebook applications

Why limit our reuse of this functionality to Drupal Sites -- moving Drupal beyond site management

When Your Site Can’t be a JokeCase Study - Cartoon Network EMEA

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LG Fame UsLG mobile division created a contest and sweepstakes giving away $50,000 cash, freephones and loads of prizes to anyone willing to submit their reenactment of the Fametheme song or, (for the more camera-shy) those willing to judge other contestants on theirSubmission.

The end result was a true-to-life web experience that the NY office is proud to confirmcaptures the look, feel, and sounds of New York City while authentically integrating thecelebrity characters our youth audience wants to engage with.

To support this initiative we implemented the following,• Contest submissions including video upload• Contest workflow including acceptance, rejection based on age and

getting parent approval if necessary• User promotion of their submission through a variety of social

channels• Email notification and moderation tools for site administrators

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Based on its flexibility and the ease of reuse Drupal is becoming pervasive throughout our organization

•We continue to add clients to our list of Drupal users

•We power over a dozen internal sites using Drupal•All of our pro-bono site work is now done in Drupal•Our agency within an agency, Version, that focuses on SMB has made the switch to being a Drupal shop•We continue to leverage functionality from all of these engagements and use it on others•We continue to package what’s universal and contribute back

Innovate on the front AND back end of your site -- Drupal as an agency friendly marketing platform

When Your Site Can’t be a JokeCase Study - Cartoon Network EMEA

Efficiency starts with a commitment to always try to

•Manage all content through the platform•Use the platform to implement or integrate

functionality •Repeat

Questions?

When Your Site Can’t be a JokeCase Study - Cartoon Network EMEA