The B2B digital media and marketing services company has been using Shorthand since September 2017 to increase speed to market, audience engagement - and even win awards.
“The Content team had been looking for an efficient and effective immersive solution for publishing complex and important feature-length work,” said Michael Chu, executive director for content operations and creative services at Arizent.
“We immediately saw the potential of utilizing Shorthand to allow us to design and publish our integrated media content with more speed and flexibility, and to expand the range of our users’ engagement.”
“Shorthand allows our designers to create immersive online stories with a much shorter turnaround time and with the flexibility of pushing the creative boundaries outside of our CMS,” explained Michael.
Ever-evolving stories and uses
All of Arizent’s art directors are proficient in using the tool and, as time has gone on, the studio has been tapped for more and more Shorthand stories. And not just for editorial content, but also for business development pitches and internal presentations.
Their Shorthand stories are continuously growing in terms of complexity and creativity. The tool enables them to easily add custom features, such as dynamic RSS feeds, animated data visualizations, CTAs and ads - all paced to suit the flow of content.
"Shorthand allows our editors and art directors the flexibility to dream up, execute and design beautiful multimedia stories and projects – data-driven features, complex investigations and analyses – without relying on developers,"
“Shorthand allows our editors and art directors the flexibility to dream up, execute and design beautiful multimedia stories and projects – data-driven features, complex investigations and analyses – without relying on developers,” Michael continued.
“The editors are excited; they see that they have a real platform for storytelling. Projects they’ve invested significant time in, where they have assets in mixed formats and media, can now be fully realized in an integrated experience.”
One story the team are particularly proud of is Pay Day. a piece for Financial Planning sponsored by Commonwealth Financial Network. Not only did this story get high user engagement, it was also recognised with the 2018 GDUSA American Web Design Award.
Other Arizent Shorthand features have also won praise, including finalist spots for Financial Planning and American Banker in the Folio: Eddie and Ozzie Awards.
Arizent use both Google Analytics and Parse.ly to track the performance of their content and have seen a significant increase in pageviews and active engagement time.
“Shorthand stories, when promoted effectively, drive deeper engagement – particularly time on page – than equivalent CMS article pages,” Michael added.
