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The Client

Populate Social is a leading social media marketing agency based in Cardiff, genuinely committed to providing tangible results. In the last 5 years, Populate has worked with an amazing array of clients across sectors including eCommerce, sport, fashion, tourism, events and much more. The team are a great bunch of down-to-earth people who are truly experts in social and all of its surrounding areas. Populate are here to build actual positive relationships through their approach and ensure there’s no fluff, just the good stuff!

You can check out the work we did for them here.

The Brief

Populate Social’s previous website had been built in-house by their Founder, who admits that he’s no web developer. It looked OK and was functional but it had never had the love or attention it really deserved. The business had also grown dramatically over recent years and had really started to find its own voice and identity. Populate build projects and campaigns that are based on genuinely achievable results and work with clients to ensure they fully understand how and what social means for them and how it can have an impact in a measurable way. So, a refreshed website was much needed to reflect this new approach and the updated brand we had developed to go alongside it.

Aims/Objectives for the Site

Populate wanted a website that was truly striking. Something that genuinely made people stand up and take notice when they landed on any page. They also wanted to ensure results were at the front and centre. Their clients often make comments about their personalities internally and ensuring that the website really matched the ‘culture’ and ethos as a business was also key. Naturally, as a by-product of doing their website, they hope to really push their standing in the industry, showcasing their work and ultimately providing a resource where potential clients can come and really see what Populate are all about.

The Solution

It was clear from the brief that the team at Populate wanted to stand out, so during design, we looked for opportunities to push the frontend interactions and animations to create a wow effect. A key part of the Spindogs Process for this project was the feedback loop between Project Manager, Designer and Front End Developer meaning they were able to swiftly improve and iterate on interactions throughout the Front End process.

Our talented Front End team at Spindogs set to work on some engaging interactive highlights. The cursor reacts to the content that your mouse is hovering on along with on a link or something interactive, it shakes! Pretty cool! This is done by dynamically manipulating the cursor SVG using the GreenSock animation library to add turbulence. Bespoke interactive components such as the section on industries, when the user interacts with the industry a relevant image follows the cursor.

A subscription service to allow Populate clients to sign-up to content creation packages via their site was part of the brief from the Populate team, so this was implemented along with Hubspot Forms integration for a seamless approach.

“Having worked with Spindogs before on some smaller projects and seeing the quality of their work for large organisations, we knew we were in safe hands. The design team have been incredible at looking to accommodate our desires around creating a site which is truly striking whilst still functional. The communication throughout the project has been perfect - you know you're being looked after properly. We've been buzzing to get this project finished and now that day is here!”

— Dan Simmons Founder

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