Key Insight

And Now formed an embedded team at Sky to deliver this project, working side by side with a cross-functional project team and agency partners. The ethos of the team was to put the customer front and centre in every decision. And Now put boots on the ground in user research, new product development, UX strategy, UI Design, customer experience design, and digital marketing.

The project kicked off with a 12-week discovery phase that included executive consultation, customer and competitor research, and internal engagement with a cross-section of Sky. In the initial discovery phase, we interviewed 60+ current and potential customers in their homes throughout New Zealand, exploring what home entertainment means to them and what barriers Sky needs to overcome in order for Sky to be the primary entertainment solution in their household.

We started by reframing the opportunity for the Sky Executive into a more compelling narrative: "How can we make Sky the centre of attention for every New Zealander?" A strategic idea with a nod to customer-centered design and diversification beyond TV

We helped Sky envision a new, transformative customer experience. A "one-stop-shop" entertainment solution that was smart, easy, and reliable. Something that’s tailored to the content and services people love and adapts to when and where they are. We developed a set of design principles to serve as guiderails for the new customer experience. These helped the cross-functional team focus efforts around creating an effortless multi-device experience, personalisation, content discovery, reliability, and rewarding loyal customers.

Key Insight

Customer data was gathered through immersing ourselves in the daily lives of Sky and non-Sky customers, looking for unmet needs and the outcomes they were hoping to achieve We codified this into a long-list of over 150 customer benefit statements. We then surveyed over 6,000 New Zealanders to identify and rank, precisely which benefits Sky should focus on in order to deliver the biggest customer impact. This was the best of both worlds: deep, qualitative research, validated with statistically valid quantitative research.

We then utilised a framework that enabled Sky to prioritise benefits factoring in the customer data with internal technology and commercial considerations and constraints. Sky used the conclusions from this process to crystallise the customer value proposition, prioritise roadmaps and guide feature development for the New Sky Box.

And Now and Sky were then able to co-create a brief to design the Set Top Box and Remote Control experience, working in partnership with their global hardware partners in England, China and Malaysia. And Now designed the Hardware in close collaboration with customers and the Platform Design Team, utilising a range of lo-fi and hi-fi prototypes which enabled us to test ideas for the user experience, form-factor, colour and materials. With a blueprint of the product experience complete, Sky was now able to select international partners to advance various components of the new Sky Box, ultimately choosing the Google TV platform. 

Key Insight

The next challenge was to create an effortless 'buy and upgrade' journey which delivered increased levels of control, choice or transparency. And Now led the user experience strategy, UI design and advised on solution for Content Management System. The biggest challenge was how to test the user experience with users, with prototypes that reflected current and realistic TV content. Prior experience taught us it's too distracting for people to be presented with a concept with TV they hated! In 9 weeks we designed and built 3 hi-fidelity prototypes of the eCommerce experience with fully managed TV content. Our team could quickly spin up an authentic 'sports' or 'family' themed prototype to test with customers, resulting in better data from customers.

With launch date approaching And Now was asked to design and deliver a world-class creative marketing experience that engages, excites, and educates customers about the new Sky Box. The experience was designed to drive registrations of interest ahead of launch, then seamlessly guide people upgrade their existing Sky box experience, or for new customers, to start their Sky journey. We designed and built the digital experience and produced the content, working with our VFX partner and Sky’s inhouse Creative Team to deliver it.

Key Insight

Over the course of the project a global pandemic came and went, consumer perceptions about value for money shifted. Before going to market, Sky needed to check what the mood of the nation was and whether their proposed product and package pricing was going to hit the mark. And Now conducted an extensive review of the customer sentiment amongst current and prospective customers, this provided the Sky Executive with confidence the initiative was set to delight the majority of existing Sky customers and identified an untapped cohort of customers to target. To support go-to-market planning we created a messaging matrix to show how the new Sky Box value proposition and key features shifted in emphasis across different customer segments.