Build once, deploy across multiple sites
How Wemap helped the first regional media group in France build a map of the newest Michelin-rated restaurants tailored for the specific editorial purposes of 9 regional newspapers.
On February 9th, the Michelin Guide announced the latest update of their guide for restaurants in France. The announcement represents one of the most important moments for the French restaurant industry and a unique opportunity for local newspapers to showcase culinary excellence in their communities.
Seizing upon this opportunity, we worked with the Groupe EBRA to log the results in real-time to generate a map of the newest Michelin-rated restaurants to for all 9 publications as quickly as possible.
Building the map — design and data decisions set the parameters for a successful product.
Over 70 restaurants were awarded new stars on February 9th and they were all featured on the initial map.
The next priority was to bring the look-and-feel of Michelin into the map itself which was accomplished by some simple HTML coding.
Design considerations lead us to incorporate the the Michelin ‘star’, photos from each restaurant and a button linking users directly to the Michelin Guide profile for each restaurant.
In seconds, each point took on the personality of the Groupe EBRA, Michelin and the restaurant itself, and was now ready to be deployed by the various editorial teams of Groupe EBRA.
The platform effect — from one visualization, a full-fledged platform is created.
What makes the Groupe EBRA’s use of the map particularly compelling is that with 9 different publications, each entity within the group had the opportunity to make an editorial choice that matched their local audiences needs.
They were able to accomplish this tailored approach because the base map contains an option allowing any third-party to embed the view of the map of their choosing by simply copying-and-pasting the code provided in the readily visible pop-up window.
Distribution made easy— sharing and implementing editorial decisions facilitate the diffusion of the content via smart maps.
For Le Bien Public, located near Dijon, there were no local restaurants receiving stars so they opted to embed a map featuring all of the restaurants.
Les Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace, headquartered in Strasbourg but serving a large region, opted to embed a version of the map featuring the restaurants of the surrounding region given that no venue from Strasbourg itself was recognized.
In Lyon, proclaimed culinary capital of France, Le Progrès opted to embed a version of the map zoomed into to highlight the two local establishments that were awarded stars during the 2017 event.
By unifying the content of the Michelin-rated restaurants into one location and building a smart map relying upon it as a data-source, le Groupe EBRA was able to provide a customizable solution to all 9 of its regional newspapers in one-step.
This approach was an across-the-board success with the product and editorial teams saving precious time and resources; and audiences throughout the week as the maps averaged over 90 seconds of time-on-site and 3+ clicks per-user, generating 40 000 unique engagements in 2 days.
Combining the power of deep linking and easy embeds, the smart map as a must-have innovation for news groups is clearer than ever.
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Wemap developed a breakthrough map technology that has been adopted in a few months by global leaders like Le Parisien, Hachette and ministère de la Culture et de la Communication. The French-American start-up is building a smart maps platform to offer individuals and organizations a bridge to the real world: combining meaningful information and practical services. Wemap combines an intuitive user experience and a powerful tool to connect a map to any sources and publish it. By empowering publishers to create and embed live maps with their content in minutes, Wemap has already reached 4 millions monthly viewers of its maps.
To learn more about Wemap’s technology: https://getwemap.com.
