Key insights and lessons from this year’s Optimizely conference in London.

As the autumn season settles in, we reflect on Opticon24, hosted at the Barbican Centre in London. This year's event drew over 1,000 delegates and delivered a wealth of announcements and developments, reaffirming Optimizely’s momentum in the digital experience space.

Here are the top five announcements from the event:

• Acquisition of NetSpring
• The New SaaS CMS + Visual Builder
• CMP with CMS Publishing Capabilities
• Personalization as a Standalone Product
• New Features & Repositioning of Commerce Connect

Let’s explore each in more detail.

1. Acquisition of NetSpring

The headline announcement at Opticon24 was Optimizely’s acquisition of NetSpring. This plugs a gap in the Optimizely eco-system, enhancing the Optimizely One offering to integrate native event data directly from your data warehouse and bring it to bear on organisational personalisation and segmentation. It improves the ability for organisations to link their marketing content activities to measurable business outcomes.

As Optimizely’s first major acquisition since Welcome (now Optimizely CMP) in 2021, it signals continued investment in the Optimizely One concept. Full integration of NetSpring will roll out gradually, starting with experimentation analytics and then web and customer journey analytics. We can expect beta versions soon, and our team is excited to explore how this will drive even greater results for our clients.

This functionality will unlock new ways to optimise marketing and experimentation efforts based on business outcomes for businesses with coherently collected and consented first-party data in a data warehouse.

2. The New SaaS CMS + Visual Builder

The release of the new SaaS CMS is narrowing the gap between SaaS and PaaS, signalling a significant step forward in maturity for Optimizely’s SaaS offering. Going forward, Optimizely will prioritise feature releases for SaaS, with PaaS following closely behind. Optimizely aims to maintain code parity between the two platforms.

A key highlight is the enhanced Visual Builder, offering an interactive preview and improved content modelling. This upgrade is particularly beneficial for clients managing high volumes of omnichannel content or working within a MACH architecture. PaaS users can look forward to seeing this feature early next year.

3. CMP with CMS Publishing Capabilities

Another major development is the integration between CMP and CMS, streamlining the content production lifecycle for businesses with complex or extensive personalisation strategies. As personalisation scales, so does the demand for fresh and nuanced content.

This new middleware layer will be crucial for clients managing large content portfolios. It will improve efficiency and support the demands of extensive personalisation programmes. For clients with an extensive content portfolio to manage, the movement here will be very powerful.

4. Personalization as a Standalone Product

Optimizely’s introduction of Personalization as a standalone product reflects the growing demand for advanced personalisation tools. Key features include:

• Collaboration Tools to streamline management of testing and experimentation across marketing programmes.
• Contextual Bandits, which deliver tailored content using customisable algorithms based on their attributes, optimising each visit dynamically.
• Edge Delivery provides faster page loads and enhances user experience and SEO.

Optimizely’s Chief Product Officer, Rupali Jain, emphasised the growing demand for sophisticated personalisation tools, noting that many organisations struggle with fragmented workflows and inadequate data. The introduction of Optimizely Personalization aims to bridge this gap, making it easier for marketers to connect with their audiences on a granular level.

5. New Features & Repositioning of Commerce Connect

Optimizely also announced the rebranding of Customized Commerce to Commerce Connect, positioning it as a more integrated and flexible solution for businesses seeking to create compelling buying experiences. Commerce Connect is designed to offer a unified approach to content and commerce. Key new features and improvements of Commerce Connect include:

• AI-generated product descriptions to enhance SEO and differentiate from manufacturer-provided descriptions.
• Customisable Column View to improve productivity and user experience in Commerce Admin.
• Drag-and-Drop Functionality for seamless integration of CMS content into Commerce pages, reducing duplication of work and ensuring consistency.

Opticon is more than a showcase of new features—it’s an opportunity to gain insights from peers, competitors, and Optimizely’s own team about the future of digital experiences. Our team attended sessions on AI and change management in content supply chains and took in case studies from industries such as membership organisations, manufacturing, and professional services.

It’s clear that Optimizely is listening to feedback from partners, clients, and analysts, shaping the platform to meet evolving business needs. We’re excited to continue harnessing these powerful tools to drive results for our clients as Optimizely moves forward with its ‘One’ product strategy.

In his closing remarks, Optimizely CEO Alex Atzberger highlighted how packaging manufacturer DS Smith achieved a 20% efficiency gain by implementing CMS, CMP, and DAM—equating to two months of extra time each year.

It’s a thought-provoking question: how would you use two extra months? To produce more of what you have been producing or focus on further improvements?

Optimizely is clearly on an exciting path, and as a platinum partner, we’re proud to be part of that journey, helping our clients thrive in an ever-evolving digital landscape.