The dawning of the Intelligent DXP powered by Sitecore Stream and underpinned by Content Hub.
The 2024 Sitecore Symposium was the second Symposium I have attended. The initial one, held in Chicago in 2022, launched Sitecore as the leader in composable DXP across the three pillars of content, engagement, and commerce. This time, our Sitecore Practice Lead Consultant, Jorgen Jansson, came too, as we travelled to Nashville, Tennessee, for the Sitecore Symposium 2024. We aimed to gain greater insight into their product range and, specifically, Content Hub, to guide our customers in Australia on the optimal value of innovations Sitecore had to offer.
We wanted to gain as much technical and strategic knowledge as possible from the Sitecore Symposium. We wanted to share with our peers the progress on projects and outcomes for customers built foundationally on Sitecore Content Hub as an Omnichannel Content Platform (OCP). Ultimately, the event allowed us to immerse ourselves in the possibilities and bring a new perspective to Australia to drive further innovation and optimisation of content for our customers.
The four days were packed with sessions, starting with the Partner Afternoon on Tuesday and a sneak peek of what would be launched to the public the next day. The highlight was when Sitecore unveiled its vision for the Intelligent Digital Experience Platform (DXP), an AI-augmented marketer workflow that comprehends brands, campaigns, content, and data. It truly transforms the marketing landscape. Sitecore's Chief Product Officer, Roger Connolly, unveiled this ground-breaking innovation, going into the Sitecore Stream's core strengths and impact across all Sitecore products. This incredible new product from Sitecore conveyed their aim of being the first choice for content and experience management.
What became quickly apparent in the analysis provided by Kathie Johnson, Sitecore's CMO, was the expectation that marketing should 'do more with less'. With that, the costs and time to produce and manage an ever-increasing demand for content were not sustainable with the tools and approaches used in the past. AI provided an opportunity to do this, but it had to be Smart, Strategic, and Secure.
According to a world-first study by the BetterBriefs Project, 33% of the marketing budget goes to waste! Brands need to balance their strategic and tactical plays, so the focus needs to be on ways to better cope with the required volume of content creation and enable greater efficiency by being smarter and better at managing all aspects of the content lifecycle.
Boosting the productivity of content teams is essential for achieving the strategic outcomes expected by organisational leaders. To achieve this, your content must be collated and structured effectively. Stream's services, like Brand Aware AI, can then analyse this content and influence broader team decisions on how best to represent the brand. These tools also actively assist in generating, automating, and reusing content. This ensures your organisation can scale to meet the demands of modern omnichannel engagement.
A case study with Nestlé showcased Stream's value vividly, revealing their biggest challenge: maintaining brand consistency across multiple markets, languages, and teams. For a global organisation, this complexity is heightened by the need to align diverse workforces and address the challenges of managing large-scale HR processes, from onboarding to ensuring collaboration.
While not every organisation operates at Nestlé's scale, many face similar issues —managing content across channels, teams, and agencies while maintaining a unified brand message. As highlighted at Sitecore Symposium 2024, solutions like Stream, powered by AI, enable businesses to streamline content workflows and ensure consistency across every audience touchpoint. This transformation is essential for thriving, where cohesive omnichannel engagement drives success.
I've often written about OCPs and the strengths of Sitecore Content Hub as a foundational technology in an organisation’s tech stack. However, achieving cross-departmental centralisation—both for storage and, more critically, for processes—hasn't always been straightforward or practical. Without a clear catalyst for change, such transformation can be challenging to implement effectively.
Based on what I observed in Brand AI, along with the copilots and automation capabilities in Stream, it's clear that organisations focused on doing more with less and investing in AI projects may soon rethink their priorities. Content Hub, with its powerful integration of Stream, is perfectly positioned to gain renewed recognition as a vital component of Sitecore's composable product suite.
Sitecore's significant investment in Content Hub, now enhanced by Stream, highlights its potential as a cornerstone for omnichannel content strategies. While the full impact of integrating Content Hub and Stream with other ecosystem vendors remains to be seen, its promise as a foundational platform is undeniable. I anticipate this combination will drive transformative benefits, improving employee workflows and customer experiences.
To highlight the benefits of using Sitecore Content Hub's Digital Asset Management (DAM) platform, I attended a compelling case study session led by Sitecore’s Senior Martech Manager Megan Engard, who showcased how Sitecore leveraged its composable DXP technology to rebuild its corporate site, sitecore.com, as part of its latest brand launch. This ambitious project, which went live in July 2024, demonstrated the transformative power of Sitecore's solutions in streamlining complex digital transformations.
I'm no expert in website statistics, but the numbers shared certainly caught my attention—especially the time saved for getting images onto a website:
Previously, uploading images to the website was a slow and cumbersome process. This changed dramatically with a direct integration between Content Hub and XMC, dynamically serving images through Sitecore Edge. The automation doesn't stop there—Content Hub's features like auto-generated renditions, effortless cropping and resizing, and automated alt text creation (leveraging IPTC metadata) streamline every step of the process, making content publishing faster and more efficient than ever.
Wins for the site:
Wins for broader internal staff:
Multiply that by the number of images on your site, and you start to grasp the scale of operational waste I've been highlighting—the inefficiencies between content/marketing teams and web developers/producers. And that's just images. Factor in the ability to manage textual changes seamlessly within Content Hub, and the transformative potential becomes clear. This approach delivers significant benefits, streamlining workflows and empowering organisations to operate with far greater efficiency and precision.
There were many active conversations about Gen AI and its impact on improving and streamlining language localisation, tonal adjustments, and summarisation. The potential of copilots in workflows is vast, and when paired with Content Hub's ability to manage rich assets—images, video, and audio—alongside textual elements, the integration of Stream becomes even more transformative.
Pain points are abundant, from planning and creation to localisation, approval, execution, performance, and publishing. A unified platform like Content Hub simplifies the omnichannel content lifecycle, seamlessly managing workflows and publishing across websites, apps, customer service, sales, commerce, signage, and social media. The value of this comprehensive approach cannot be overstated.
Over the course of the event, countless conversations unfolded, but these highlights reflect the key takeaways related to Content Hub and Stream. There was a strong sense of community and open sharing among attendees—customers, partners, and vendors alike. This collaborative spirit, which I also observed at the previous Symposium, goes beyond keynote hype to showcase genuine admiration for innovative approaches and successful execution in tackling complex challenges.
What stood out at this year's Symposium was the remarkable representation from Australia and New Zealand. Whether it's our willingness to embrace challenges or our readiness to roll up our sleeves and pioneer uncharted territory, ANZ organisations have made a significant impact. Many award winners and standout case studies came from this region, including Australian Retirement Trust and Racing Victoria, both celebrated as Power Builders. The Ultimate Award Winner, Foodstuffs NZ, was honoured for modernising content management and integrating AI-powered tools to enhance digital engagement and operational efficiency—a true testament to innovation in action.