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Why Mott MacDonald Chose Optimizely One and Opal over Adobe
Mott MacDonald had a bespoke CMS, but it was doing exactly what bespoke systems fall into doing: stifling creativity, creating bottlenecks for campaign execution, and locking the global engineering consultancy into a narrow pool of developers who could work on the platform. The previous digital marketing infrastructure couldn't keep pace.
When Dave Ritchie, Head of Marketing Engagement, joined, Mott MacDonald was already exploring a new CMP. This raised a bigger question for Dave and the team: what would a complete digital marketing transformation look like?
They evaluated major players, including Adobe, but Optimizely stood out for a specific reason. It felt agile enough to pivot and scale, yet robust enough to handle the demands of a global consultancy. The platform wasn't just another enterprise incumbent. It was built for teams who wanted to move fast without compromising on capability.
The real test came with migration. Six months to move 1,500+ pages from their old system to Optimizely CMS 12, using AI to help. The result? 99% accuracy. Not just a win for artificial intelligence, but proof that Optimizely could handle complexity, format everything exactly as expected, and deliver without compromise.
Today, with CMP, CMS, Campaign, ODP, and Opal AI working together, Mott MacDonald runs event-led marketing across regions while Opal transforms their daily workflows. The AI generates keywords and alt text in seconds, A/B tests email subject lines, and delivers customer insights that would have taken hours manually. Opal isn't running their campaigns — but it's making their team exponentially more efficient. The platform brings teams across Europe into workflows that were impossible before.
The Limits of a Bespoke CMS Led to Optimizely One
- Dave Ritchie joined Mott MacDonald as the team was exploring Optimizely CMP, which became the catalyst for their broader digital marketing transformation starting with their website but extending across all digital channels
- Mott MacDonald markets to three core audiences: high-value clients for multi-billion-pound construction and engineering projects, recruitment pipelines for excellent talent, and staff retention through showcasing the power of their work
- The company has evolved from a traditional website-focused approach to exploring how AI, LLMs, and agentic AI are transforming channels like search, now in a "monitor and ready to pivot" stage as they track how these technologies reshape digital marketing
Optimizely One is the benefit of all those products working together... And digital marketing is much more than a website. Optimizely One helps us to get the most out of those [digital channels].
Dave Ritchie — Mott MacDonald
1,500 Pages Migrated in Six Months, with 99% Accuracy
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- Mott MacDonald's bespoke CMS locked them into a narrow pool of developers, stifling creativity, blocking campaign execution, and offering no clear upgrade path — any integration investment risked obsolescence within 12 months
- After appraising major platforms including Adobe, Optimizely stood out for its agility — small enough to pivot and scale, but capable enough to meet the demands of a global engineering consultancy
- The migration to Optimizely CMS 12 took just six months, using AI to learn from both the old site and new structure, with 1,500+ pages migrated with 99% accuracy, formatted exactly as expected
Bespoke usually means that only a very few or very narrow field of developers can work on the platform. That can stifle creativity. It can put queues in the way of people wanting to execute on their campaigns. And there's no clear upgrade path without investing a hell of a lot into something that may well be obsolete in 12 months.
Dave Ritchie — Mott MacDonald
How Opal and CMP Transformed the Team's Day-to-Day
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- The team still takes images and writes great stories — but now Opal generates keywords and themes from the DAM, and CMP brings the process to life with workflows, and brand-compliant templates, making digital assets easier to create and activate
- CMP has become far more than a content marketing platform for Mott MacDonald — it serves as their DAM, enforces brand compliance, and reduces friction when onboarding new regions to their MarTech stack
- One of their biggest European regions has gone from CMP to full CMS usage, activating through email with Optimizely forms and Campaign integration, then feeding that data back through ODP — a stark difference to how they worked before
Now we're enabled to have those images in our DAM, have Opal give us the keywords and the themes from the DAM, and have the CMP bring that process to life with guardrails, with our workflows.
Dave Ritchie — Mott MacDonald
Event-Led Marketing, Opal Insights, and Keeping Feet on the Ground
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- Dave's team is shifting toward event and exhibition-led marketing, using CMP to manage the logistical complexity — clearly delineating responsibilities and timelines — while CMS landing pages, Optimizely forms, and Campaign work together to drive lead generation
- All of that activity connects back to ODP, enabling Opal to surface customer insights and help the team do more with the data they already have
- Dave takes a grounded approach to AI, with the wider team understanding it is there to help with the everyday, mundane or long, complex tasks
Opal was instrumental in helping us to do our AB testing on the subject lines, or Opal gave really good customer insights. Opal is not running our campaigns — but the processes and the way in which we are exploring agentic AI is showing us the potential and enabling us to do more with what we have.
Dave Ritchie — Mott MacDonald
Advice on Evaluating Vendors, and Best Podcasts for the Kids
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- Dave's advice to marketers evaluating Optimizely or any vendor: scale within reason — CMP and CMS have countless integration points, but don't try to leverage them all at once; get the processes refined and integrations robust first, then scale
- Opal won't do the work for you, but it can go a long way — as long as workflows are set up correctly and teams are working with the platform rather than against it
- Then, the quickfire round: how to do a perfect launch? Microsoft or Google? And how Dave manages to listen to every podcast under the sun, even the ones for his kids in the car!
A Platform That Grows with Mott MacDonald
Dave Ritchie's journey with Optimizely is a reminder that digital transformation isn't a single event — it's a series of deliberate decisions. From escaping a bespoke CMS that was holding the team back, to migrating 1,500+ pages in six months with 99% accuracy, to rolling Opal into everyday workflows across European regions, Mott MacDonald has built something that actually works at a global scale.
The advice Dave leaves with is simple: scale within reason, work with the platform, not against it, and keep your feet on the ground when the technology gets exciting. For a global engineering consultancy that markets multi-billion-pound projects, that kind of pragmatism is exactly what turns a great platform into a genuine competitive advantage.
Industry
B2B services
