Building a Once-in-a-Generation Brand Experience in AEM - A case Study

Milestone anniversaries offer a rare opportunity to strengthen a brand's story while engaging audiences in new ways. For this global financial institution, Trellist partnered closely with the client to deliver an immersive digital experience celebrating 50 years of innovation and industry leadership.

The Situation

Celebrating a 50th anniversary is a once-in-a-generation moment. For this global financial institution, it was an opportunity to build something their audiences had never seen: an immersive, interactive digital experience telling the story of five decades of innovation, industry firsts, and client value.  

The vision was ambitious — a custom-built mini site anchored by an animated, scrollable timeline — and the deadline was fixed. UX strategy, component development, content authoring, and front-end build had to run in parallel, with no room for sequential handoffs.  

The client needed a partner who could assimilate directly onto their MarTech team, operate at enterprise scale under real deadline pressure, and bring full-stack AEM depth to build custom components with no off-the-shelf equivalent he client needed a partner who could assimilate directly onto their MarTech team, operate at enterprise scale under real deadline pressure, and bring full-stack AEM depth to build custom components with no off-the-shelf equivalent 

The Solution

• Assimilated directly onto the client's MarTech team, operating as an embedded enterprise partner — coordinating across brand, marketing, and UX from day one
• Orchestrated parallel development tracks with a detailed project plan, running front-end build and custom component development simultaneously
• Scaled rapidly by deploying both AEM component developers and AEM authors in tandem — increasing capacity where and when the project needed it
• Developed custom AEM components from scratch: animation, parallax scrolling, video integration, and interactive timeline controls — purpose-built, not adapted from templates
• Built a fully responsive experience supporting multiple device form factors and screen orientations
• Maintained accessibility standards throughout, consistent with enterprise-grade quality requirements 

The Impact

• Launched on time — a non-negotiable milestone tied to the anniversary date — earning praise from senior leadership and clients
• Delivered a first-of-its-kind interactive experience: an animated, user-navigable timeline translating 50 years of innovation into a living digital narrative
• Recognized by client leadership as a critical enterprise-level partner instrumental in protecting the deadline
• Extended the client's AEM capability with reusable custom components for future high-impact digital experiences 

Platforms Used: Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), Custom Front-End Components, Adobe Experience Cloud