Rouge Media

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm part of a national healthcare service, which is split up into little bits. I work for a small neck of the woods and, within that, for a particular locality. I have my own experiences of using mental health services in the past, so my role is called a lived experience practitioner within the community mental health team. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rouge Media?

The local council partly funds the organization we're part of, so we have a bit more autonomy in what we can do in terms of being outside the national branding sometimes. We hired Rouge Media to help us create a website to talk about our service philosophy. We do things slightly differently than other parts of the healthcare service, so we wanted to promote our brilliant, diverse range of co-produced mental health services created in partnership with those who use those services. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rouge Media has developed a WordPress website where we can talk about the mental health services in our locality. I joined the team just after the site launched. Before that, there were conversations about our service's ethos and our organization's culture. Our team explained why we needed to create this project.

The website helps us promote our different services, and Rouge Media has created a login area for users to drive online engagement. The team has also added the Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plug-in under the surface. Rouge Media has also created custom themes, menus, and functionalities for us on top of the WordPress CMS. Additionally, Rouge Media has worked on the site's design and provides hosting and a bit of maintenance and support. 

A year ago, we wanted to create a video to promote a specific service, and Rouge Media provided us with video production consulting. Rouge Media sat down with us to discuss what the video might look like and the cost, though we didn't end up going with them for that service.

What is the team composition?

We mostly communicate with Karen (Head of Operations), who liaises with Emma (Head of Business Performance) about the big-picture items on our project. Additionally, we sometimes speak to Jake (Developer) and Ollie (Lead Developer). When they provided us with video consulting, I spoke to Stuart (Co-Founder & Director), who handles many of  Rouge Media's videography tasks. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent in the ballpark of under £10,000 (approximately $13,000 USD). Every year, we pay for maintenance and hosting; this year, that fee was about £1,600 (approximately $2,000 USD), but the cost has been a bit higher in previous years. 

How did you come to work with Rouge Media?

My organization hired Rouge Media before I joined the service, so I wasn't there for the start of the project. I believe my organization had conversations with different development companies. We went with Rouge Media because they understood the idea behind what we wanted to do, the kind of service we wanted to create, and why it was different from the national healthcare service content. Therefore, there was a cultural fit between our two companies, which could make working together much easier. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Rouge Media came on board the project around July 2019, and our engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Rouge Media has built our site brilliantly, providing bespoke services. Sometimes, healthcare can be really stuck in the past, and the team has helped us move into the 21st Century. There are roughly 1,000 people who use our mental health services, and not all of them use the website at all. However, about 270 users have signed up for the site's login area, which is a real dent in the total number of people who use our services. This helps us drive engagement with a recovery college that runs groups for people struggling with mental health. 

Regarding website visitors, we had about 8,000 visitors in 2023 after having had 6,000 in 2022, so our traffic has been growing. We use this data to track some individual services. The site has helped spread the word about our services and getting appropriate referrals. Moreover, the site also provides a space for people who might want to use a service to learn more about it and feel comfortable coming to some of the groups we organize.

Although our numbers are tiny in terms of overall web traffic, they're massive, considering our small demographic. The site has also helped us link with our community partners. Therefore, although our numbers are small, they're very impactful for what we need. 

Moreover, the Rouge Media team is lovely and easy to work with. Some teammates came along and participated in our website launch, speaking at the event, which was lovely. They're really amiable, professional, and prompt in their responses — we love working with them. 

How did Rouge Media perform from a project management standpoint?

They provide amazing service. The team consistently delivers promptly, on time, and within the budget. If I have any queries, I can email Karen, and she responds frighteningly quickly, sometimes even if she's away. Rouge Media is always very professional, and I can't think of a single time we've had to chase them for anything. They have to chase us to approve things more often since we have much work to juggle. 

We generally communicate over email, and Karen gets back to me within a day or two. Sometimes, we jump on a Zoom call if we have something meatier that we need to work through. For example, we have a couple of support hours built into our service-level agreement, so if something comes up with the website like it going down unexpectedly, we can schedule a call with the Rouge Media team pretty quickly and resolve the issue within a reasonable timeframe. Additionally, Rogue Media came to the site launch in person. 

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review? 

Karen has been with our project since the start, and she really understands our vision and the culture we're trying to create. She's passionate about helping us develop the site, find new ways to grow it, and think differently about it. When I have other projects, I know that I can email Karen and ask if she'd chat with me about it, and she always does — she's really helpful. 

