KOTA

Please describe your company and your position there.

I oversee the marketing at Little's Coffee – a small, family-run business based in the South West. We primarily produce flavoured instant coffee and coffee pods that are sugar free and additive free, in plastic-free packaging.

For what projects/services did your company hire KOTA, and what were your goals?

Our website was over 5 years old and we needed a new website that would support the business growth and really simplify the user journey to convert more sales

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We had briefly worked with Kota on past projects and knew they would nail the brief we set them. We asked two other agencies to pitch and decided Kota understood the business and our challenges the best.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We knew we wanted to move across from Wordpress to Shopify and Kota helped us at every step. They approached the site from a UX perspective initially, with a focus on mobile. Once we signed off the initial sitemaps, they presented us with some designs (which we loved so much, there were very minimal changes needed). They built the site over the next few weeks and presented us with a really polished site. The whole process felt pretty seamless.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

2–3 – primarily Maja, project manager, Bekah, developer, and Alex, SEO. Jonny, the MD worked with us at briefing stage, too.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

While it's too early to see any measurable outcomes, we're confident that our new website will convert more sales over time – in thanks partly to the team's UX work and the Shopify checkout process. We've had so much positive feedback and the website feels much more like it represents us as a brand. From our point of view, making updates to the site and managing the CMS is so much easier and clearer, too.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The team was really responsive and great at keeping us up-to-date on their progress. They were really flexible and were happy to work to our timelines.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

It was just easy to work with the team at Kota. They're a super creative and super smart bunch – nothing was too difficult for them (particularly from a development point of view) and we didn't have to make too many compromises on our vision.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Not massively but if I'm being really picky I would say a little more support or expertise sharing with some of the Shopify set up would have helped speed up the end of the process to getting the site live.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Adams & Butler is a private travel designer based in Ireland. We work with international clients, many of whom are celebrities.

What challenge were you trying to address with KOTA?

We had three websites selling to Ireland/the UK, Africa, and other parts of the world. However, we were very unhappy with them because they weren’t database-driven and used proprietary software. Our goal was to amalgamate our sites under our brand so that people would know we covered multiple areas instead of one.

What was the scope of their involvement?

KOTA created a brand new website in WordPress, doing everything from the redesign to the logo update. For the logo, we’d done focus groups with clients to collect feedback. People liked our old logo, but we were a bit bored with it. KOTA helped us keep the overall look while giving it a little burst of light.

As for the site, we needed to make it more user-friendly and intuitive. Some of the included features were embedded videos, easier blogging capabilities, and improved quoting. Previously, B2B clients couldn’t use information from our site because our branding was all over it. KOTA’s changes allowed us to print off pages with our without labels, which saved us time when process inquiries.

What is the team composition?

Jonathan (Managing Director) was our main point of contact, and we also worked with Maja (Digital Project Manager) and James (Creative Director). 

All of them were good at dealing with people of different nationalities and cultures at our office — I’m a shoot-from-the-hip type of person, while others were more subtle, but KOTA was very easy to work with.
 
How much have you invested with them?

The project cost was £40,000 (approximately 48,000).

What is the status of this engagement?

The website was built between April–October 2020, but KOTA is still making some tweaks. They gave us three months to play with the site and see how we liked it. Now, we have a set amount of complimentary work.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The process evolved between us along the way. They eventually started to understand when we needed more time to do something and where our strengths lay. Now, the traffic we’re getting is double what we saw before. We rank highly on searches for “Jewish tourism” and “ghost tourism Ireland.”

How did KOTA perform from a project management standpoint?

KOTA had an in-depth process, and it worked. We got the results we wanted on time because of how detailed they were. 

They used a Gantt chart, which detailed what our responsibilities were and whom we’d talk to in their team. James was in charge of design, Johnathan was our overall contact, and Maja was our day-to-day contact. I enjoyed that because it meant that we didn’t waste time talking to too many people and reexplaining things. 

As for communication channels, we worked on Zoom, Teams, and email in addition to weekly meetings. If anything urgent came up, we’d call them. I’ve even asked Johnathan for advice recently, which he was happy to provide.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I just loved the way that KOTA just got us. James was the first designer I’d come across who didn’t try to take over as if he knew best. He listened actively and was empathetic. Even though our fields were totally different, he got where we were coming from.

Some of the things we wanted to do weren’t practical, but they’d find other ways of accomplishing our goals without charging extra for unnecessary add-ons. They were clearly empathetic to our needs and how we wanted to position ourselves. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not that I can think of. They’re very talented, and we highly recommend them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a communications manager at SuperYachtsMonaco, a yachting company for charter and for sale. We’re a global company with headquarters in Monaco.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, KOTA did a lot of discovery to figure out what our business was, what the problems would be, how different clients and users would approach the website, and what their requirements would be. 

