How a Global Haircare Brand Prevented Product Takedowns With Subly

A leading global haircare brand, sold through major beauty retailers and ecommerce marketplaces in more than 60 countries, relies on high-quality product demo videos to engage customers and drive sales. With hundreds of employees worldwide and annual revenues estimated in the tens of millions, the company has a significant marketing and content operation responsible for managing a large catalogue of digital assets, including various forms of digital content and web content such as videos, websites, and other online media.

The brand’s content and ecommerce team creates and oversees these product demos. When a major marketplace introduced stricter accessibility requirements, including mandatory descriptive transcripts for all video assets, the team suddenly faced the risk of product listings being removed during the busiest trading season. To ensure legal compliance with accessibility regulations, they needed a solution that could both clarify the regulations and fix their content quickly.

The brand’s ecommerce team was scrambling when a leading marketplace threatened to remove product listings if video demos did not include descriptive transcripts. The requirement was part of stricter accessibility standards introduced by the platform, even though beauty products are not directly in scope of the European Accessibility Act (EAA) or the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The team faced three big hurdles:

• Lack of expertise: They were unfamiliar with WCAG 2.2 standards, , broader WCAG standards, and the content accessibility guidelines WCAG, and unsure how to apply them to video. The team also needed to understand the specific success criteria that define accessibility compliance.

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• ‍No clear solution online: Searches revealed no providers that could both explain requirements and deliver fixes at scale.

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• Risk of takedowns: With Christmas trading approaching, a takedown would have hit sales and brand visibility at the busiest time of year.

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“We just couldn’t find a partner who could tell us what was required and also provide a fix,” Kelly recalls.

After discovering Subly, the team quickly integrated the platform into their workflow. With Subly, they gained:

• Automatic WCAG 2.2 checks on product demos to verify captions are correct, confirm whether key images are described, determine if transcripts, descriptive transcripts, or audio description are needed, and flag flashing, colour contrast, and language tag issues. Industry best practice reviews are also provided alongside WCAG checks to give the team clarity on how to keep content fully accessible.

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• Descriptive transcript generation at scale using Subly’s Automatic Descriptive Transcript Generator, applied directly to their catalogue of product videos.This supports the creation of accessible video and ensures compatibility with screen readers, making content usable for people with visual impairments.

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• An easy-to-use Accessibility Editor to make fast adjustments without needing in-house accessibility specialists.

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By uploading both new and existing assets into Subly, the brand could instantly check for compliance gaps, apply descriptive transcripts, and update video content before publishing.

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Subly: Use of Subly’s AI Video Accessibility Checker to Automatically Check for WCAG 2.2 Level A/AA Issues

With Subly, the brand avoided costly product takedowns during the busiest trading season. The team now publishes content faster, with zero marketplace issues,  and a clear path toward meeting marketplace requirements. 

Most importantly, the marketing and ecommerce teams no longer need to manually research or interpret accessibility standards, or use an outside agency — Subly handles compliance checks automatically, freeing the team to focus on brand growth and customer engagement.

“Subly gave us speed and certainty when we needed it most. We avoided takedowns, saved hours of work, and finally feel confident we can keep our content accessible at scale,” says Kelly.

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Subly: Use of Subly’s Accessibility Editor to Automatically add Descriptive Transcripts

✨ Due to NDA restrictions, the brand cannot be named. This case study highlights the real challenges faced and the outcomes achieved using Subly.