Additionally, Karen makes time to connect with us individually, which is really sweet. Although she must be busy and stressed sometimes, she doesn't show it at all; Karen is always calm and collected. She goes the extra mile to help us get the best for our website and the people who use our services — we love Karen to bits.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Karen is supportive and knows that funding is tight for us, so she's always trying to come up with creative solutions for us to get around that challenge. For example, the team has been very helpful in finding small services we don't need so we can shave off as much as possible from our yearly fees. Rouge Media's team is very generous with their time; they're always happy to provide us with consulting without charge, and we really appreciate it. They're also really efficient. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing they need to improve jumps to mind; we've been satisfied with their service.  

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

The really important thing is being on the same page about the aims of the project and its underlying philosophy of why we want to accomplish what we want. The advice we have depends on the scale of the project. We like that Rouge Media is a small team, so we get a personal touch. If a friend was working for a massive multinational company and needed loads of different types of support, I might recommend they go for a different vendor. 

However, Rouge Media's personal touch has been exactly what we needed because we know the team will go the extra mile and make time for us individually. Although they might be smaller than other companies, if you want a team that will make time for you and can give you that level of personalized support, Rouge Media will be a very good provider. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the social impact lead at Nominet, a web registry company that manages the .uk registry. We're in charge of registering every website and email ending in .uk, and we also provide cybersecurity. I specifically work in the social impact department, a small team that invests a lot of the company's resources into giving back to the public good. Any surplus we make, we invest back into good causes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rouge Media?

As part of our public benefit package, we run a project called the Digital Youth Index, which has been going on for about three years now. This is essentially a research project that has required us to find and interview about 4,000 young people in the UK about their digital lives every year.

We ask these young people things like how much time they spend on their phones, whether they feel safe online, and whether they feel empowered to learn new skills. After our research is complete, we produce a PDF report that can be read by anyone who wants it and an interactive data visualisation tool. This report also includes an event and a website. This last part, the website, is where we've needed Rouge Media's help.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rouge Media has helped us design and develop a data visualization tool and a website. We've been working for three years together, and their work has included designing our website, its homepage, and the data tool look and feel. As for the technology stack, this is a WordPress website. On the other hand, the data visualization tool uses Highcharts.

Our product has been designed so that we can plug in all the data we gather, and anyone who comes to the site can see it and play around with the tool. For example, they can choose a specific question from a drop-down menu. The tool generates great graphics where users can visualize the data. Moreover, users can read reports and blogs on our website.

For our most recent project, Rouge Media has helped us to completely redesign our homepage and website. The team has focused on improving the user journey, so they've worked closely with my colleagues, who are the ones who have provided feedback on this website.

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact is Karen (Head of Operations), but I've also worked with Adrian (Head of Development), Jason (Lead Developer), and Chris (Head of Design).

How did you come to work with Rouge Media?

Our wider company had already worked with Rouge Media on other projects, so we were already in contact with them. In our company, we have a very strong procurement process, so hiring Rouge Media surely required them to go through quite a lot of channels.

To date, even when we've been working with them for three years, they need to pitch to us every year. This pitch includes details on what they would be able to achieve with the budget we have available and how we would work together for the next year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working together since around May 2021. However, the project is on pause at the moment, which has nothing to do with Rouge Media. We still have casual conversations, and they still help us fix bugs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

A big part of our success has been delivering on the data visualization tool. The deadlines for this project are very tight and strict because we go live at public events, so meeting those deadlines has been part of this success.

Additionally, we've measured the quality of Rouge Media's work through user testing. We've had a lot of people involved in doing user testing for what Rouge Media has built for us. Although we don't have established KPIs for user testing, we've been very happy with the quality that they've delivered, considering the budget and our instructions.

How did Rouge Media perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via email. Rouge Media is very fast at answering emails, which has been impressive. One of our problems has been that we've worked with two companies on this project. Rouge Media has always been very responsive, fast to respond, and reactive, whereas the other supplier works to different timelines, so navigating this has been one challenge for me as the client but one I have had transparent conversations with both parties about.

In addition to email, Rouge Media is always happy to schedule calls to talk things through whenever discussing the project is better than exchanging emails.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

We've had a very positive experience working with all members of Rouge Media. For example, Jason really saved our project last year when we were running against deadlines and some errors that happened with our data. When this happened, Jason worked incredibly hard late at night to fix it — he was brilliant.

