Crunchyroll Closes Identity Gaps Across Global Marketing Stack with Cerby

Japan’s enormously popular animated medium, anime, is taking the world by storm. It’s estimated that more than ÿþþ million households regularly view anime. (Other sources put that figure at nearly three billion!) Where are anime fans getting their fix? Overwhelmingly, it’s by tuning into Crunchyroll. The anime-focused video streaming service was acquired by Sony in 2020 and has grown from one million paid subscribers in 2017 to 10 million in 2022.

Crunchyroll takes the business of fun very seriously. Its large social media marketing team works around the clock—and around the world—to reach anime fans and build a culture of inclusion, acceptance, and, of course, fun. To ensure the team can work collaboratively, efficiently, and securely, Crunchyroll partners with Cerby.

Sayonara to ordinary password managers

“We have over āþþ social media accounts, and adequately securing them while still keeping them accessible was a big challenge for us,” recalls Siobhan Sullivan, Director of Global Community Marketing for Crunchyroll. “I hate to admit it, but sometimes passwords would get shared in spreadsheets, emails, or over Slack.”

The exposure stemming from the light security surrounding social media accounts is potentially damaging for public brands. “Our brand is our reputation,” Siobhan explains. “We cannot risk unauthorized access to our social media accounts, but at the same time, our global teams need to be able to communicate through those accounts throughout the day without chasing down the account owner and getting access.”

Crunchyroll tried using enterprise password management (EPM) software, but it only addressed part of the problem. “Sure, it stores the password, but we’ve configured 2FA (two-factor authentication) on our accounts,” Siobhan says. “So, when someone logs in, the account holder receives the 2FA code. If that person isn’t the person trying to log in, they would need to call or email the account holder to get the code.”

Manage the unmanageable

Managing “unmanageable” applications, which include most social media platforms, is what Cerby does. Now, instead of going into every platform and manually adjusting access, Siobhan and her team go to one place to add and remove access. No more shared passwords. Using Cerby, access to applications unsupported by identity providers like Okta and Azure AD are consolidated into one location, making them infinitely more “manageable.”

As would be expected, Crunchyroll’s IT team reviewed Cerby before it was rolled out and gave it their seal of approval. The solution’s implementation was rapid and straightforward. “The best part is that we no longer have to use all of those individual accounts to log in,” explains Siobhan. “Cerby automatically logs us in using our corporate credentials and handles 2FA. No more password or 2FA code sharing. No more calls to the account holder in Japan, Australia, or the UK in the middle of the night.”

Broadcasting efficiencies

As Crunchyroll continues its meteoric growth, team members naturally come and go. So, as individuals transition to another role or away from the company, their access to social media accounts must be removed. Cerby works by tethering Crunchyroll’s social media accounts to corporate emails and phone numbers, so the company’s accounts remain associated with Crunchyroll, not its individual employees

“Again, we have more than āþþ accounts,” notes Siobhan. “Previously, two of us might spend six to eight hours removing an individual’s name from every access point. And since only system administrators have permissions to make those changes, it was costly from a staff hour standpoint. That’s just not a good use of our time. With Cerby, it’s a single-step process. We can quickly adjust access — one update and it’s done. I would estimate that Cerby saves us approximately $15,000 annually on this task alone.”

Similarly, onboarding a new marketing employee used to take several hours — a monotonous, repetitive task. “No more,” adds Siobhan. “Cerby streamlines multi-user authorizations for our accounts so we can safely and easily share logins with new hires.”

Crunchyroll’s marketing team members all report significant time savings using Cerby to gain quick, efficient access to the company’s social media accounts. But perhaps even more valuable, Siobhan says, is the fast and fluid operation Cerby facilitates. “It was so frustrating before when a 2FA code was sent to a person who’s not even online,” she says. “We’d have to wait to do anything. We don’t have that frustration with Cerby.”

Securing the brand

Hardly a month goes by without a report of a data leak involving one or another social media giant. Before Cerby, when Crunchyroll learned of such a leak, it would send in Siobhan’s team to prompt users to change their passwords and trust that the updates were made before an unauthorized breach could occur. Now, with Cerby, the company can change all the account passwords at once, automatically, securing the brand’s identity. A process that used to take several hours and repeated prompting is complete within minutes. “Every year, our marketing team is asked to outline our department’s risk in the event of a security breach,” Siobhan explains. “And now, I can report back to them confidently that every account has 2FA, significantly reducing our risk and exposure.”

“I would recommend Cerby to any company with an active social media presence,” concludes Siobhan. “It saves us time and brings us peace of mind. We feel much more confident in our ability to communicate Crunchyroll’s messaging to anime fans worldwide.”

Crunchyroll is an American subscription video-on-demand streaming service bringing the latest and greatest anime to viewers worldwide.

The Challenge

“We have over 300 social media accounts, and adequately securing them while still keeping them accessible was a big challenge for us,” recalls Siobhan Sullivan, Director of Global Community Marketing for Crunchyroll. “I hate to admit it, but sometimes passwords would get shared in spreadsheets, emails, or over Slack.” The exposure stemming from the light security surrounding social media accounts is potentially damaging for public brands. “Our brand is our reputation,” Siobhan explains. “We cannot risk unauthorized access to our social media accounts, but at the same time, our global teams need to be able to communicate through those accounts throughout the day without chasing down the account owner and getting access.”

Crunchyroll tried using enterprise password management (EPM) software, but it only addressed part of the problem.

The Solution

• Estimated savings of $15,000 annually by automating admin tasks
• Single-step user removal instantly secures accounts
• Rapid onboarding saves hours in setup time
• Eliminated password and 2FA code sharing through automation
  
  

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