The new Kaksplus website is based on deep consumer insight

Otavamedia is part of Otava Group, a Finnish media house with an impressive, century-long history. In addition to publishing 22 periodical magazines in Finland, Otavamedia is in charge of Otava Group’s 15+ online services, reaching more than 2,5 million Finns monthly.

Otavamedia is firmly committed to quality content that continues to interest and serve consumers. To keep up with demand, Otavamedia recently took its biggest parenthood brand, Kaksplus, through a significant website renewal.

Kaksplus is the oldest Finnish parenthood-focused consumer brand, and its website delivers diverse content on all themes helpful to parents and parents-to-be. The Kaksplus site engages a user base of millions of moms, dads, parent figures, and family-minded people. The site’s business model relies mostly on display advertising.

Qvik got to be a part of the renewal of the Kaksplus online concept and visuals. Otavamedia released the new Kaksplus site in September 2023. To maximize user value, we built the new concept on an elaborate consumer insight study. The number one goal for the project was to develop a fresh, clear, and credible service that would attract readers and advertisers.

Kaksplus’ vision to base its new concept on customer insight matched well with Qvik’s data-driven design ideology. The project had a clear foundation in customer research from the beginning. The team agreed that the best starting point would be carrying out a large-scale consumer survey.

The team started the research project by defining customer segments. In order to do this, we utilized a need-based segmentation approach and accompanied it with Kaksplus’ existing data. The large-scale consumer survey then focused on these prospective customer segments. The team completed the survey in a pool of nationally representative respondents aged 15 to 75. Qvik provided the respondent pool, and all in all, The Kaksplus survey raised 1,000 responses.

The team conducted analyses for each segment and explored their most exciting content categories, channel preferences, and attitudes toward media. The analyzed data served as direct input for design work, which aimed to re-imagine how the Kaksplus website could best address customer needs.

Next, the team entered the business and concept design phase to establish the final vision and outline for the service. To clarify Kaksplus’ competitive advantage, we further refined and benchmarked target segments and personas for competition.

On top of that, we explored new, complementary ideas for the business model to expand the reach of the soon-renewed Kaksplus brand.

The team generated a new value proposition for the services during concept design, and started the re-branding and UI design.

Qvik and Otavamedia wanted to follow a holistic design process and build the new service firmly on insights. Furthermore, we wanted to take advantage of collaborative design practices. Since one of the specific challenges with the old site was its confusing navigation, the team decided to renew the Kaksplus site’s information architecture completely. The content structure was co-designed with customers to improve user experience and to allow easy discovery of new content.

Finally, the team performed some foundational work for a new design system. This ensured that the client would be able to systematically execute the new visual identity in the future, too. Atomic Design principles were chosen as a suitable foundation for the new design system. Additionally, Qvik mentored Otavamedia’s in-house designers to independently develop the system further.

In conclusion, Qvik and Otavamedia were able to create a new, solid, and expressive visual brand for Kaksplus. The new visual identity aligns perfectly with the core values of Kaksplus’ new concept, so the collaboration was successful.

Although the team created numerous design assets as output, both Qvik and Otavamedia’s primary interests were in the actual impact of the changes. After the renewed website launched in September 2023, Qvik interviewed Annina Pennonen, Editor-in-Chief at Kaksplus.

Pennonen told us that the renewal has received good consumer and advertising customer feedback. Customers have received the renewed site as fresh, clear, and modern. Since its launch, direct traffic to the site has also increased. “We feel this update has achieved its goals thus far, and we are delighted with the professional help Qvik provided during the process”, Pennonen concludes.

Kaksplus continues to monitor the outcomes, but based on current numbers, it seems inevitable that their investment will yield the desired returns.