2022 review of the year
It’s hard not to start a ‘review of the year’ type blog post without the clichés of ‘It’s been a great year!’ or ‘Wow has a year gone by already!’. It has been a great year though and it is astonishing how quickly it has whizzed past!
As ever I’m really proud of the work we have delivered across the year. One feature of the year has been the re-commissions we’ve had from long-standing clients for new websites to replace sites we originally produced for them some 5, 6 or even 7 years ago.
For example this year we produced the new Wellington College website 7 years after we launched the previous one; the Hampton School site, also 7 years after we launched the first site for them; and we’re also working on new websites for Liberty Global, Pulsar and Sevenoaks School many years into our relationships with them.
As with every year before it, 2022 has seen website technology become even more powerful. This means more possibilities in terms of animations and effects, which in turn means better opportunities for creating lasting and memorable experiences for audiences. We continue to push the boundaries in every project we take on, in order to create more distinct and more powerful digital experiences with ‘wow-factor’.
Consider the way Bilton Grange uses animation and movement to tell the story of ‘The first step in the adventure of life’ or how the DAX site gives visitors the impression of having landed in a 3D world of audio content.
Clearly, it requires understanding, vision and patience to guide our clients on the journey to creating sites like these. This year again I’ve been blown away by the extremely positive feedback we’ve received from clients new and old. It really is incredibly satisfying to receive emails like this from our clients at the Study Prep:
“The Web Kitchen delivered brilliantly against our brief – to give us stand out in our incredibly competitive local market and to deliver a site that is both authentic to the ethos and values of our school and provides an exceptional user experience for prospective families.”
Aside from producing entirely new websites for our clients, there has been a huge amount of development on the Ongoing Support side of the business. In large part this has been driven by Ketu who joined us at the start of 2022 as Head of Digital Marketing.
Ketu has extensive experience in working with blue chip clients to ensure their digital marketing works. He has helped improve our offer with regards to conversion rate optimization, reporting & analysis and SEO. This work continues into 2023. Check out our full range of services here.
Finally we made three new hires in the second half of 2022 as Matt Patterson joined us in our Project Management team, Charlie George joined us as a Junior Developer and Matteo Pelucchi as Senior Developer. Matteo brings lots of agency experience with him and will work with our leadership team to ensure our processes and systems are as smooth and robust as possible.
In 2023 we will embark on the journey of becoming a B Corp and we’re excited to be dedicating our own time and budget to a charity project that we believe passionately in. More to come on that in the next few weeks!