DIGITAL

ACCELERATION PROJECT
UC Davis Task Force Report
December 1, 2015

REPORT 1 NESTL IMMERSION EXPERIENCE

A report of observations, findings and preliminary recommendations gathered
during an immersive trip with the Nestl Digital Acceleration Team at Nestl
headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland.

OVERVIEW OF THE ASSIGNMENT

Introduction and Review of the Assignment
In September of 2015, Chancellor Katehi assembled a task force charged with creating a
Digital Acceleration Project to enhance UC Davis external and internal communications
across a variety of media platforms. The project is outlined in three components:
1) Information technology
2) Data Analytics
3) Strategic Communications

As a first step, the task force was sent on a fact-finding and discovery mission to Nestl
headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland to investigate Nestls Digital Acceleration Center.
The following report outlines the findings and observations of the team during the visit
with Nestl, as well as some preliminary thoughts on how to structure a similar model at
UC Davis.

THE NESTL DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT CENTER

Prior to visiting Nestl, the task force team researched what are commonly referred to as
communication command centers run by both by Nestl as well as other corporations
and organizations. This research was then used as source material to compiled a list of
questions for the Nestl team, shared prior to the UC Davis teams arrival in Switzerland.
While at Nestl team, the UC Davis team had the opportunity to meet with Joseph
Sindaha, Digital Marketing Manager, Angela Kominatos, Manager Global Digital
Marketing, Pete Blackshaw, Global Head of Digital and Social Media, and Valerio Nannini,

Senior Vice President, Head of Strategies and Performance. The day of meetings
included a tour of the Digital Engagement Center, participation in a Digital Acceleration
Team hack-a-thon brainstorm meeting, and a Q&A session with Angela and Joseph.

About The Nestl Digital Acceleration Team Project

Nestl, as part of their global commitment to becoming the foremost digitally advanced
food brand, created the Digital Acceleration Team (DAT) project in 2009. This project
consists of three pillars:

1) A digital nerve center (a physical room) with the tools to advance their digital
mission
2) A team of digital and content specialists with established workflows, goals and
reporting structure
3) An advanced training and internal information sharing network

1) THE DIGITAL NERVE CENTER

The room itself, according to the Nestl leaders, was a pivotal factor in creating the
cultural shift to embrace social media and the ability to act on large amounts of social
data. The room was built in a central part of the building and is enclosed by glass walls.
There are large monitors with a continual social media stream visible from hallway,
further emphasizing the transparency of the work done in the space. The digital center
was intentionally designed to intrigue passers-by and welcome them into the room. A
shock of different colors and an open concept disrupted the normal corporate
atmosphere, communicating innovation, transparency and accessibility.
Visitors to the center were welcomed to ask questions and
seek information from the team. This behavior was
encouraged at Nestl, as it helped to demystify the purpose
of the room and what the team was working on. The

Accessibility
lead to

Nestl team confided that they wished they had gone

understanding,

even more disruptive with the design of the space, not

which in turn lead

only to signal a mental shift, but also to encourage visitors

to frequently visit the unique space. Frequent visiting
meant that staff was always keeping the social media aspect
of the brand at the forefront of their minds.

to adoption of the
digital team.

Another encouragement for frequent center visits, was a rotating technology exhibition.
The DAT team, displayed in new technology products, such as the Amazon Echo, as a
way to encourage staff to think about how Nestl might align itself with these new
innovative products.
The center itself took a considerable amount of technical planning. Technical
components of the center included:

A wall of a dozen large monitors, including three touch-screen monitors, (two

55 touch-enabled Samsung and a 95 touch-enabled Samsung) to display
trending stories, real-time social media monitoring and analytics, key pieces
of content created by brands, and training tips. The team had the ability to
alter trending stories and data based on visitors to the room to give guests a
custom experience (so, for example, the KitKat team could see that products
data on the large monitors)
15 workstations for team members (laptops with docking stations and
external 22 monitor), a color network printer/copier/scanner shared
amongst all workstations in the center
A small, private conference room
Open collaboration space with white boards
Digital technology display used for hands-on education of the newest
technology in wearable, device, software and internet-enabled household
appliances/gadgets
All of the furniture (including mounting apparatus) are modular (Steelcase
brand) which makes it easy to expand or rearrange, if needed
Salesforces Radian6 social monitoring platform and their Social Studio
content management platform provides the interface into the social media
platforms as well as monitoring and reporting based on pre-defined criteria
The main DAT room is approximately 700 square feet in size


Attached Content Studio

The center was connected to a small video studio (approximately 300 square feet) that
was used by the digital team to produce videos for internal use (i.e. training videos, staff
announcements) and for external social media specific content (i.e. product launches,
CEO statements to consumers, etc.). Anyone from the Nestl organization could quickly
drop by and create a quick video, and the staff of the DAT were all trained to use the
room. An attached sound room with additional photography and videography
equipment made all the tools for social content development easily accessible to the
team. This was particularly interesting to our team as it closely connected the
development of content with metrics and provided the team with the agility needed to
quickly create relevant social content.

