Overview

Despite being Australia’s largest collection of commercial radio stations, ARN’s digital platform was lagging behind the well commercialised content publishing platforms of rivals such as SCA and Nova. The publishing mechanism was tedious, content syndication was non-existent and the platform was under-commercialised.

As such, ARN sought to reshape their online content offering and transform their business into a digitally savvy online publisher. With a relatively short development window of five months, we set ourselves a modest goal of implementing a content publishing platform for their 11 stations and growing the traffic and content engagement rates by 20% YOY.

With 80% of traffic being driven to ARN’s network of 11 sites via social media, much of which was coming from mobile phones, we undertook extensive planning phase around a mobile-first approach to defining the user experience. Site stickiness and easily transitioning the user to related content was also key. Developed on open-source CMS platform, Umbraco, the site architecture revolves around a shared content repository that content producers can publish to and from. This facilitates huge operational efficiencies and has transformed the content production team into a highly nimble publishing outfit.

Deepend shaped the experience around evidence that 80% of ARN’s network traffic was driven by social media, much of it on mobile devices.

The team used mobile-first planning, Webflow prototyping and a shared Umbraco architecture to create one reusable platform that could scale across the station network.

What We Delivered

• Digital publishing strategy
• Mobile-first UX planning
• Webflow prototyping
• Umbraco multi-site platform
• Shared content repository
• Content tagging and syndication workflows
• Station design framework
• Reusable core site instance
• Commercial sponsorship modules
• Analytics and data strategy

Impact

• More than 300% uplift in unique browsers, site engagement and pages viewed
• 80% reduction in production costs and development timeframes for subsequent sites
• Exceeded the original 20% year-on-year growth target
• Outperformed rival SCA across key digital metrics during the extended survey period
• Content syndication dramatically streamlined publishing operations

Technical architecture of the solution was developed to streamline both ongoing development and operational efficiencies.

Problem & Insight

ARN’s broadcast reach was not translating into equivalent digital performance. The publishing platform made it difficult to scale content efficiently or commercialise the network consistently.

Traffic benchmarking also showed that social and mobile behaviour needed to drive the platform design rather than be treated as secondary channels.

Strategy & Experience Design

Deepend adopted a mobile-first approach and prototyped key interactions in Webflow, including tagged and relational content and user notifications.

Design components were structured so each station could retain its own brand while using a consistent parent architecture that could be rolled out quickly.

Technology & Delivery

The Umbraco platform centred on a shared content repository and a reusable core site instance.

Content producers could create tagged content objects and syndicate them across selected stations, either publishing automatically or moving through approval workflows based on access levels.

The architecture also supported sponsorship across sections, pages, units and modules, enabling more flexible commercial packaging.

Results

The platform recorded more than 300% uplift across unique browsers, engagement and pages viewed, while reducing the cost and development time of subsequent station rollouts by 80%.

The shared publishing model also gave ARN a more agile operating model, improving the speed and flexibility of content syndication and commercial execution.

Frequently Asked Questions

How did Deepend transform Australian Radio Network’s digital publishing platform?

Deepend created a shared Umbraco platform for ARN’s 11 station websites, combining a central content repository, reusable station architecture and syndication workflows to improve publishing efficiency and engagement.

What results did the ARN digital platform achieve?

The platform delivered more than 300% uplift across unique browsers, site engagement and pages viewed. It also reduced production costs and development timeframes for subsequent sites by 80%.

Why was ARN’s platform designed mobile-first?

Traffic benchmarking showed that 80% of visits to ARN’s network were driven by social media, much of it on mobile devices. This shaped the UX, sharing mechanisms and content discovery experience.

How did content syndication improve ARN’s publishing operations?

ARN’s content team could create tagged content objects and syndicate them across selected station sites. Depending on permissions, content could publish automatically or enter an approval workflow, reducing duplication and speeding up production.

What technology was used for the Australian Radio Network platform?

The platform was built on the open-source Umbraco CMS. Deepend also used Webflow during prototyping to rapidly test interactions such as relational content, tagging and user notifications.