Moreover, Karen has been really good. She keeps everyone on task and is not afraid to give feedback, either to me or to others involved in the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Rouge Media is really good to work with, and they work very well, so we've developed a great working relationship. I can always be very honest about my budget, and they'll always find the best solution for the project using that budget. This gives me the impression that they don't try to get as much money as possible from us. Instead, they focus on delivering the best products that we can achieve together, which is rare for an agency.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It's hard to think about something Rouge Media could do better. The problems we've had have been caused by a combination of different people and factors. I can only advise them to continue working with different styles of stakeholders.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Be really upfront with them about your overall objectives for your projects. Rouge Media will work very hard to ensure that they deliver on those goals. Things can get lost throughout the project, but if Rouge Media has a deep understanding of what you want from a broad perspective, they'll respond really well.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of marketing and admission to an independent school in the UK, a fee-paying school.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rouge Media?

We were looking to refine the branding of our school as well as our proposition to families. We wanted to make sure that we had more applications to the school from families of girls and from boarding families in the UK. We also wanted to update our website to reinforce our refined branding and positioning.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rouge Media supported us in refining our brand, specifically on how we could best capture the visual identity of our school within our branding. As part of that, they developed our brand playbook, school prospectus, and visual architecture.

For the second phase, they developed a bespoke WordPress site, which enabled us to have different templates and modules so that we could build the website using different elements. By doing that, we could also populate our website and have a consistent high-quality look and feel across our platform. They continue to provide us with development services.

What is the team composition?

Karen (Operations & Project Manager) is our main point of contact. We had a core team of three people for the main project and 4–5 additional people have been drawn in at different points for their particular areas of expertise.

How did you come to work with Rouge Media?

We looked around at companies that had done some work with similar organizations. We drew up a long list, and we saw that Rouge Media had worked with another local school here. We invited five organizations to tender for our project and invited two to interview. In the end, Rouge Media came on top during the interview.

How much have you invested with them?

The web project was about £20,000 (approximately $26,900 USD), and the branding work we did with them was £6,000 (approximately $8,000 USD). We now spend £3,000 (approximately $4,000 USD) a year for their ongoing development services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Rouge Media around October 2019, and we continue to collaborate.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve increased applications from families of girls from 33% to 44%. On top of that, the applications to the school have more than doubled. In addition, the school roll has also increased from 446 to 526.

How did Rouge Media perform from a project management standpoint?

They keep everything organized, and we communicate through email and phone calls. We also have regular meetings with Rouge Media, and we like the fact that we always know who we’re talking to because their staff doesn’t change all the time. 

During our branding project, we didn’t have an established project management process. Then, for the web project, we used something similar to Basecamp. We had a lot of workflow-tracking there, and we were able to place our comments, too. Moreover, we were able to reference a development site as we were doing more work on the website.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Rouge Media is a good-sized company, and they offer cost-effective services. They’re small enough to care but big enough to have all the expertise we need. On top of that, they give us good value for money since they produce quality service. In particular, they brought a lot of expertise and knowledge that have helped us in our brand development process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they could improve because they have everything we need for our project. Despite that, Rouge Media has the option to grow their agency and offer more services.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

When choosing an agency, you should spend a lot of time researching and finding the right people. If you start with people that you don’t work well with, it’s going to be quite painful to either get out of that or come to a successful conclusion at the end. It’s worth putting the effort in upfront to find the right partner.

Additionally, establishing a clear brief is always a good idea and itemizing costs will eliminate confusion as you work with each other. It’s also important to know how many revisions or iterations you can do when you consider your budget and how much is the cost if you want further additions, although it’s always hard to know how much refinement you’re going to need. We didn’t need that much in our case, but it was a good thing we had something allocated for that.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the global marketing manager at Dye & Durham Corporation, a legal services company. We provide technology to the legal, governmental, and financial sectors in Canada, the UK, and Australia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rouge Media?

We’ve recently gone global and needed to refresh our brand, develop a website, and conduct marketing, so we partnered with Rouge Media.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We began by briefing Rouge Media about our brand and objectives. We wanted to show that we are not an ancient brand, but are a modern, up-and-coming, tech-savvy company. We also wanted to keep our history but shape up what we currently have.

