VREUND by VERBUND: The new online magazine from VERBUND

Why a new online magazine when there is already an existing blog? What were the challenges and much more, you will find out in this article.

Table of contents

• The starting point
• The challenges: Tricky but possible
  • Sitecore as a technology partner
  • The migration: the digital transplant from old to new
• The basic version is just the beginning

VREUND by VERBUND is the successor to the “Flow” blog and is designed to improve corporate communication on topics such as sustainability and the energy transition, people and careers, nature and regions, smart living and innovations.

VREUND by VERBUND - Overview of the online magazine

The starting point

VERBUND approached us because they wanted to replace the Flow Blog with a new and modern online magazine. But why? Not only was the design no longer up to date, but the requirements of website visitors have also changed over time. In short, “the attention span of readers has become increasingly shorter.” This results in laziness when it comes to reading.

» While the attention span was still 12 seconds 20 years ago, it is now only 8 seconds «

The goal was therefore clear: to make the content easier to consume. That is why the focus was on better-designed content in the form of interactive video modules, highlight boxes, various teasers, etc.

The challenges: tricky but possible

The new magazine had to be integrated into an existing system. All the content of the old blog posts also had to be integrated without losing the Google rankings.

Sitecore as a technology partner

As a digital agency, we specialize in Sitecore, among other things, so it was easy for us to build the new project on an existing Sitecore instance (verbund.com).

The migration: the digital transplant from old to new

Before a migration is carried out, it is necessary to analyze and document all existing content relationships.

This is the only way to ensure that nothing is forgotten during the migration.

1000+: That was the number of posts to be migrated. Since we didn't have the time and the customer wasn't willing to pay for it, a Powershell script had to be written. This program made it possible to migrate 95% of all posts to the new system fully automatically.

The basic version is just the beginning

The new online magazine was successfully launched in January with the basic modules and the first new articles were created.

At the same time, further modules for a broader content portfolio were designed and implemented.

The highlight among the modules: an interactive video module. After each video sequence, a user can choose between option A and option B and thus actively determine the course of the story.

This module was used for the first time in the campaign Deine Entscheidung, in which the idea of sustainability is communicated as a central message.

Promotional video - Deine Entscheidung

VREUND by VERBUND will be expanded with additional modules in the coming years to better convey the content. Stay tuned!

Click here to go to the magazine: VREUND by VERBUND