A New Year, a New Website, a Fresh Perspective
We worked on many impactful projects throughout 2021. From showcasing our city across the country, getting Nova Scotians vaccinated, and creating tons of other brand experiences along the way, our team of chameleons wore many hats this past year. But the most challenging project and most demanding client turned out to be ourselves. Setting an ambitious timeline that spanned just a few months, our goal was to soft launch a new website for the agency by the end of 2021.
Let’s be honest: getting here was more difficult than we expected. Another honest thought? We should have known. Because at Trampoline, we live and breathe the behind-the-scenes work that goes into honest brand experiences. On a website, this work isn’t only the writing, designing, and coding (although these are paramount). Foundational strategic thinking also informs the project. It’s arguably the most essential part, and it’s also the most difficult to nail.
Getting it right
The only way to make something truly representative of the agency was to involve the whole agency. But too many cooks can derail deadlines and make it difficult to stay on track. So rather than cutting people, we changed our approach. Instead of closed-off meetings, we opened them up. We set guidelines for each phase, assigned roles, outlined specific purposes and goals for each session. We did in-room feedback and worked on agile iterations right there and then–listening to everyone on equal standing and then openly discussing each outcome. It was a tedious balancing act, yet a worthwhile approach that got us even more familiar with challenges our clients face, and the opportunity to find new ways around them. The result was a collaboration of more than 30 passionate people who were all very invested in the project. And who all still like each other now that it’s done.
In trying to understand who we are as an agency, and what sets us apart, we simply looked around the meeting room and found the obvious answer staring at us – it’s the people. The process of this project helped us realize that our connection to where we live, those we work with and each other sets us apart. And we tried to subtly infuse this spirit into everything we did with our new site, including a photo shoot to best represent our people, culture and workspace.
The beauty of digital
Another hurdle was overcoming unrealistic expectations. Taking immense pride in our work, it’s only natural to aim for perfection. Letting go of the impossible meant embracing the true beauty of a digital platform as something that lives, grows and evolves. So we soft-launched with a starting point, and lots of next steps on the horizon.
There are many practical reasons to redo a website: to provide a better user experience, stay up-to-date with modern practices and design, and attract new business and new hires. We’re proud to leave this launch having ticked all of these boxes, with the addition of an unexpected perk, too. The process gave our team a fresh outlook on who we are, what’s important to us, and what makes the agency special.
Looking to the future, this digital platform will be a source of inspiration for us to set goals and evolve.
Click here to explore our new website.