“Looop helps us to deliver fresh learning content to targeted audiences through an easy-to-use mobile-friendly platform. Looop is a key part of our future learning strategy.”

Jennifer Wrigley, Learning and Development Manager, Discovery Communications

Discovery’s Challenge

Engaging Learners with Fresh, Easy-to-Access Content

Home to more than 50 beloved network entertainment brands reaching over 480 million viewers worldwide, Discovery Communications delivers some of the most captivating content on the air.

The company’s teams and assets have grown rapidly over the years and staying agile has been critical to the their continued success. But as Learning and Development Manager Jennifer Wrigley has experienced firsthand, keeping learning current for thousands of geographically dispersed employees is no easy task:

“We are a massively changing and growing company operating in really diverse markets. Learning and development is important, but it’s difficult to do consistently and well across all those markets.”

An internal audit highlighted that the company’s existing learning management system wasn’t meeting the needs. In particular, online learning engagement rates were low, and though Discovery’s LMS had thousands of resources available, learners found it difficult at times to surface the information they needed:

“Users were accessing the LMS once or twice a year. That’s not really learning, that’s just a reference tool. There is a lot of content on the LMS, but it’s hard to find what you need. For example, when there are 20 different articles on ‘How to be a Great Coach’, most people don’t know where to start.”

Discovery also needed a means of keeping content current and relevant for international learners:

“On the LMS, some of the content is quite old, it’s not Discovery-specific and is Americanised in style, which isn’t as suitable for our diverse international audience.”

As a result, the learning experience was a far cry from the engaging content Discovery brings excited viewers every day.

“We’re a media company. We need learning that looks good, works smoothly and is fun and interesting.”

Jennifer and her team needed to find a way to bring relevant content to learners on demand, anytime, anywhere – without rifling through a large database to find it.

Solution

Targeted Resources and a Simple, Searchable System

Upon finding Looop, Jennifer was immediately drawn to their fresh, learner-focused approach. Her initial conversations with Looop’s team were also very encouraging:

“Looop was very keen to support us. David (Looop’s Chief Learning Strategist) is the ex-Director of Learning, Talent and OD at Disney, so he gets it. He understands the challenges, and everything in terms of learning, development and people making time for it.”

Jennifer decided to use Discovery’s Global Mentorship Program as a pilot project:

“Once a year people apply to the program and we match them with a mentor for six months, We thought this would be an ideal format to test Looop’s platform and approach to learning.”

First, Jennifer worked with Looop to create relevant, targeted content for this unique set of learners, and was surprised at how involved Looop’s people were willing to be:

“We created our own content and combined this with external content to try and inspire both mentors and mentees, David even helped us with filming and editing our employees to create short videos for our learners. These videos were just filmed on an iPhone – we kept it really simple – but they are very engaging and effective.”

To help users get plugged into Looop and excited about the system, an email campaign was created to promote specific resources.

After a few weeks, engagement had already surpassed Jennifer’s expectations:

“We found that the majority of our learners were exploring more content within Looop, not just the resources we promoted. Users were writing comments and creating conversations inside the platform – something we’d never had before.”

Throughout the Global Mentorship Program, Jennifer appreciated how Looop’s team remained involved, interested and responsive:

“Looop really cares about their product and their clients. They will spend time with me, helping me make resources more engaging and relevant. They listen to our feedback and implement our requests. They’re really invested in our relationship and us being successful.”

Results

Increased Engagement, Decreased Cost and Inspired Learners

It quickly became clear that Looop attained much higher levels of engagement than the previous LMS:

“Within a month, over 45 percent of our users had already accessed the system and the majority were accessing our learning content multiple times and reading multiple articles.”

For the first time, learners were proactively accessing content not only because they needed to, but because they wanted to:

“We got feedback that those using it really enjoyed it. People told us that Looop was a huge improvement from the previous site, that it was easy to use and that the content was relevant.”

Better yet, now that the content is tailored and relevant, learners are actively contributing and taking ownership over their own development:

“In the feedback, learners have even told us which content they wished they had, and we’ve been able to turn around and create it for them.”

Looop also had a positive impact on Discovery’s bottom line:

“Looop is much cheaper than our old solution. With the old LMS we were paying for content that nobody wanted. But with Looop, we’re paying for resources people want and actually use, so it’s the right investment.”

On the strength of the mentorship program’s success, Jennifer and her team are now creating tailored learning content for other groups within the company:

“We now have several other programs on the go for groups like people managers and our directors.”

As for the future, Jennifer is excited about the way her team is transforming Discovery’s learning culture into a learner- focused, everyday experience:

“We’ve taken steps forward on our journey to help people see that learning isn’t just about workshops, but that you can learn through your phone everyday by finding relevant content, articles, videos, and tips.”

Jennifer is confident she’s found the right tool – and the right people – to come along for the journey:

“Looop is targeted learning that’s easy to access in an engaging format. It’s mobile friendly, it’s modern and completely customisable by you.”

Looop helps leading brands like Discovery achieve better business results. To talk to an expert about your digital learning strategy, book a demo today.