e.i. Group

873 websites and counting

A bespoke tech solution for the UK’s biggest pub company - with control over 870+ individual pub websites

• Websites

• Branding & Strategy

• Games & Tech

• Design & Animation

The Challenge

e.i. Group operates thousands of pubs nationwide and lagged behind the industry digitally. They needed major digital transformation across their huge and complex estate.

The Solution

Build a custom website platform with a powerful, tailor-made central CMS that controls hundreds of pubs across multiple brands. Integrate with e.i. Group’s internal data system to automate population of pub information and create variety with a choice of design templates. We have two dedicated servers hosting all websites to ensure maximum stability and uptime.

A comprehensive mobile first wireframing process was used to plan out the templates

Up to date information - clever use of API

We used an API to pull pub data from the central e.i. database including opening times, address and phone numbers, amenities and ‘what’s on’. This ensured crucial website information is always 100% up to date - constantly changing opening hours are now no longer a problem for e.i. Group’s digital marketing team.

Automation saves time & keeps the websites alive

Publicans don’t have time to manage websites so we built Facebook and Instagram integrations so fresh, local content loads right onto the page automatically.

Our dynamic opening times feature tells people how many hours are left till time at the bar 🔔. Online ratings from Yext are imported directly using another API, whilst MatchPint integration displays all the latest live sports.

This ensures the websites feel alive even if left untouched for months by the landlords.

A variety of dynamic elements including Events, Matchpint sports, Yext reviews and time at bar

A Variety of Templates

We designed three different templates, each with a variety of colourways, so pubs can choose a design that suits. Each template was wireframed based on years of data and insight. Layouts were optimised to make key actions for users easy and, since more than 80% of online traffic for pubs is mobile, everything was designed with mobile users first.

The Master Control Panel

We built a master content management system for the central team to control the websites. They can make changes individually, by region or segment, or by brand.

e.i. Group’s marketing team can bulk upload promos, add pop-up notices, menus and photographs at the click of a button. They can also quickly create custom landing pages for campaigns.

Digital Set-Up

Each website has schema mark-up, location keyword-specific meta content, Google Analytics pixels and Google Tag Manager conversion tracking as standard.

Upon go-live Google Search Console is created and the website XML site-map is submitted for indexing. The websites (and social accounts) are set up in Ignite’s reporting software so that the e.i. Group team has full access to data and insights in one central place.

Smooth Roll Outs

We have a well-orchestrated ticketing and roll-out system where the team can order new websites. Our in-house developers are ready and waiting to process the requests as they come in. e.i. Group have a constant churn of pubs changing hands or being converted from one brand to another, so we also facilitate swift template switchovers as required.

873

websites and counting

30

websites created in one week

2 days

Average turnaround time

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