Achilles for Online Applications - Case Study

The Company

A fledgling company with a unique approach to the development and delivery of treasure hunts whose aims are to encourage tourists, residents and corporate groups alike to discover London.

The Business Problem

Creativity is not this company’s problem as they had developed significant and unique treasure hunt products but struggled to get noticed, and therefore generate income in a highly competitive market for London’s tourist and corporate spend. As a start-up organisation they had established an ecommerce website using off-the-shelf technologies and applied a sound approach to social media (Twitter, Facebook etc). With in-house and external expertise and a considerable investment in Ad-words significant revenues were not forthcoming. Knowing they had a good product their challenge was to gain sufficient online exposure and develop an income stream through the self-guided hunts while attracting interest of corporate HR departments looking for something a bit different for their employees.

The Solution

Discussion and ratification of the business requirements with Dimension 85 established the criteria for success required. Through both interview and technical analysis the consultant applied a proven methodology to assess how the online technologies had been applied to support the internet marketing initiatives of the company. Although capable of delivering the key activities of ecommerce and product delivery, the website lacked the architecture, structure and maturity necessary to attract the interest of the internet search engines on which the success of internet-based sales are reliant. In addition, the social media was untargeted and did not complement the key business requirements. A comprehensive business and technical assessment was produced together with a set of targeted and pragmatic recommendations aimed at developing online sales and corporate hunt opportunities.

The Benefits

Within two months of applying the recommendations the company began to see regular revenues through their ecommerce platform and enquiries for corporate hunts generated. Unexpectedly new opportunities for specialised non-corporate treasure-hunts were also being received enabling the company to expand their product portfolio further. With exponential revenue growth over the past two years the company also has now attracted many corporate accounts, with significant repeat business.