Rouge Media went on to do a lot of bits and pieces for us. They rebranded the entire company and provided us with a new set of corporate values, brand guidelines, color schemes, and creative assets. The team also put together a new logo and all of the marketing information that we would need in the future. It was a complete brand overhaul that didn’t stray far from what we currently have while still supplying us with a lot of new designs.

Rouge Media also revamped our WordPress website. We sat and brainstormed about the user journey, focusing closely on investors and customers from different areas in the UK. They created the wireframes and pages for the website, building off of existing elements to keep the whole site familiar.

They also helped us choose the right assets and images and recommended a partner of theirs to do some of our videos and photos. The whole website content was created with keywords in mind, but we have yet to instruct the team on the social media aspect of marketing. 

What is the team composition?

There are seven people, and I lean on two project managers.

How did you come to work with Rouge Media?

The marketing director of the business we acquired a year ago brought in Rouge Media with them. That’s how we were introduced.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve invested £200,000 (approximately $271,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2020, and our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Rouge Media has brought forth a consistency in our brand journey and story. We’re an acquisitive and quick-growing company, and they’ve helped us gather all of the pieces that we needed to ensure that our brand is strong and recognizable in the market. They’ve also assisted us in making all of our internal and external employees feel part of a unified brand. They’ve been a great partner to our business and this partnership has made a big impact on the company. 

How did Rouge Media perform from a project management standpoint?

Rouge Media’s project management is brilliant. They’re a fantastic, trustworthy team that’s always on point. Their pricing is reasonable, and their turnaround time is second to none. 

We typically communicate via email or meet through Microsoft Teams, since those are most convenient to me. They’re always available and update us via Google Docs as well. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their work is very consistent and extremely high-level. They’ve really taken the time to understand our brand, producing flawless, professional work. They’ve exceeded our expectations.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I find it hard to fault them. We could, however, use some improvement on the project management side since a lot of content and materials are turning up all of the time. Rouge Media is very aware of this issue as well and is trying to create a way for us to more easily understand their output.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Working with Rouge Media is a partnership. As long as you give enough for them to understand the brand and what you’re trying to achieve, they will deliver. They’re very open and honest.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of marketing at a law firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rouge Media?

We needed their skills in web development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our existing website was outdated and not mobile-friendly, so we thought of engaging a development agency to remedy that by creating a quality platform for our customers. Rouge Media stepped in to build a new WordPress site from scratch based on our old content.

Apart from making it mobile-responsive, their team also integrated new functionalities into the platform and made all our panels accessible through the home page. They incorporated a client payment system and a virtual fee calculator to help our customers estimate the potential cost of the services they needed.

What is the team composition?

We worked with their director, project manager, and developer at that time.

How did you come to work with Rouge Media?

I found their team on Google while searching for potential agencies to onboard for this project. We chose Rouge Media because they had impressive reviews, and they sent us a detailed proposal that showed their clear understanding of our business.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $10,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project ran from April–November 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Internal and external stakeholders were pleased with the updates that Rouge Media integrated into our new platform. We also secured a higher client acquisition rate through the accessible contact page and forms that their team set up. Overall, I could say that our expectations were met because they succeeded in improving our processes and engagement.

How did Rouge Media perform from a project management standpoint?

Rouge Media was on top of their project management game — we never found the need to chase their team for deadlines or any unmet requirements. They were a communicative and timeline-oriented partner that set up everything in an orderly manner despite encountering delays from our end.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What stood out about Rouge Media’s team was their capacity to remain approachable while handling the project professionally. They accommodated our questions and guided us in the right direction without any judgment. 

Rather than going through the journey on their own, they took the time to keep us involved every step of the way — Rouge Media’s sincerity and high level of accommodation were truly notable qualities for a provider to possess.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We didn’t encounter any areas that needed improvement — they were simply on top of everything throughout the process.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

First meetings are always integral to any partnership, so find the time to meet them in person if you can. Rouge Media will understand your brand image and goals more comprehensively if you explain these clearly to their team. Once they get a grasp of what you want to achieve, they’ll take it from there and make things happen for your business.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of marketing for Nominet, and we’re custodians of the UK domain namespace.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rouge Media?

We had a number of different websites that we needed support building.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rouge Media predominantly provides us with web development projects. One of their main responsibilities is building a microsite with a complex data visualization toolset that would allow us to load responses from surveys and interviews. We would then allow people to manipulate the pieces of data and build their own custom segments to export and extract.

We initially provided them with extensive documentation that included our overall brief and visual components for our brand identity and sample data.

