Aligning 18 marketing departments across the global to a unified workflow whilst amplifying marketing results through Human-Centred Design and Behavioural Analysis

Context

Sun International is one of Africa’s largest tourism, leisure and gaming groups and operates or has an interest in a total of 18 resorts, luxury hotels and casinos. They are on a mission to create magical experiences for its customers while remaining cost-effective and efficient during a time of national financial difficulties and shifting behavioural habits.

I was tasked with further developing the current system to suit the shifting needs for Sun Interntional Head Office, Fusion ( the in-house creative agency ), the On-Property Marketing Team and the SI Online Team.

The Problem

Lack of organizational synergy + competitive market + rising costs + lack of innovation and development strategies + large scale.

Sun International has 18 properties, a central head office and a vast array of internal and external stakeholders, each with unique needs and challenges.

With an ever-competitive environment, there is a need to keep costs as lean whilst developing both brand and property awareness.

Why is this happening?

Appealing to 4 different stakeholders per 18 properties, each with different demands and brand guidelines.
Adhearing to the Sun International Core CI whilst expanding its reach
Creative Teams all working long hours, and with unrealistic deadlines causing a difficult working enviroment.
Very legacy and traditional workflows and views to creativity and UX
Fear of change and lack of synergy between units and head office
Very traditional and ineffective creative workflow

How might we build powerful brand properties, whilst creating synergistic and positive workflows that drive business results?

STICKY NOTED

As I began working on gathering insights, it became increasingly clear that a huge pool of data and empathizing was needed to clearly define each stakeholder’s needs and ensure that a clear direction was defined and aligned upon before we commenced. I proceeded to host various Empathizing and Interview Sessions, as well as supplement with current research into large-scale property creative systems, UX principles and consumer needs within the gaming and hospitality industries.

*Many sticky notes were used ( and recycled )

THE MOUNTAIN TO OVERCOME

Through research we identified multiple challenges in the enviroment as alongside the internal challenges Sun International faced.

The average users attention span has reached 8.25 seconds.
The average attention span of a user scrolling on social media platforms, 0.25 seconds.
Future customers, currently aged 18-24, currently spend up to 7x more than the dwindling current market of 35-55+
Currently properties did not leverage using Social Media to attract new customers or engage with them. On property-brands still engage with traditional print media as their primary form of communication.