Nike: Powering growth with embedded AEM support

Project Type

Embedded team & digital scaling

Industry

Retail / eCommerce

Embedded teams for scale, speed, and seamless integration

Nike, the leading innovator in fitness and athletic apparel, was experiencing exponential growth in its global AEM (Adobe Experience Manager) program. The brand needed a partner who could handle high-volume AEM demands while integrating seamlessly with internal teams and workflows. To meet this goal, SketchDeck deployed an embedded team solution to take full ownership of AEM content authoring, production, and site launches.

Driving efficiency
in a custom AEM environment

SketchDeck managed content production for four major waves of global eCommerce expansion. We delivered full-site stand-ups and live publication under high-pressure timelines.

Working across

localized markets

Publishing in

languages

Our team achieved key digital milestones, including:

Launching the brand’s first eCommerce app with end-to-end AEM content production.
Onboarding and rolling out new partners and platforms within the AEM ecosystem.
Coordinating new brand launches across global regions, including localized site support.
Supporting teams across North America, EMEA, and APAC with localized services.

To meet the rising demand during peak hours and global events like the Olympics and NBA All-Star Week, SketchDeck expanded coverage to 18 to 24-hour days and grew its team from 30 to 50 staff—all while maintaining quality and on-time delivery.

Continuous improvement,
zero compromise

Despite working within a highly customized AEM environment, SketchDeck continuously introduced efficiency measures to reduce operational friction and boost outcomes.

Key improvements included:

Developing category-specific playbooks that became the go-to guides for internal teams and vendors.
Our data-driven approach helped identify bottlenecks and reduce production cycles. These gains enabled SketchDeck to operate the program for 5 years with no rate increases, while still absorbing weekend and after-hours coverage during peak periods.

Planning, orchestrating, and operating workstreams—taking complete ownership of end-to-end content processing.
Delivering process documentation, training guides, and operational frameworks to standardize global content workflows.
Collaborating with stakeholders to identify new metrics, enhance and customize analytics dashboards to provide program-level insights.

Embedding deeply to streamline program ownership

As productivity improvements continued, SketchDeck moved beyond production to become one of the key partners in Nike’s digital growth:

Brief creation ownership: worked directly with category and geographic owners, drafting and routing all content briefs—eliminating an agency hand-off loop and saving up to 30k per month.
Governance of all documentation: authored and maintained every training guide, style guide, procedure manual, and ops runbook, establishing a single source of truth for markets.

Compliance & best-practice stewardship: audited page builds, localization, and release checklists to keep every AEM property on brand and in regulatory compliance.
Shared process & comms tools: built dashboards and workflow boards used jointly with Nike teams and—when needed—worked directly with external agencies to accelerate approvals without client mediation.

This deep integration let Nike scale launches confidently, knowing every market and partner adhered to the same playbook—without increasing internal oversight burden.

From support partner to growth catalyst

In 2017, the embedded team was brought under the client’s newly formed Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) organization. From our initial AEM support team, the program scaled to over

150

professionals.

SketchDeck played a pivotal role in the DTC launch—credited by the client for driving nearly

100%

of the company’s growth in the years following the launch.

Revenue increased by up to 10% in the quarters following the launch, driven in part by our integrated, global content support.

SketchDeck embedded teams supported the brand’s evolving digital strategy—bringing flexibility, scale, and consistency to a complex, global content ecosystem.