/01
THE BRIEF
A seven-year-old platform consuming the budget meant for improving it.
On the surface: replace a seven-year-old Sitecore site that no longer fit AVJennings’ content velocity, customer experience standards, or budget. Underneath: the platform’s running cost had grown so extreme that almost nothing was left in the budget to actually improve the website. The team was shipping one to two features a year – and even those required separate funding requests.
The strategic problem ran deeper still. Around 70% of AVJennings' lead flow was routing through third-party real estate portals. Every interaction on those portals reinforced the project listing, not the AVJennings brand. The developer's most expensive digital asset was building the least equity for its own name.
The brief became a long-arc strategy with two goals: free up the budget that platform overhead was consuming, and shift the centre of gravity for lead generation from someone else's marketplace back to AVJennings' own front door.
/02
APPROACH
Eight platforms evaluated. One built in a day. The gap was the answer.
We evaluated eight CMS platforms – Sitecore XM Cloud, Squarespace Enterprise, Optimizely, Shopify Enterprise, Kontent AI, Microsoft PowerPages, HubSpot CMS, and Storyblok – building demo sites and engaging each platform’s product team. We reference-checked other businesses who had recently moved off Sitecore to Storyblok. The internal Storyblok demo was built in one day. The next-best platform took weeks. That gap was the answer.
Three five-year cost scenarios were modelled side by side. The Storyblok path was the cheapest and the most flexible – but the more important number was what the new platform freed up for ongoing product investment. The same retainer envelope that previously delivered one to two features a year on Sitecore could now deliver continuous monthly improvement.
The build was delivered by Grade Creative on a hybrid Waterfall + Agile model, with a non-negotiable launch deadline of 30 September 2024 – the date AVJennings’ Sitecore licence expired. Missing it would have triggered a $60K licence extension cost. Design decisions traced directly to the 2019 buyer-persona research. Mobile-first throughout. Every community page built to host the wider digital publication network so buyers never left the AVJennings ecosystem. The site went live on time and on budget.
/03
WORK DELIVERED
/04
OUTCOME
The platform stopped consuming the budget and started compounding it.
Hosting costs fell 90%. Feature velocity went from one or two a year to five or six a month. And the centre of gravity for lead generation began shifting from third-party portals back to AVJennings’ own front door – community enquiries doubled within months of launch.
Lead generation
+101%
Community enquiries post-launch
+16%
Phone clicks
Performance
0.22s
Median page load – ~77% faster
−90%
Hosting cost ($5K/mo → $500/mo)
92/100
SEO score
100/100
Accessibility score
Engagement
+43%
Stickiness
+20%
Time on site
+132%
Interactions
+251%
Mobile views
−79%
Rage clicks per 1,000
Operations
5–6/mo
Feature velocity (was 1–2/yr on Sitecore)
On time
Launched 30 Sep 2024 – $60K licence cost avoided
"
For years the website was a cost we managed. Now it’s an asset we build on. The difference is the platform underneath it.
– CEO, AVJENNINGS
Your website should be getting better every month.
If it isn't, the platform is probably the reason.
NEXT PROJECT
Rosella Rise →
BRAND & PLACE · CONSULTING + STUDIO