The team then developed the wireframes that we could then approve, change, or tweak as we needed. They put together the user experience as well. 

Finally, KOTA did the design, built the site, and developed the CMS. Testing was done and it’s gone live. We’re pretty much done with debugging. They used WordPress.

What is the team composition?

There were five people that we were personally interfacing with. There were two head people, a project manager, a development manager, and someone else doing interface for MailChimp.

How did you come to work with KOTA - Creative Digital Agency?

We asked our team to ask around. We wanted to know who was considered the top notch. A friend of our managing director told him about KOTA. 

We had a shortlist of five companies, and we personally interviewed all of them via telephone. We did follow-up face-to-face interviews with two companies. It was very clear who we wanted to work with.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost was about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from February-December 2020.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, KOTA did a lot of discovery to figure out what our business was, what the problems would be, how different clients and users would approach the website, and what their requirements would be. 

The team then developed the wireframes that we could then approve, change, or tweak as we needed. They put together the user experience as well. 

Finally, KOTA did the design, built the site, and developed the CMS. Testing was done and it’s gone live. We’re pretty much done with debugging. They used WordPress.

What is the team composition?

There were five people that we were personally interfacing with. There were two head people, a project manager, a development manager, and someone else doing interface for MailChimp.

How did you come to work with KOTA - Creative Digital Agency?

We asked our team to ask around. We wanted to know who was considered the top notch. A friend of our managing director told him about KOTA. 

We had a shortlist of five companies, and we personally interviewed all of them via telephone. We did follow-up face-to-face interviews with two companies. It was very clear who we wanted to work with.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost was about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from February-December 2020.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The website is great, and it works super well. I was surprised. Our site isn’t a cookie cutter kind of plug and play website. I love the SEO element as well. 

We’ve had great feedback from our industry peers. They say it’s really cool and so fresh. Everyone in the company is happy with it as well. Most importantly, clients have complimented it. 

We already have a reasonable inquiry level through the site. It’s hit the ground running perfectly. Now we’re just doing optimization in different areas. The KOTA team are experts in what they do.

How did KOTA - Creative Digital Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They were awesome. Every call was perfectly managed. There was no going too far off message or no talking too long like some people do sometimes. 

Our project manager was perfect. She was unshakeable. It’s so good to have someone like that. 

When we went to the development phase, our lead for development was super responsive which makes a big difference. He was so fast and responsive. He had a really good understanding. 

They’re very smart people. Everything was cohesive and considering they’re all remote working, it was a great team effort.

What did you find most impressive about them?

KOTA is creative. There were a couple pages that we went back because they didn’t make it shine. They’d go take care of it rather than just saying they delivered what we wanted. They had a really good attitude. Their attitude and creativity helped immensely.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only problem we had was in the very beginning and it was because of COVID-19. It had nothing to do with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you have someone who is an expert in CMS systems and SEO who works for you already, they can talk to them at the same level. I don’t know how it is if you don’t have expertise in-house. We had someone who could have conversations with them. Let them be creative.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are an award-winning consultancy disruptor that deploys teams from its expert network, The Change Society, to solve the challenges companies face when undertaking change.

Founded in 2016, S&S was born as a rebellion against ineffective change management practices. I'm the Head of Digital there and I oversee the digital strategy of the company across branding, marketing and creative.

For what projects/services did your company hire KOTA - Creative Digital Agency, and what were your goals?

I actually designed our website when the company first launched in 2016. While it managed to do the job for a while, we were in need of a freshen up - a new front end design, a highly editable backend and a robust content space.

The main challenge was that we needed it to be released in line with a large promotion - and it was only 5 weeks away.

How did you select KOTA - Creative Digital Agency and what were the deciding factors?

I'd had a look at some of their past work and was impressed with some of the sites they had developed. That along with their approach and the 'art of the possible' attitude made me believe that they could get this done despite the uber-tight timeframe. They were also just a good bunch of people who I knew I could work with.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Basically we needed to give KOTA all of our content that we wanted built into the site for them to start creating a design prototype against. We then spent a week with them going back and forward on the front end design, tinkering with bits and pieces using easily sharable links from Adobe XD.

A client Slack channel was set up which made the feedback loops super quick and they were always on hand. We all knew we had to be quick with responding considering the time constraints, so the sense of urgency was always there which expedited the process.

