Canvas8’s new membership platform delivered a 62.5% increase in revenue
Canvas8 won at The Drum Awards for Agency Business 2022 in the Best New Product or Service Development category for its new membership platform. Here, we find out what went into redeveloping the platform.
Canvas8's new membership platform snapped up our Best New Product or Service Development award / Joshua Rawson-Harris via Unsplash
Consumer insights agency Canvas8 wanted its proprietary membership platform to reflect the company’s overall mission: to ground businesses in human understanding. To do so, it invested significantly to redevelop the platform, repositioning it from insight tool to strategic partner. After adding a raft of new functionality and other changes, revenues have soared and the platform now hosts an impressive array of customers.
The brief
Canvas8’s founding drive was a frustration with market research: endless charts, it felt, led to irrelevant information lacking real-world context and failing to drive action. It wanted instead to create a useful source of truth about what’s really going on in the world and how behaviors and attitudes were changing. The dream was to merge four disciplines under one roof: strategy, research, behavioral science, and cultural foresight.
Once that was successful, it wanted to apply those same principles to its proprietary membership platform. By building a best-in-class platform with a holistic approach to client needs, it thought, would help them reach new organizations beyond its existing user base of marketing agencies, such as charities and governments. In the process, it hoped to broaden its account base, grow account value and increase revenue.
The new platform would incorporate a suite of new products, reframing the agency’s overall product offering.
Advertisement
Hear what the winners had to say about their award-winning work above.
The idea
After a seven-figure investment, the new platform’s overhauled features included ‘Library 2.0’, a repository of consumer insights including over 33,000 articles; 10,000 curated data points; syntheses of learnings from over 100 scientific journals; and a new search function powered by natural language processing technology.
It also included a live element, with interactive briefings from behavioral analysts every month. Elsewhere, a ‘toolkit’ allows fast access to ‘mini projects’, and further access to experts is available through an on-demand directory of thought leaders. New dashboards and overhauled user experience design help users find their way through the platform.
Advertisement
The results
Canvas8 credits the new platform with much of its recent success, including a 62.5% increase in revenue. The annual number of new customer accounts has doubled, while retention has shot up to 96%. Its average order value has also risen.
Their domestic account roster in the UK boasts Nike, Ogilvy, WeAreSocial, Expedia and Mars. Meanwhile, global expansion has seen the agency go from no global accounts to featuring eight of the ten largest agencies in the world.
This campaign was a winner at The Drum Awards for Agency Business 2022. You can see all the winners here. The Drum Awards for Marketing are currently open for entry. Find out how you can enter now.