Zolo Media: Integrating custom solutions to activate and capture a media-hungry regional market

Zolo is a media broadcaster and production company based in Central Oregon. The company provides broadcast and advertising solutions through local, network, and original programming to Central Oregon viewers. Zolo is owned by Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. [NYSE: TDS].

Recognizing that viewers are increasingly consuming content online, Zolo positioned itself to offer viewers a robust online viewing experience with daily video content, live streaming, and real-time weather information. The company asked Effectual to help them evaluate approaches for building their new online media platform.

Strategic consulting reveals clear requirements and high level objectives

Effectual and Zolo had a collaborative, in-depth discovery process that uncovered the complex business requirements and technical needs for the new platform. Zolo was particularly concerned about meeting the rigorous corporate security, legal and risk compliance requirements of its parent company TDS.

Results

• Scope, budget and project phasing recommendations matched Zolo’s requirements and business objectives.
• Complied with all security, legal and risk requirements of publicly-traded parent company.
  
  

“Effectual has been an amazing partner over the past year – always finding a way to make “what if” happen and showing us the possibilities.”

Michele O’Hara / Marketing & Creative Services, Zolo Media

Amazon Web Services (AWS) empower reliable performance and website scalability

As a certified AWS solutions architect, Effectual saw quickly that AWS could provide Zolo performance reliability for its streaming content while allowing the company to dramatically scale its offerings.

Results

• Caching and scalability of up to 2 billion unique visitors per month
• Consistent, uninterrupted streaming content
• Hosting bandwidth and cost scales with site traffic
• Ability for multi-authors to add content
• Custom integrated technical solutions build user community
• The team built a custom website design responsive to desktop, tablet and mobile that complemented the platform offerings