Future-proof your global digital estate

Insights from Unilever and Norsk Hydro on how to handle the global-local balancing act, and why AI could redefine the meaning of “global estate” 

I recently had the pleasure of moderating a panel discussion with Deirdre O’Reilly, Senior Owned Channels Manager at Unilever, and Lars Vidar Gullestad, Global Asset Owner at Norsk Hydro, about new approaches to managing complex global digital estates.

There was a lot to talk about. In our latest Index Snapshot Report, Bowen Craggs flagged the “global-local balancing act” as a key trend in corporate digital communications right now. To be effective in the AI search era requires new levels of consistency and logic across the global channels. There are some exciting new models being tried out, and Unilever and Hydro are among the innovators.

Here are some of the top takeaways from the event:

1. Corporate country sites aren’t going away, but some might deserve more attention than others 

To kick off the session, we polled the 30 or so corporate digital managers taking part in the meeting to find out what they think the rise of AI means for country websites.  

Most of them (52%) said AI is only making country sites more important, while another 28% said country sites are now only relevant for select markets. Nobody thought country sites have become obsolete.

Unilever is one of the companies confidently opting for a tiered approach. After a recent redesign, some Unilever countries continue to get a fully realised website, while some are now represented by a microsite containing the most essential information and contacts. 

Considerable thought and engagement went into deciding which should be which, including weighing up business and regulatory considerations. 

“The model allows us to scale with clear governance, so we’ve got clear roles on what’s localised and what’s global.”

– Deirdre, Unilever

2. Whatever model you settle on, be ready for ongoing stakeholder engagement 

Joined-up, impactful global estates don’t just happen. Central governance is non-negotiable now, and that starts with getting senior leadership behind your chosen model, ideally before you do anything else. 

Strong relationships with local stakeholders are essential, too. Focus on active dialogue and making a data-based case for why a more joined-up approach is better. At Hydro, an enviable domain authority score (only possible when everything is on the same domain) is a talking point. At Unilever, the fact that KPIs showed almost instant improvement after the recent rollout has reinforced the approach.

“Showing the data really helps.”

– Lars, Hydro 

“The conversation we most have with our markets is what’s the problem they’re trying to solve, what’s the message they want to land? Then we work together on a proposed solution.”  

– Deirdre, Unilever

3. Make the shift to an engagement measurement mindset

AI search is shrinking the numbers of human visitors to websites. Those who do come will value experiences over information, which means absolute numbers don’t mean as much as they used to. 

Try, instead, to measure how engaged specific visitor groups are. Applying this across all websites, not just the global site, will lead to better, more visitor-centric outcomes for the whole global estate.

“It’s much more now for us about the quality of the visits rather than the big numbers.”  

– Deirdre, Unilever 

4. Start preparing now for AI-powered models that are just over the horizon

Newish technologies such as headless CMS have made it possible for digital managers to cascade updates and design changes across many, many sites almost simultaneously. Next up: AI raises the possibility of an even more dynamic form of content integration.

At Hydro, Lars and his team are deep in the planning stages for a multi-year, AI-centric reimagining of the estate. The vision goes well beyond country websites, to an ecosystem where web, social, intranet and paid channels can all share content in real time. 

A key lesson so far: clear governance is the foundation, even – and perhaps especially – when the goal is an AI-based rollout. In this case, governance begins with taking stock of what exactly existing channels do well today and how they each, individually and collectively, could do it better.

“AI is only as smart as the system it operates in.”

– Lars, Hydro

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