Chick Digital

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Editorial Director of GAY TIMES; the world's leading LGBTQ+ media brand. I oversee all content including the digital format of GAY TIMES Magazine, our website gaytimes.co.uk and our social content via the handle @gaytimes

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

As one of the world's leading platforms for LGBTQ+ news, features and interviews, we have million of people each month consuming our content. We work with Chick Digital to ensure everything is running smoothly, from maintaining a slick user experience, fixing any bugs that arise, developing engaging templates for GT Magazine on Apple News, and making sure our analytics tools are capturing the data we need to inform editorial and business decision making.

SOLUTION

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

We wanted a boutique agency with proven expertise in digital development with the ability to provide smart solutions. We decided to go with Chick Digital based on their reliable track record, specialist knowledge in WordPress and Umbraco, and their dedicated and regular client service.

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

We work with Chick Digital on a retained basis to help with regular development work, special projects and issue fixes when they occur. Some of the project work completed includes creating a CMS for our digital publication on Apple News+, which made the process of pushing content through our specially made templates directly through to the News Publisher platform with ease. We have been working on fixes for Google Analytics, cookies pop-up, and stylistic improvements to our existing website.

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

A delivery director was our main point of contact, with bi-weekly meetings in the diary to go through updates and to talk through new actions. Throughout special projects we have more frequent contact to talk through solutions, expectations, and implementation. We have also spoken with the wider development team when discussing more intricate solutions.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They helped us completely simplify our CMS for creating and publishing Apple News+ articles via JSON. This saved money spent on a third party company doing it for us, and gave us back full control over editing and the styling of the template. This led to an increase in Apple News+ traffic and allowed us to further refine our standard Apple News templates.

We are currently working with Chick to refine our analytics tools for our website so we can more accurately record the amount of daily traffic, while remaining GDPR compliant.

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

The team is always incredibly responsive to any issues that may arise and we usually have the problem fixed within an hour. As for longer projects, we have regular meetings to go over options and to sign off next steps. We also have a regular bi-weekly meeting to raise any new issues and discuss future projects and solutions.

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

I found their ability to move swiftly and effectively when any unexpected issue occurs on the website very impressive. I am impressed by their ability to transform lengthy and costly processes into simpler and cost-effective ones (namely publishing to Apple News+) without having to compromise on the quality of the final published product.

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

None.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Senior Marketing Manager for Muntons, a maltings company headquartered in Suffolk, UK.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Chick Digital?

We created a range of brewing ingredients that enabled users to create their own beers at home. However, knowledge of how to use them and the versatility of these ingredients was unknown.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I have worked with Chick Digital in a previous role where they developed a B2B ecommerce platform. The team were exceptional in understanding the objective, scope and delivering a high performing ecommerce site optimised for the user.

Pulling on this experience, I asked Chick Digital to pitch for this project alongside 2 other digital design companies. Chick Digital presented their thought process for a potential solution to our panel and won the contract on merit of their work.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We launched a number of products into the commercial brewing industry with great success, offering brewers the versatility to create new to market formulations and flavours at ease. We felt these benefits could also be realised in the homebrew sector - which at that time was 'kit based' - i.e. buy a pale ale kit, make it to the instructions.

Using a combination of our new ingredients, users could now brew a vast number of beer styles at home and make each their own. Doing so would require a basic knowledge of brewing ingredients and flavour/style combinations - decreasing our potential market size.

In order to successfully deliver these products to market and achieve desired volumes required a platform where users could make 5 key decisions:

1. What beer style do you want to brew?
2. What flavour profile do you desire?
3. What aroma do you desire?
4. What is your desired ABV%?
5. What volume do you want to brew?

Our team of inhouse brewers worked with Chick Digital to outline which beer styles matched the above questions, with 1000+ possibilities. The Chick Digital team took this data, worked it into an easy-to-follow user format, with an output to create your own recipe or use a pre-set, download the ingredients list and brewing method, and share amongst peers in the homebrew community.

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

My team worked directly with the Creative Director, Developers and the CEO.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We're very pleased with the deliverables of the project. It has enabled Muntons to be seen as an educator in the homebrew field and has sparked interest from international markets to use the system (and purchase our new range of ingredients).

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project manager and creative were very efficient in communicating internally and delivering at each project gate - we had full visibility of the development throughout and were able to feedback/amend any of the consumer touchpoints or logic.

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

Their UX skills were exceptional. The logic was complicated (vast number of combinations, each selection from the user would effect the next range of variables and desired outcome). To the user, it was a simple, efficient and effective tool to create your own unique beer recipe.

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

The only improvement is to develop the app in future phases. This was a first to market project, and will continue developing. Everything delivered to date has been successful, and any future developments have not yet been briefed to the team - they have delivered all that has been asked of them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an executive at Tribe Payments

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Tribe Payments is a payments processor and technology provider.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Chick Digital to accomplish?

• Create a new website that showcased our offering
• Helped refresh our brand to better reflect Tribes status

SOLUTION

How did you find Chick Digital?

Other

Why did you select Chick Digital over others?

• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned
• Other

What was the size of Chick Digital’s team?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Chick Digital helped us come up with a brand designthat better reflected our growing business and the evolution from startup to scaleup. They designed and built every element our new website and ensured we couldtake it forward ourselves after launch.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Delivery to a set timeline and budget

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

We had some extensions to the timeline because we changed scope and wanted additional things. Chick Digital accommodated everything we asked for.

What was your primary form of communication with Chick Digital?

• Virtual Meeting

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

Willingness to adapt and how much they cared about getting it right.

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

Occasionally communication could have been better around progress, but this wasn't reallyan issue