Mediablaze

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Digital Marketing Manager for Country House Weddings, a group of wedding venues across southern England.

What challenge were you trying to address with Mediablaze?

We wanted to create a new website that demonstrated a keen understanding of our target audience. Our site needed to blend modern design and functionality to assist couples on their journey.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We began by conducting a pair of workshops. The first had an internal focus, looking at who we are as a company in order to understand our business challenges and opportunities. The second centered around our target demographic, determining who our clients are and the web’s impact on the modern wedding planning experience.

Through these workshops, we realized that millennials are our target audience. Google Analytics also showed that most of our site visits and inquiries come through mobile devices. Taking these facts into account, we wanted to ensure our new site was mobile-friendly.

We also determined that transparency was important to modern couples. With this in mind, Mediablaze added a pricing calculator to give customers a clear idea of our cost structure.

They built the website using WordPress.

What is the team composition?

Roger [Barr, Digital Director, Mediablaze] and Spike [Bowen, Senior Digital Project Manager, Mediablaze] were involved during the beginning, attending offsite meetings. On a day-to-day basis, I work directly with their brilliant junior project manager, Holly Clemens.

I also interact directly with their developers, Dylan [Goveas], in particular. Their engineers are very friendly, which is not always the case in my experience.

How did you come to work with Mediablaze?

They were recommended by a friend at another company. They hosted our previous site and performed routine maintenance before we initiated the development project.

How much have you invested with them?

Around £45,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project in August 2017 and launched in December 2017.

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

Bounce rates have already improved by between 10–15%. Pages per visit improved by 15% and visit duration improved by 10%. We’re pleased with the progress being made.

How did Mediablaze perform from a project management standpoint?

We were operating under a tight deadline, but Mediablaze managed to deliver the site on time, even after we added details to the initial scope. We still have some minor change requests we’re working through, but that’s to be expected on projects like this.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They work together as a team. During our first meeting, the developer, designer, and project manager all sat together at the table. This collaborative approach creates a stress-free environment that makes communication easy. They’re genuinely nice, competent people.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could have been clearer about our responsibilities in the beginning, as we were ultimately responsible for content and photo management. This makes sense since we already had the photos and had an intuitive understanding of our venues, but we only realized this was expected of us in the middle of the project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Include as much detail as possible in your initial brief and go over it carefully with your vendor. This is a good strategy when dealing with any development agency.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the communications and design manager for Carbon Tracker; we’re a small NGO dealing with climate change.

What challenge were you trying to address with Mediablaze.

We were looking for someone with the capability to help us in both the design and development phase of building a website, and being able to communicate very technical content in an easily digestible, catchy manner.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They created the website, and we provided the content. Initially, we worked with their development team who built the architecture of the website, went through a couple rounds of feedback, and then agreed on how to structure the information. The second phase was design, and more focused on the actual look of the website with the integration of our style guidelines and colors. During this phase of development, there was a coordinated platform where we could see their work in the progress, at that exact point in time as it was being built.

A major feature they created is a responsive website which we didn’t have in the past. It's very easy and intuitive to navigate for users, allowing for a non-expert audience to find the information well. It’s visually appealing and looks fresh, with high quality images, colors, and readable fonts. Again, we created things like videos and infographic content but they helped emphasize the work we had already produced, and make it more accessible.

Additional features include creating login accounts, so users can navigate on the surface of the website or sign-in which allows them greater access to information and download to full reports. It also allows us to track them. Another feature was the integration of social media; for example, you can select a piece of a sentence and pre-populated tweets or automatic social media icons will be facilitated.

What is the team dynamic?          

Holly was our project manager, and we interacted with other individuals but she was always the one coordinating such.

How did you come to work with Mediablaze?

I came across them through a recommendation from another company, with whom we share a co-working space. I knew they had a nice website, and they pointed me to Mediablaze. We did interview other companies, but chose them because they presented their work in a very concrete manner from the process to the timeline. I liked the fact they seemed very hands on, rather than talking about strategy and branding which was something we didn’t really need. They were much more in tune with our development goals, and what we would need from them as a web agency.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $80,000 for their services (£60,000). 

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in March 2017, and the engagement is ongoing. The website was delivered and went online in October, and they now remain responsible for its maintenance. We’re in touch for small fixes, support, and basic changes that might need to be made.

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

The website functions as expected, with positive feedback from users across the spectrum. There have been no crashes with the website, and it’s generally visually appealing. We’re very happy with their work.

How did Mediablaze perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well. We used a number of project management tools including Slack, InVision, and Trello. Our main point of contact was our project manager, and through her we’ve been adding products and managing the website on the backend. She also schedules various meetings and video calls. It’s been a smooth way to communicate from start to finish.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The fact that each meeting and call we had actually achieved what we had planned. There were always answers to any questions, and never a feeling of losing any time needlessly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could provide more flexibility in terms of follow-up support.