They use WordPress to build the platform using a custom script to enable the data validation and visualization pieces. Moreover, they designed all of the frontend interfaces and how users would access the filters and create their segments.

What is the team composition?

Karen (Operations & Projects Manager) is our main point of contact, and we also work with Adrian (Lead Developer) and Hannah (Lead Creative).

How did you come to work with Rouge Media?

We came across them about a year and a half ago when we went out to tender for a website. We also heard about them through a colleague so we invited them to pitch for this particular project and they were the only vendor to succeed in the process.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve probably spent around £100,000 (approximately $130,400 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

The ongoing partnership started in February 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I can’t provide any metrics, but the quality of their work is demonstrated by the fact that we’re still working with them. They’re very thorough, detailed, and clear with the expectations they set. Apart from that, their design skills in-house are very high-quality, and we’ve yet to find a project where the initial concepts they provide haven’t hit the mark.

Their account management team is also very good at maneuvering the delivery around our very tight timelines.

How did Rouge Media perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform strongly in terms of project management. Their communication is always clear, respectful, and they’re always concise with what they need from us. We mainly use Teams, email, and phone as our primary channels for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed by the balance between the quality of the output and their price — they produce high-quality products that don’t come with exorbitant prices.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are always things we wish we could’ve done differently, but they’re always very minor with their issues, like typical communication breakdowns. However, if I could try and convey the scale of the project at the speed at which we were moving, it would be really insignificant in comparison to all the good they’ve done.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would say be really clear with your expectations up front and try to give a strong brief as possible.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a company called Dye & Durham. We are a global technology business. We have offices and almost a thousand employees across Canada, UK, Ireland, and Australia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rouge Media?

As we expand across our global markets we need to rebuild and expand our websites and improve the user experience. We're looking to create a main portal for our investors and additionally, we're looking to create a global directory whereby local product marketing in Australia, UK, Ireland, and Canada can be easily accessed. We commissioned Rouge to advise, design, develop and deliver this project as well as supporting our Global branding activity.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our approach is to utilize WordPress to build our websites from scratch. Rouge manages the whole process from guidance to building wireframes, and they analyze our options to determine what works and what doesn’t. They're also collaborating with our individual marketing teams globally, so that they can understand additional integrations such as Zendesk or CRM solutions like HubSpot.

Additionally, we have consumer-friendly sites that they're also supporting. We're looking to create a comparison site and they're making sure that platform has a stronger SEO. 

Other than that, they help implement the content framework for the sites. We tend to manage most of our content since we're the experts on what we want to do, but they'll give us a steer on just making sure that it's fit for purpose — this is to ensure we're doing what Google needs us to do, rather than just repeating content across various countries.

What is the team composition?

We’ve got about 6–7 people working on the project. We've got Stu (Director of Digital Development) who helps us with video content on the website, a project manager, and a couple of designers.

How did you come to work with Rouge Media?

They pitched for an organization I previously worked with, and they just really understood what we were trying to achieve. What I like about them is the fact that they don't just pay lip service because you're a client — they’re honest and will let you know what works and what doesn’t. 

What is the status of this engagement?

I've been working with Rouge for more than five years now, but this specific ongoing project started in March 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They're very honest, approachable, and they go the extra mile. We recently had a situation where we changed the spec of the project last minute, so their team stayed up all night to get it fixed — it didn't become an extra problem that we needed to deal with.

How did Rouge Media perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been delivering their tasks on time and within the budget. At the moment, we're tracking on schedule so we have weekly updates from the team. The people who’re working on all asset production will send a weekly email with a percentage status of where they are in terms of progress completion. For the overall project plan, we're currently looking at the discovery phase, the review phase, as well as the scoping phase of the website build.

They use Trello, but since I'm a bit old school, they extract a lot of the data and put it into a standard Gantt chart. As for communication, we use Teams for meetings and regularly communicate through emails.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I find that Stu and Andy (Co-Founder & Design Director) actually have massive amounts of expertise and experience and that they've taken into their own company. Their pitch is very good, which genuinely interests us and gets our attention. They really care and they want to see the project succeed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think they've got the right formula to expand, but it depends on whether or not they want to go nuclear and grow to become a bigger company.

Any advice for potential customers?

I would advise being very honest with the brief, and tell them exactly what you're trying to achieve, as well as the challenges as you see them. If you're very honest about the outcome you’re trying to achieve, you'll get a much better result.