The Client: 

Creating Seamless Consumer Experiences

Focused on helping customers live better while saving money in stores or online, this Fortune 50 omnichannel retailer serves hundreds of millions of customers across several countries. The U.S.-headquartered enterprise is also a leader in sustainability, philanthropy, and economic opportunity.

The Situation:

Flexibly Address Marketing Expertise Gaps

With the goal of providing affordable healthcare services to the communities where it operates, the global retailer needed to expand its Digital Marketing expertise to support several initiatives within the health and wellness unit.  

In particular, expertise was lacking in developing and executing digital communications strategies to power the growth of this division, as well as a subsequent need to measure the success of implemented strategies. 

The Head of the Digital Transformation division sought to onboard high-caliber experts as embedded members of the team who would be agile enough to keep fixed costs lower to weather uncertain economic conditions successfully. 

To address critical gaps in the team rapidly and smoothly, they recognized the need to look at alternatives to the inflexible and time-consuming full-time hire approach. 

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The Solution: 

Augment Staff Using a Proven On-Demand Talent Solution

The Head of Digital Transformation decided to adopt a staff augmentation model that would provide ongoing support for the health and wellness marketing transformation. They turned to Graphite’s proven on-demand talent acquisition platform to assemble a team of external subject matter experts who could integrate seamlessly with the internal marcomms organization. 

Upon contacting Graphite, the client was matched with an experienced account manager. The account manager explained how Graphite’s platform would seamlessly connect the corporation with a curated shortlist of experienced professionals drawn from its pool of over 10,000 independent experts for each desired role on the team. The experts would offer expertise gained at a range of Fortune 500 and other leading enterprises, including retail, healthcare, and related industries.

Key roles identified

Eager to onboard a team that could achieve results within six months, the client and their dedicated Graphite account manager partnered to determine the specifications for each of the four roles. They were: 

• Digital Messaging Operations Manager to build and manage the digital health and wellness communications strategy roadmap and lifecycle for engaging with patients. This would require working across multiple teams (with multiple levels of team member seniority) to reach a consensus and drive concurrent workstreams. 
• Digital Messaging Program Manager to provide expertise in creating digital two-way communications compliant with federal government regulations (via text, email, and online portal) and working with internal developers and product managers to implement the messaging rollout.
• Digital Site Operations Manager to develop, operate, and manage the online retail experience for the health and wellness department that is consistent across regions. This includes establishing page requirements, tracking product analytics, and developing associated internal dashboard requirements. 
• Internal Program Manager to assist with all aspects of establishing and managing program plans and activities for business transformation and digital communications workstreams, working with the product, design, engineering, and business teams and supporting vendors. Develop and maintain weekly status reports for leadership that identify, track, and resolve challenges and program risks.  

AI-driven, personalized assistance for rapid team creation

With the corporation’s needs established, the account manager used Graphite’s AI-driven platform to identify multiple candidates for each role. Next, the account manager filtered the lists and met personally with the most appropriate candidates to determine which independent experts offered the right expertise, pricing, and availability. After creating the curated list of the top two individuals for each role, the account manager presented it to the retailer.

Subsequently, the Head of Digital Strategy and a panel of key corporate stakeholders conducted live virtual interviews with the candidates using Graphite’s in-app messaging and meeting room features. 

They selected an independent expert for each role, gaining a combined experience of more than 50 years at respected enterprises such as Humana, Moderna, Amazon, and Impactive.

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The Result:

Enable Health and Wellness Marketing Transformation

With the experts chosen, the account manager introduced the Head of Digital Transformation to their dedicated Graphite Customer Success Manager, who facilitated onboarding and managing the four experts. This was completed within days of contacting Graphite.  

The independent experts quickly added such significant value that the retailer extended the initial six-month contracts to 18 months. Among other projects, the experts used their competencies in order to:

• Build a holistic lifecycle program for the health and wellness business, focusing on patient journeys and experiences.
• Implement a holistic website strategy using customer insights to tell a cohesive story and create a seamless customer experience, including visual site merchandising, content, and digital functionality.
• Ensure that all communications comply with healthcare regulations for protected health information (PHI), like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
• Establish internal governance processes, align the internal marketing organization, and establish a report creation strategy that supplies marketing insights, drives digital communications efficiencies, and improves customer experiences.

Throughout the duration of the engagement, the dedicated Graphite account team regularly gathered status updates from the experts and the corporation to ensure that all was proceeding appropriately, milestones were met, and goals were accomplished.

Smooth, professional, cost-effective experience end-to-end

Over the course of the project, the global retailer realized multiple benefits from partnering with Graphite, including:

• Acquire and onboard the right digital communications augmentation team in a matter of days, with the flexibility to ramp teams up or down.
• Gain a team of digital communications and marcom operations professionals with a combined experience of over 50 years.
• Enable health and wellness business transformation by leveraging exceptional digital communications, CRM, and marketing operations expertise.
• Tap into a 10,000+ pool of fully-vetted independent experts for immediate and potential future needs.
• Receive detailed project tracking on the Graphite platform, including deliverables completed, tasks performed, and work hours submitted.