UnDigital® launched a main site and two subsites for Thyme Lifestyle Resort, owned by Serenitas, using Silverstripe CMS with subsites. All sites are managed within the one CMS creating design, development and maintenance efficiencies.
The first launch included the deployment of Thyme Lifestyle Resort (known as the main site), Thyme Lifestyle Resort Hervey Bay (a subsite) and Thyme Lifestyle Resort Evans Head (another subsite). Shortly thereafter, UnDigital® launched a third subsite as part of the Thyme ecosystem; Thyme Lifestyle Resort Moreton Bay. Each of these websites function flawlessly and the CMS has been easy for the Serenitas marketing team to learn and use independently.
The Brief
Serenitas wanted a stylish and informative website for Thyme Lifestyle Resort that would meet the needs of their various buyer personas and communicate the brand’s goals and objectives to their audience. UnDigital® conducted a workshop with the Thyme Lifestyle Resort marketing team to uncover the following:
- What the technical requirements were, including how many websites needed to be developed and how they relate to each other
- What type of content needed to be housed in the website and the best tone of voice to communicate it with
- Who would be using this website and what action did we want them to take
- What Thyme Lifestyle Resort’s future plans are and how UnDigital® could build a future-proofed ecosystem that would support their growth in a financially and operationally feasible way
This workshop formed the brief for the technical recommendation, website design, copywriting, functionality and overall user experience. With this, UnDigital® got to work.
The Recommendation
Silverstripe CMS has been a CMS of choice for UnDigital® for over five years. It’s sophisticated in functionality, yet simple to manage, making it a user-friendly CMS that is capable of housing customised design and technology.
The sub-site feature was of particular interest to Serenitas. It allows marketers to manage multiple websites from within one CMS, resulting in a range of efficiencies:
- From a development maintenance perspective, updates that are pushed to one site can be simultaneously pushed to some or all of the other sites. This means that updates can be performed across multiple sites in the time it takes to do just one.
- From a content perspective, updates can be made easily to any of the websites from within the one CMS, meaning one set of logins and one window to keep open on your browser.
- Additionally, it’s possible to make the sub-sites share content with the main site. In this instance, UnDigital® have been able to make blogs from Thyme Lifestyle Resort Hervey Bay (a subsite) appear on the home page of the Thyme Lifestyle Resort website (the main site).
For Serenitas, the use of Silverstripe CMS with subsites was undeniably the most sensible recommendation for their business.
The execution and beyond
First, the UnDigital® team designed and developed the Thyme Lifestyle Resort website. This included the wireframing, digital design, front-end development and back-end integration of the website into Silverstripe CMS. This created the foundation for a scalable website that was able to be repurposed for multiple websites. In the case of Thyme Lifestyle Resort, having a universal design theme across all of the websites in the same CMS created multiple design and development efficiencies.
For the development of Thyme Lifestyle Resort Hervey Bay, Thyme Lifestyle Resort Evans Head and Thyme Lifestyle Resort Moreton Bay, UnDigital® was able to apply a new design to the code with minimal front end development work. Given the websites were already integrated with Silverstripe CMS, UnDigital® only required backend development work for minor bug fixes. This allowed UnDigital® to deliver the sites quickly and for a lower cost.
Now, all four of the websites are live and easily managed from within the one CMS. UnDigital® has been able to maintain, make updates to and manage the sites seamlessly, while the Thyme Lifestyle Resort team have been able to work in the CMS independently.
“Working with Serenitas on the Thyme Lifestyle Resort websites has been an exciting project for our team, we’ve all thoroughly enjoyed it. As always, Silverstripe CMS has proven to be a fantastic, reliable and capable CMS with customised technology that has served both of our teams well.” Said Andrew Cornale, Co-Founder and Digital Experience Director at UnDigital®.
Cheyne Oxford, Serenitas National Marketing Manager said “UnDigital® really took the time to learn about our business, our objectives and the need for a CMS solution that could easily expand in line with our rapid growth. We have found using the SilverStripe CMS simple and intuitive to use and the ability to manage multiple sites within a singular CMS interface has made digital marketing more seamless.”
“Working with UnDigital® has been an exceptional experience. The team are dedicated, collaborative and invested in our mutual success and I look forward to building our partnership with UnDigital® on future projects,” says Mr Oxford.
About Thyme Lifestyle Resort
Thyme Lifestyle Resort is owned by Serenitas, Australia’s fastest growing provider of affordable homes in lifestyle communities for people over 50. Thyme Lifestyle Resort operates across 3 luxurious locations in Australia; Hervey Bay, Moreton Bay and Evans Head.
About UnDigital®
UnDigital® is a Sydney based digital experience agency that uses, creates and markets bespoke strategy-led digital products that grow businesses and create operational efficiencies. Sophisticated in methodology, yet simple in implementation, UnDigital® uses digital thinking, technology and data science to uncover and capitalise on opportunities to drive explosive growth while simplifying ongoing management and operational overheads.
