Challenge
Kohler’s existing video portal was built entirely in Flash, making it difficult to update and maintain, limiting mobile viewing, and all but eliminating any potential for SEO. Over the years since the portal’s initial launch, the video library continued to grow to support new products and opportunities, and Kohler continued to acquire additional brands to add to its collection. However, as the amount of content and the family of product brands grew, content management responsibilities were spread among more and more individuals. Due to the rigidity of Kohler’s existing platform and inconsistent content management practices, the site navigation became cumbersome and disorganized, with several brands sharing a single video portal.

Solution
Cypress assisted Kohler with the creation of a new video portal to better suit the needs of Kohler customers and do-it-yourselfers, while providing a stable and scalable platform to support future growth of content, and acquisition of new brands under the Kohler umbrella. The video portal was also redesigned to match Kohler’s latest brand guidelines. In the process, the portal was updated to enable dynamic customization of the logo and associated companion ads at the sub-brand level. The resulting portal allows for non-technical users to update the portal with unique brand-specific elements, while maintaining a consistent, overall look and feel.

Cypress worked with Kohler to understand its internal business processes and to provide recommendations for an updated workflow – from the initial video request, to the final video being uploaded to the video portal – to ensure completeness and consistency of metadata and site navigation. In addition, Cypress helped to simplify the underlying online video platform by consolidating a number of brand-specific product groups into a single master account. At the same time, the video taxonomy was reorganized to allow for more simplified portal navigation. The new video portal was built in HTML5, opening up the possibilities for mobile viewing and enhancing content discoverability through improved SEO.​​​​

www.kohler.com/video​​​