Adobe Target
About SBS
As Australia’s most diverse broadcaster, the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) holds a unique place in the Australian media landscape, inspiring all Australians to explore, respect and celebrate our diverse world and in doing so, contributes to an inclusive and cohesive society.
SBS is a modern, multiplatform media organisation with a free-to-air TV portfolio spanning six distinctive channels in SBS, NITV, SBS VICELAND, SBS Food, SBS World Movies and SBS WorldWatch; an extensive radio network providing over 60 communities with services in their own language; and an innovative digital offering, including SBS On Demand, available to audiences anytime and anywhere.
What was the problem?
SBS wanted a way to add Target’s testing and personalisation features across its entire digital footprint. Their content is timely, changes quickly and dates quickly – therefore they needed a solution that did not fall into the usual development lifecycle.
SBS’s diverse application repository
Previously, we had worked with SBS to deploy client-side Adobe Target features across their applicable platforms – not all devices are supported by Adobe Libraries, so we can not add Target to all SBS apps.
SBS have many apps, on different devices, from phones, TVs, set-top boxes to web browsers – and more to come as new devices are created.
SBS required a future-proof solution to add Adobe Target to all their digital properties, even those where Adobe Target libraries aren’t available.
The solution:
We worked our magic to create a bespoke Node JS microservice solution, that serves as an elegant intermediary between Adobe Target and SBS applications.
This innovative solution lets experiments be deployed on the apps using a common JSON format – no Adobe Libraries needed – a developer’s dream come true!
We teamed up with the SBS developers to create and test the Node microservice, and with the mobile dev teams to mould the JSON payload being sent to the apps for display.
We also joined forces with the SBS CMS team to ping news articles over to the Adobe Target feeds API, making use of the Adobe Sensei recommendations created based on the actions of our precious visitors.
Once we successfully got data flowing from Target right through to the Node microservice, we then trained the SBS experimentation team. We took them through the ins and outs of creating criteria, collections, recommendation experiments, and testing activities for their apps.
What was the outcome:
Article Recommendations
SBS can now deploy recommendations across all of its properties. As a result, distinct digital properties can now be targeted with various recommendations activities. Alternatively, a single activity can be dispatched to all apps. This feature promotes efficiency and uniformity in content distribution across various platforms.
A/B and Multivariate Testing
This feature gives SBS the much-needed flexibility they craved. With no developer help required, they can promptly alter the content of their websites and apps. This function not only promotes autonomy but dramatically reduces the time required to implement changes.
Instant Content Change
Let’s say, a piece of news breaks out, and the CMS editors rapidly publish it. With our solution in place, SBS teams can instantaneously adjust the website and app content to reflect this new information. It’s a dynamic feature that undoubtedly magnifies the efficiency of SBS’s operations.
Key metric uplift
The implemented solutions didn’t just enhance user engagement and time-on-site, there were significant increases across a wide spectrum of metrics that directly represent the overall effectiveness of SBS’s digital assets.
A very happy client
Digital Balance has been instrumental in helping SBS deploy in a best-practice manner. Given SBS’s needs around multiple platforms like Online TV, and Connected TV with varying degrees of complexity, we have challenges around implementation, maintenance & integrity of the analytics tracking.
Harini Bharadwaj
DB has always been able to solve these problems for us, sometimes having to come up with innovative methods to overcome technical barriers on these platforms. Without the DB partnership, it would have been difficult for the SBS team to have confidence in deploying solutions.
Data Analytics & Personalisation
Centre Of Excellence Lead