Once design was signed off, they went into development and built the site in Wordpress. They then sent a beta link and we ironed out the bugs in the last few days before the go-live.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

The main points of contact included: Jonny Bradford - MD Maja Fulconis - Digital Project Manager James Huse - Senior Digital Designer Aleksandra Matwiejczyk - Marketing Manager

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The only outcome was getting a great looking website up and running in the short time that we gave KOTA. This was achieved and managed to the millimetre the whole way through to ensure we were on track. It's now up to us to drive the world to our brilliant looking site.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

As mentioned above ** A client Slack channel was set up which made the feedback loops super quick and they were always on hand. We all knew we had to be quick with responding considering the time constraints, so the sense of urgency was always there which expedited the process.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Just a really nice approach with a great bunch of people to work side by side with. No request was ever too hard and this created an innovative and positive vibe in the project team.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

N/A

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Integrate Agency. We’re an outsourcing company for the government. Our emphasis is on working with social enterprises and businesses to provide services in the community.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kota - Creative Digital Agency?
Our goals were to communicate our offerings more effectively and to do a directory of our members on our website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We already had a branding kit established. Kota came in and developed our website. We’re a difficult company to define and therefore explain our services online. We had a process to understand what we do. Kota interrogated me to distill our offerings into something simple and understandable. They didn’t implement the directory but were very effective in working with the third party who did.

How did you come to work with Kota - Creative Digital Agency?

They came highly recommended. I had heard great things about them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about £18,000 (approximately $26,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started in August 2019.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

I had a high expectation, and they met that and more. People were blown away by the website — that’s exactly why I approached Kota. Our feedback has been universally fantastic. There were little subtle things they did that were way better than what we thought we’d get. The little details made a big difference. That’s what separates average developers from companies like Kota.

How did Kota - Creative Digital Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very flexible in working with me to meet deadlines. The biggest threat to the timeline was me personally because I’ve got a million things to do. Nothing was ever too much trouble. The project has been a start-stop situation. Kota has been very professional in how they get things done. We communicate through emails and phone calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They did a number of very subtle things on the website that added flair. They gave us more than we wanted, and we’re delighted.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything. We’re really happy.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust in their expertise. If you go in with a fixed view, you may not get the most out of their talent. They achieved better than what I wanted. Give them the space to achieve those extra details that’ll surprise you.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Head of Marketing and Communications for Rocket Leisure, looking after all the internal and external output of the company, across online & digital as well as PR and media.

For what projects/services did your company hire KOTA - Creative Digital Agency?

To re-design our websites for our four live music and cocktail bars.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed a total website overhaul, to give out a more mature impression of our brand, while keeping the independent and fun feel of our venues.

How did you select this vendor?

I was a really painful process to begin with, first of all by putting a Facebook status to see if I had any friends in the business, then chatting to people who had done it previously. I had many conversations with various web designers but felt a lack of inspiration from any (especially with the budget investment being proposed by them). I stopped looking, and that's when I stumbled across a website built by Kota, and knew that these guys would be up to the job. From there, it was plain sailing!

Describe the project in detail.

We had the initial kick off meeting with the full team from Kota as well as myself and my three Directors. We agreed on the structure of the websites and how they would sit alongside each other before going into design stage. We also talked about what analytics we would want to be getting from the sites. The initial design stage took place, and Kota sent over the pages for my approval. After a small bit of back and forth, we nailed the overall design and went into build stage. Generally, the websites were pretty much perfect from the offset. There was some back and forth on some of the key design elements such as the characters portrayed on the website, but that was just a case of choosing the right people who portrayed our brand. Following that, the only other thing that took some time was the parallax on the home page, as it was such a crucial landing point for the customer and getting them engaged in the website. It took some time to get right, but we are really happy with the outcome and pleased we put the right time and effort into it to make sure everyone was happy.

What was the team composition?

We were assigned a project manager at Kota who feed all our information back into the creative and development team. I was the main point of contact from Rocket Leisure, and managed the approval process with my Directors.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The feedback on the websites has been incredible, and it's so beneficial to be able to see how customers are using our websites as we have no visibltiy of this before. Our bounce rate has decreased and average time on the website has increased, so that's promising. Mainly, it's cut down our internal time and how long it takes for us to update all our events. With four venues and 1200 gigs a year, our time is precious and we are now able to make changes to our sites quickly and easily.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Our project manager was always quick to respond and helpful with our requests. There was quite a lot of back & forth to deal with, partly due to struggles on our side with a lot of people involved, but Kota were good at sticking to their guns and belief in their ideas to keep pushing us in the right direction.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The design of our website is just incredible. In our view, it's the best bar website out there. We are thrilled with it and how well in conveys our offering, our vibe and our story.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Overall I'm really satisfied with how it went. If I'm being picky, I think more time on the phone rather than email would have helped, and also potentially a few more calls/face to face meetings with the creatives and/or developers would have helped clear up any questions/issues faster and more directly.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Ethical fashion e-commerce website, Founder

For what projects/services did your company hire KOTA - Creative Digital Agency?

