What does it take to make Drupal work for everyone? Mars, one of the world's most iconic consumer brands, found their answer by reinventing the editorial experience from the ground up. With over 350 websites already running on Drupal, they didn't need a new platform — they needed a smarter one. Discover how Drupal Canvas became the key to unlocking Drupal's power for marketers, creative agencies and brand teams.

Prerequisite

No deep technical knowledge required. Attendees will benefit most from a basic familiarity with Drupal as a CMS and a general understanding of what a multisite platform means in a digital organisation.

Target Audience

Digital leaders, CMOs, product owners, agency leaders

Outline

MARS has been a long-standing Drupal adopter, having consolidated over 350 websites on Drupal over the years. Yet despite this mature foundation, a persistent challenge remained: how to empower the full spectrum of people who work with web content - marketers, creative agencies, non-Drupal developers, and brand teams - to build and manage websites independently, without relying on technical Drupal expertise.

The answer was a bold investment in Drupal Canvas: a new component-based platform designed to make Drupal truly accessible to all.
This session tells that story from both sides, MARS and their agency partner JAKALA covering:
- Why Mars decided to innovate on top of their existing Drupal estate rather than replace it
- How Drupal Canvas was architected to serve a global, multi-brand, multisite platform
- The dramatic improvement in editorial experience for non-technical users
- Governance, change management, and enabling diverse teams to work without technical support
- Honest lessons learned and what we'd do differently

Learning Objectives

1. Understand why a mature Drupal organisation like Mars chose to invest in Drupal Canvas.

2. Explain how Drupal Canvas enables non-technical users to work independently within a Drupal platform

3. Identify the key architectural and governance decisions that make a multi-brand, multisite Drupal platform work at enterprise scale

4. Apply lessons learned from Mars's experience to their own editorial workflows and platform strategy

Experience level
Beginner