SBT relaunches its website on Google Cloud and strengthens ties with network fans
About SBT: Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão
Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão is an open commercial TV network founded in August 19, 1981, by TV host and entrepreneur Silvio Santos. It is Brazil’s second largest TV network right after Rede Globo and has branches and associated channels throughout the nation.
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About ilegra
A global design, innovation, and software company engaged in developing business-transforming strategies and customer experiences. With operations in Brazil, the United States, and Portugal, ilegra's clients include market leaders such as Whirlpool, Thomson Reuters, AGCO, Sompo, Movile, Bradesco, Fiat Chrysler, and SBT, among others.
The network partnered with ilegra to optimize its website and increased the number of users through Google technologies.
Google Cloud results
- New SBT website featuring mobile-first methodology
- More dynamic access to content, through new single-page website
- 80% to 90% total users approved the new website
- Tools for application development
- Working based on preset application codes
- High scalability, Google Cloud enabled the company to adapt more quickly to behavioral changes of their target consumers
SBT partnered with ilegra to develop in their new website the mobile-first philosophy, which offers more dynamic content consumption
Content is a valuable product, particularly for networks or any other vehicle seeking to communicate with their audiences or fans, as the SBT (Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão) characterizes itself. It was this discovery that led the network, one of the largest in Brazil, to understand that it had to improve one of its main program access channels: its official website.
Aware that internet audiences are consuming content and information faster and faster, the TV network had to match the same speed in responding to users loading their web page. "The former architecture did not allow for current high-impact actions. For example, if we had wanted to have a bingo on one of our live shows, no matter how hard we tried, there was no way to escalate the website or cope with access peaks. We were bound by technology constraints," says Luis Marciano, SBT IT Executive Manager.
It was then that SBT's partnership with ilegra, a global company specialized in innovation and business experience transformation strategies, began to play a key role in planning actions to enhance the content management system (CMS) and thus redesign the whole structure of the network.
Restructuring for accessibility
The core of the whole SBT transformation was the perception of improvement so that every fan across Brazil could access programming smoothly and fast. Thus, through a viewers’ survey, the team understood that they had to plan a website restructuring based on a mobile-first approach, tailored to smartphones, which are now the most widely used devices to access the internet.
Through a six-phase project implemented in only nine months, ilegra began to redesign the whole structure of the SBT website based on Google Cloud solutions such as App Engine, Cloud SQL and Cloud Storage.
"The challenge was reinventing the SBT website which was in an on-premises environment and relaunch it for a cloud-based environment, providing the necessary scalability to tend to SBT viewers and their sponsors/investors in digital marketing."
—Felipe Amaral do Santos, head of innovation, commercial and marketing at ilegra.With the migration, completed in April 2019, SBT managed to visualize some expressive results among their online audience, in addition to self-management improvements, economy, and greater developer speeds. The infinite scroll single-page model resulted in enhanced dynamism and higher load speed, with an 81% increase in the number of pages viewed per session, totaling an average 4.5.
In 2017 the average total sessions on the website amounted to 10 million per month, while in June of 2019 SBT hit the 13 million record.
"We managed to implement the new website based on the design and innovation concept. In addition to a deep understanding of the technologies involved, we got to learn the profile of SBT website clients and the best user experience (UX) to implement through the DDI area."
—Luis Marciano, SBT IT Executive Manager.Portfolio audience
TV networks have always held a position of privilege in people’s homes, and the cultural transformation driven by the digital resources developed over the last few decades have resulted in a need for constant reinvention. SBT is thus now offering a multi-screen experience where offline programming is supplemented with the online content offering.
One of the most paradigmatic examples of this connection is registrations on the website to participate in programs, whether for the Silvio Santos audience or to obtain advice from the Fashion Squad. "SBT is attempting to bring viewers inside the studio. We need to make that possible for people, thinking of those with limited internet bandwidth. Besides, we want the experience to be smooth and intuitive, so that everyone can have a good experience all throughout," says Carolina Gazal, SBT Digital Content Manager.
"We have gotten feedback that work is much more productive, agile and fast. We are extremely pleased with the results, and now we can focus on innovating even more. Our goal is to offer our fans what they do not even know they need."
—Carolina Gazal, SBT Digital Content Manager.According to network executives, the content team at SBT has also felt the positive change.
Tell us your challenge. We're here to help.
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About SBT: Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão
Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão is an open commercial TV network founded in August 19, 1981, by TV host and entrepreneur Silvio Santos. It is Brazil’s second largest TV network right after Rede Globo and has branches and associated channels throughout the nation.
About ilegra
A global design, innovation, and software company engaged in developing business-transforming strategies and customer experiences. With operations in Brazil, the United States, and Portugal, ilegra's clients include market leaders such as Whirlpool, Thomson Reuters, AGCO, Sompo, Movile, Bradesco, Fiat Chrysler, and SBT, among others.