Bringing brands to life with customisable content

With multiple audiences to cater for, Kier needed a flexible and scalable CMS capable of showcasing their wide range of projects. With refreshed ‘Beyond Building’ brand to reflect, the project had an extremely tight timescale, starting in July and ready for a September launch which meant the teams had to work to an agile method. A core objective was to implement a more robust and user-friendly CMS, empowering Kier’s content editors to build and share new pages fast.

Considering the refreshed branding and need for customisable content, we built with content management in mind. New features which can easily be adapted utilising the flexibility of Umbraco were put in place. As a result, a new workflow structure was implemented that is capable of adapting to Kier’s changing content.

Developing a complex 1,2,3 column grid system allowing Kier to create dynamic and flexible page layouts whilst custom controls enabled their Content Editors to implement the iconography which formed an integral part of their rebrand. A component-based build provided our Development team with the freedom to create bespoke pages based on Kier’s unique content. Their extensive case studies, projects, services and content can now be brought to forefront.

In a project where time was paramount, part of our role was to advise and guide Kier on how we could get the site built quicker, giving earlier visability of progress to key project stakeholders. In an effort to meet the deadline, we created a HTML prototype that could be tested and assessed internally before attaching the CMS. This gave Kier valuable insight during the early stages of the project that were then fed into the site build, setting the foundations for a website that is both visually engaging and reflective of Kier’s brand vision.

Marking the beginning of our partnership, working collaboratively with Kier was key to this project’s success. Since the site went live, further new features have been rolled out and we continue to partner with Kier, exploring other areas for improvement.

After the launch:

""Umbraco has proved a massive improvement on our previous CMS allowing us to easily publish new and timely content. The launch of this new website has allowed us to simplify our offering for the user and to communicate our revised brand identity. We’ve had excellent feedback from colleagues and clients on the new design and navigation meaning we’re very happy with the results and the amount of leads being generated."“

Paul Fryer, Digital Marketing Manager, Kier