Room Staffing
The room was staffed by the Nestl Digital Acceleration Team and their lead director.
The Digital Acceleration Team was comprised of digital specialists from different Nestl
business markets around the world who come for an intense training at Headquarters
for eight months. We will talk more about their experience and this training structure
later in the report.

Developing Thoughts for UCD

As the task force begins to think through space requirements needed for a similar digital
center at UC Davis, two main themes began to emerge from our discussions.

Accessibility and transparency are paramount. Many people are wary of

this kind of monitoring software. In fact, you will hear many people call it big
brother, a spy machine or a mission command center. To circumvent that
wariness, Nestl gave the center a more positive name, The Digital
Engagement Center, and intentionally made it accessible to others inside and
outside of their business to make the tools transparent and their goal well
known. UC Davis approach should be similar creating a tool that can be
used as a teaching tool and can be accessible to the community it serves and
not hidden or secret.

Proximity to teams should be considered. This room is not only a display of
digital measurement, but a working tool staffed by communication specialists
connected to the greater goal of enhancing the reputation of UC Davis. The
task force recommends that the room should be physically located close to the
strategic communications and executive communications teams that will use
it on a daily basis. Additionally, in light of a sensitive issue or crisis, the digital
center should be close to strategic communications as it will play an
important role in communication considerations.

2) THE DIGITAL TEAM AND WORKFLOWS (STRATEGIC

COMMUNICATIONS)

Monitoring and Engagement Tools
A primary function of Nestls digital
engagement center was to listen and make
sense of the immense amount of online
conversation happening about their
brands and many other products. To do
that, Nestl used tools like Salesforces
Radian6 and Clarabridge tools to monitor
online news sites, blogs, forums, Twitter,
Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and other
platforms for conversation about their
brand. The tools process the data to measure for volume by channel, by key topic, by
influencer and assign the chatter a sentiment level (positive, negative, neutral). By
processing this data, Nestl was able to quickly identify opportunities to contribute to
conversations, gaps in channels where customer needs were not met, or issues as they
arose in real time. They also used this data as a source of market research that has in

turn even helped spurn new products. The data also feeds into a constant self-
assessment of their own content and informs their content strategy. Weekly metrics
reports are provided to several cross functional teams.
The listening tools inform the next stage of the workflow engagement. Nestl shared
with us that they use the Salesforces Social Studio, Sprinklr and SpreadFast to manage
their content ideation, publish their content on multiple social channels and manage
consumer engagement response among teams.

Staffing
Nestls digital center was staffed by a team of
social media specialists who were responsible
for tracking, processing and acting on the
data being measured by the monitoring tools.
At the Nestl Headquarters, the room was
used primarily as a training room for their
annual DAT trainees, however we learned
that in other Nestl locations housed similar
digital centers which were staffed by their
social media and digital teams. Teams were
then responsible for creating and posting
content, engaging communities and running
social programs. Team sizes ranged from 6
20 specialists and were assigned to smaller sub-specialties allowing teams to excel in a
narrow topic while still remaining experts in the overall social discipline. Sub-specialties
included:
1)
2)
3)
4)

Content & Storytelling

Data & Analytics
DAT Collaboration
Technology & Innovation

Social Media Strategy

Tools, a room and a staff are not enough to create a successful digital program. Key to
Nestls success was their established social media strategy with clearly defined goals,
measurable outcomes and a tactical plan to execute against the strategy. The
development of a strategy is important for UC Davis as we establish the room to provide

clear focus and direction for how the room, the tools and the staff will work together to
raise the reputation of UC Davis online and how that integrates with larger initiatives
through strategic communications, executive communications and other campus efforts.
A social media strategy is currently under development by Strategic Communications
and will closely align with the development of the UC Davis Digital Acceleration project.

Developing Thoughts for UCD

As the task force begins to think through the tools, staffing, workflows and strategies
needed to support and sustain a Digital Acceleration Team, the following is being taken
into consideration:

License Tools with the Ability to Grow. As we have conversations with tool
vendors, we know that no tool is a perfect solution as social media continues
to expand to new platforms and apps that some tools cannot monitor. Its
important that we work with a vendor that is a partner with us and is willing
to build new tools and functions to keep up with our growing needs. We also
know that there is an interest from other campus communicators (such as
VetMed, the Health System and Grad Studies) who could benefit from access
to these tools and could perhaps offset the cost of an expanded license.

