Turning 50+ websites into one digital platform for Canadian dairy

The Challenge

Dairy Farmers of Canada represents a broad ecosystem that includes consumers, farmers, health professionals, educators, researchers, government, industry partners and other stakeholders.

The organization had already established a Masterbrand with the ambition to communicate with one voice, but its digital ecosystem had grown across more than 50 websites and microsites. Different audiences, campaigns and organizational groups had created their own destinations over time, making it difficult to deliver a consistent brand and customer experience at scale.

The transformation needed to bring those audiences together under one digital platform, strengthen the Masterbrand, support the role of Canadian dairy in people’s lives and create an experience that could continue to grow with the organization.

Key Findings

Research showed that Canadians were thinking about dairy within a much broader context of lifestyle, health, wellness and Canadian identity.

People were making holistic choices about how they lived and ate. Canadian values and the perception of Canada itself carried meaning, while the Dairy Farmers of Canada seal already represented more than an individual product.

The opportunity was to connect dairy to a wider story about food, wellness, community, Canadian values and the people behind the industry. Those findings became the foundation for a digital experience designed around the lives and needs of its audiences.

The Solution

Helping Canadians Thrive

I helped define the experience vision around Helping Canadians Thrive.

The vision positioned Dairy Farmers of Canada as an audience-led publishing platform rooted in the Masterbrand. It connected dairy with wellness, food experiences, Canadian identity, innovation, community and the people who produce it.

That vision became the strategic foundation for the website, content, UX, design, commerce and future roadmap.

[IMAGE 2. Use a clean experience-vision or finished-platform image here.]

One platform for different audiences

The UX organized the ecosystem around the needs of its audiences.

We created one destination with distinct audience hubs, supported by a navigation system that helped people quickly identify where they belonged and find the content, resources and services relevant to them. Audience-specific homepages provided different entry points while keeping the entire experience connected through one Masterbrand.

Information architecture, user flows and wireframes brought together customer needs, content requirements and technical requirements into one experience structure.

[IMAGE 3. Use the strongest visual showing the audience hubs, navigation or different parts of the platform.]

Building content around audience intent

Content became one of the core products of the new platform.

Customer journeys, audience intent and search behaviour informed the information architecture, themes, taxonomy and content strategy. Content from the legacy ecosystem was reviewed and reorganized, while new formats and topics were developed across everything from scientific information and nutrition to recipes, lifestyle content and campaigns.

The same strategy supported an always-on publishing model so Dairy Farmers of Canada could continually create relevant content for its different audiences.

Creating a scalable Masterbrand design system

The experience was brought to life through a responsive design system rooted in dairy and Canadian identity.

The system established a consistent visual language across the platform while giving different audiences and content types enough flexibility to feel relevant. Colours, typography, imagery, illustration, components and interaction patterns were designed to work across English and French, meet accessibility requirements and scale across devices and future content needs.

[IMAGE 4. Use the strongest design-system visual showing components, colours, typography and page elements.]

[IMAGE 5. Follow with a polished multi-device finished-experience collage.]

Expanding the digital ecosystem

The transformation extended beyond the core Dairy Farmers of Canada website into a broader ecosystem of audience and utility experiences. We developed connected destinations for product discovery, research, nutrition professionals and expert content, including Blue Cow Spotter, Dairy Research, Dairy Nutrition and Ask Dairy Experts.

The ecosystem also expanded into commerce through the Blue Cow Shop and into ongoing campaign and go-to-market activity. Together, these experiences allowed Dairy Farmers of Canada to serve very different audience needs while keeping the experience connected through one Masterbrand, shared platform and design system.

[IMAGE 6. Use a grid of Blue Cow Spotter, Dairy Research, Dairy Nutrition or Ask Dairy Experts, and Blue Cow Shop.]

Technology enabling the experience

The platform was built on Drupal and hosted through Acquia, giving Dairy Farmers of Canada a scalable CMS that could share content across multiple audience hubs while supporting different experiences. Shopify powered the Blue Cow Shop, while Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics supported measurement and optimization across the platform.

Outcomes

• 41% increase in sessions
• 60% increase in new users
• 89% increase in organic search traffic
• 297% increase in time spent with corporate content
• 217% increase in time spent with nutrition content
• 738% increase in newsletter sign-ups
• Consolidated more than 50 websites into one digital platform
• Established an always-on publishing model and scalable digital foundation for future growth

The transformation also changed how Dairy Farmers of Canada worked, moving toward a more audience-led, lifestyle-focused and continually evolving marketing platform.

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My Role

I led experience strategy, UX, content strategy and go-to-market thinking for the Dairy Farmers of Canada digital transformation.

My work included research, audience strategy, customer journeys, experience vision, information architecture, UX direction, content strategy, SEO, platform strategy, measurement and the roadmap for the broader digital ecosystem.

I also worked across campaign and advertising activity, helping connect the Masterbrand and digital platform to ongoing go-to-market communications.

The project required alignment across national and provincial teams, marketing, communications, stakeholder relations, farmers and other parts of the organization. My role was to connect those groups around one experience vision and ensure that brand, UX, content, technology, data and marketing activity worked together as one system.