Leading the Charge: Fortune 500 Company Embraces Digital Transformation with Drupal

Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CCK) is a Fortune 500 leader in the manufacturing and supply of aluminum cans and metal packaging. Crown has partnered with Sandstorm for over a decade in the design and development of the www.crowncork.com website, bringing to life their brand promise of innovative packaging to enhance brands and engage consumers. 

Our most recent redesign and upgrade to the Drupal 9 CMS platform, showcases Crown’s sustainability commitments, delivering an immersive experience with purposeful interactions that support a user’s “explore mindset” for metal packaging trends, design, support, and product resources.

Over the past decade, Sandstorm had gone through multiple refreshes of the site, implementing an updated homepage UI design, which has extended the life of the site, keeping it feeling fresh and new.

With Drupal 7 nearing its end of life, there was an opportunity to not only rebuild and upgrade the site but to completely reimagine the UX and digital brand experience to strategically align with Crown’s current strategic goals.

Goals for the Launch:

• Create a more interactive visual experience that effectively communicates to a global audience.
• Enhance authority as an aluminum manufacturer through the site’s rich resources.
• Increase engagement for customers through improved product and content interactions, while prioritizing accessibility for users globally.
• Utilize the website to serve as the most prominent digital platform for bringing Crown’s culture to life, which in turn, serves to improve recruitment efforts.

To ensure Crown’s goals were effectively met, Sandstorm began the project with in-depth interviews with key stakeholders and current and prospective customers, an SEO audit, and competitive and inspirational brand analysis which was used to help drive the user experience, creative UI and interaction design, and development.

Key features that helped achieve goals:

• Homepage with interactions that add meaning and emphasis to the brand story (recognized by NN/g for following WCAG compliance).
• Beverage packaging landing page with essential details for product engagement where users are guided on how to choose their packaging and beverage can decorations.
• Beverage can detail with a metrics toggle option for global audience inclusivity.
• Trends pages for beverage and aerosol and food packaging that showcase Crown’s capabilities and reinforce their industry knowledge.
• Robust sustainability section focused on Crown’s Twentyby30 program, designed to provide details about the recyclability and environmental benefits of metal packaging.
• Streamlined press and articles sections supporting a richer user experience.
• Dynamic global locations feature with filters by product area, making it easier for users to easily locate any of Crown’s 200+ facilities in over 40 countries globally.
• Dedicated investor section that houses all investor content for quick and easy access.

"We are excited about the opportunity our new website creates to reinforce our capabilities, as well as demonstrate how metal packaging aligns with the values of modern consumers and contributes to a stronger Circular Economy," said Thomas T. Fischer, Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs at Crown.

The new website experience gives users insight into metal packaging trends and opportunities while delivering critical educational resources.

With the success of the launch, we continue to strengthen our partnership with Crown through ongoing site and content optimization work.

In addition, the Crown website was honored with a Platinum Hermes Creative Award (the highest honor!) recognizing the messengers and creators of traditional and emerging media. We're proud of our long-term partnership with Crown, giving us the freedom to create interactive digital experiences that bring their brand to life.

If you'd like to discuss creating immersive digital experiences like Crown, let’s schedule some time to see how Sandstorm can help!

This post was originally published in December 2022 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.