Staffing Considerations. Larger conversations will need to take place to
discuss staffing of the room. While we assume the newly hired social media
team will staff the room, there are other considerations with content
developers, research analysts and interns that need to be considered to build
a brain trust.

Serve as a Nerve Center for Best Practices. We believe that what UC Davis
decides to build, would also include an emphasis on creating information on
best practices to help support other units on campus with their social media
efforts. The expertise, equipment and data should be accessible to all of UC
Davis to make us better, together.

3) ADVANCED TRAINING AND INTERNAL

INFORMATION SHARING NETWORK

Advanced Digital Acceleration Team Training
The DAT team at Nestl consists of 18 digital specialists from different areas of Nestls
business who have been selected to receive eight months of intensive social media
training. Their curriculum consists of in depth training on each social media channels,
SEO and Google analytics basics, brainstorming, program building, measurement,
content development, content strategy, and research and strategic planning. After this
intense training, they return to their business unit to help lead strategic social efforts in
their home markets.

Hack-a-Thons and Best Practice Guidance
In addition to their duties supporting the DAT and company-wide social initiatives, the
DAT team serve as a social brain trust for the rest of the company. Through Hack-a-
thons the team would gather and brainstorm ideas to help support a project that was
submitted for consideration by brand business units outside of the headquarters. Ideas
and best practices were then shared back to the originator of the project, who would be
responsible for the execution of the project. They also supported the local markets with
information on best practices, training simulations and trending information. Social
media points of view documents and videos are routinely produced by the team that
outlines the Nestl way of approaching social media as well as providing trending social
news to help build consistency and company-wide consistency.

Digital Education Center
The DAT team also supported an educational
aspect to the room that displayed a rotating
exhibit of the latest in technology and gadgets to
give hands-on access to the news technology and
provided analysis to how the new technology
could be applied to brand product development or
communications considerations.


Developing Thoughts for UCD
As the task force thinks through using the room as a tool that is accessible to the
campus community, some exciting ideas began to emerge as part of the vision for
the center at UC Davis. Below are some preliminary ideas about how the room
help spread social media excellent, information and best practices to all
communicators on campus.

10

Use the Room as a Teaching Tool. The physical room could be built to house
discussions, meetings and teaching opportunities that could be open to staff,
for faculty, for students and for the community. We envision that times could
be scheduled in the room to help students with research projects, faculty
teach a real time communications scenario, and house community meetings
such as the Sacramento Social Media Club.

Support the Network of Campus-Wide Communicators. The room and
team should be used to disseminate best practices, run training simulations
and create opportunities for regular campus social media staff to come and
share ideas and best practices so that campus wide social media practitioners
are moving together toward the same goal.

NEXT STEPS

11

Add Video Expertise to the Task Force. To give us a better understanding of
the video and content studio needs, the team recommends include a video
specialist, to accompany the task force on future location tours to assess and
make recommendations on content studio.

Visit Other Command Centers. The team recommends visiting other
digital acceleration or command centers built by other organizations,
specifically the social media command center built by Dell Computers and the
mLive content studio run by Marriott Hotels. We are already working on
scheduling these for the week of December 7. These two additional locations
will provide additional context and a broader range of background
information. We are also working to contact a higher education institution,
such as Clemson or Illinois State, for an additional tour.

Meet with Capital Space and Planning. The task force has already done
some preliminary meetings with the Director of Capital Space and Planning to
present requirements and recommended suitable areas within Mrak Hall to
house the digital acceleration center.

Seek Partnership Opportunities. Working with with the campus CIO, the
team is looking into leveraging opportunities for partnerships and donations
from technology companies that have set up centers such as these.

Include Faculty and Students in the Vision for the Digital Center. Once the
task force returns from touring additional command centers, we recommend
including a few faculty members from the Communications or Business
departments as well as a few students to help shape the vision for the digital
center. This will be critical in helping with campus-wide buy-in of the project
and allow everyones voice to be heard.

Create Final Recommendations on Digital Acceleration Project. Once
inputs from the other centers have been compiled and conversations with
staff, faculty and students are completed, the task force would be responsible
for formulating a final report for approval. The report would include
recommendations on the build, operation, training and use of the Digital
Acceleration project specifically designed to meet UC Davis needs and propel
the vision of the University of the 21st Century.