To create the e-commerce site from scratch.

What were your goals for this project?

To create a web store that was beautiful, but still communicated a purpose of a greater good.

How did you select this vendor?

I'd seen their work for other sites and loved the visual impact they had created for their clients.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Designed the site as per my requests and always had ideas to help build on my original idea for the site.

What was the team composition?

The team included Jonny, who led the project - and was very good at it; James and Charlotte. All of them were to work with. They all brought unique talents to the table which helped alleviate the end product they created for me.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

They were able to deliver what was promised. They were great and creating a structure to the project and communicating clear projections.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They used Slack and included me on most of the project building so i was able to maintain full control over my website.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

A lot of companies are not transparent about deadlines and promise unrealistic timelines. With Kota, they're honest and always looking to do what's best for the client.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not really!

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the digital communications manager at the British Red Cross, a voluntary aid society that helps millions of people in crisis in the UK and around the world to prepare for, respond to, and recover from crisis and emergencies.

What challenge were you trying to address with KOTA – Creative Digital Agency?

We brought in KOTA – Creative Digital Agency to create an exciting and engaging landing page for One Kind Thing, our flagship brand campaign.

What was the scope of their involvement?

KOTA – Creative Digital Agency designed and developed a bespoke landing page, but also gave a unique look and feel to the campaign. They used WordPress and created a single-page website. We then used a reverse proxy that would allow us to host the campaign information on one platform, but it would appear like it was a part of the Red Cross website.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a creative director, a graphic designer, a project manager, and a senior developer. Their team was helpful, and their project manager really took charge of the project. It felt like they were a part of our organization.

How did you come to work with KOTA – Creative Digital Agency?

We used a tender system to choose between various agencies. KOTA – Creative Digital Agency provided a comprehensive plan and exciting proposal for our landing page, and everyone on the panel knew that they would help us move this campaign forward.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from March–May 2019.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The landing page’s main purpose was creating an engaging digital experience that improves how users experience our brand and encourages them to do the one kind thing that will impact someone’s life. Obviously, we need more time to be able to report for specific metrics but we can say that the campaign had a positive impact on Brand metrics so far.

How did KOTA – Creative Digital Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a wonderful job liaising with five different stakeholders within the British Red Cross and the brand agency that was developing our campaign. The creative and graphic designers understood the brand very quickly and presented a wide range of exciting designs and features.

The project manager created a project plan very comprehensive that helped to clarify ownership of different tasks and deliverables, which was really compatible with our normal workflow. Throughout the project, everyone knew who they needed to be in contact with to ensure that everything was completed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were very keen to help and really wanted the project to be successful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They should learn to say no to the client sometimes.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

First, create a very clear brief because it will help them deliver the best product. However, give them some creative freedom because their designs are fantastic. Their staff is very talented and they care about what they’re working on.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Rapport is a global OOH planning and buying agency. As part of the company's marketing and design team, my role is to streamline Rapport's image to both internal and external stakeholders, through the company's social media and online presence.

For what projects/services did your company hire KOTA, and what were your goals?

We decided that it was in the best interests of Rapport's global network to streamline each market's online presence into one, global website, featuring case studies, office contact details and job vacancies for each Rapport market, into one unified website experience.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We researched plenty of web development teams and KOTA were one of very few who introduced themselves via a video call, providing us with a personalised recommendation based on our needs. KOTA's portfolio of previous work gave them the edge over competing agencies.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We had a kick-off meeting which allowed us to discuss the brief with KOTA's assigned project manager. From there, we were able to share examples of websites we liked and elements we wanted to use on our own website. KOTA's design team shared a number of different concepts for us to evaluate, and from there, our preferred concept was chosen and the development phase began. We were able to provide feedback at every stage of the process and regular meetings were held where we could share feedback as a team.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Acting as the project manager, our team consisted of a global senior leadership team who would ultimately have the final say over design and functionality. Below them, a team of 4 made up the day-to-day team who would be in charge of making key decisions throughout the process.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We introduced a job vacancy section on our website, which has attracted an array of new talent which we would otherwise not have had access to. Feedback from internal stakeholders has been very positive, with many saying our new website design was more in-line with our key competitors.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We had regular check-ins with KOTA's dedicated project manager, where we could share feedback along the way. KOTA gave us room for flexibility, allowing us to introduce new ideas at various stages of the project, even if those features were not originally included in the agreed project scope.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

KOTA were incredibly professional at all times, and were always happy to pick up the phone to answer questions. The visual representation of their design concepts were second-to-none and we felt this really reflected in the finished product.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

N/a