Froghop

Froghop is a long-term client of Brew Digital, having worked with us in the past to support the launch of their new company, Doghop.

Sadly, the much respected and loved founder of Froghop, Melanie Loades, passed away in 2022. There was a desire by the staff and new business owner to continue her legacy and push the company forward.

They approached Brew Digital for assistance with business diagnostics, wanting to determine the company direction, and reboot the brand.

Due to our familiarity with the brand, and the collective desire to be sensitive to Mel’s legacy, we proposed a decision sprint to dig into the business case for a rebrand. We wanted to get the staff and new business owner to think about the motivation behind it, how it contributed to their business objectives, and how to do so while retaining what made Froghop great in the first place.

We brought the team together in London for the decision sprint, which allowed for great interactions and dynamics. We started by asking them to look 18-months into the future, and predicting why the company might have succeeded, and why it might have failed. That exercise allowed us to identify what the true strength of the business is; it has a strong heritage, a wealth of knowledge and expertise, and is a reputable brand in the NPD sector.

The decision sprint uncovered both Froghop’s strengths, and the areas of opportunity to refine and redefine the brand so its values and identity are clear.

This in turn led to a realisation that the brand name had value, recognised in the industry as expert partners to food and drink manufacturers. So, instead of a wholesale reboot of the company, a two-pronged approach was proposed instead. The brand would get a visual makeover, allowing the company to relaunch itself in the industry with a fresh aesthetic that denoted its playful yet knowledgeable brand persona. Simultaneously, a new website would be built to better showcase that expertise, and provide a more modern and enjoyable user experience.

Following on from the [decision sprint] session, it was agreed that the Froghop brand was in need of rejuvenation to make it more modern, lively, and will help them relaunch with a bang. Brew Digital were brought on to help guide a brand interrogation before giving Froghop a rebrand that touched every marketing asset.

We believe that good solutions can only be found with a thorough understanding of the problem. To that end we organised a discovery session with Froghop management to interrogate the existing brand, and establish why they feel it is falling short.

We then ran a number of activities with the team, including getting them to find brands they love and trying to articulate why the branding works, and choosing a fictitious character they feel personified the company. The second activity was particularly enlightening as, despite choosing different characters, they all identified the same traits as being synonymous with how they perceive the brand. Collaboratively, we then worked to expand those traits; thinking how they applied to the business, and how that is perceived by the customer. We subsequently polished that back until we were left with a very clear brand personality.

This was then taken by our designer, who first created moodboards to visualise that persona. Focusing on Froghop’s love of the process, and the brand’s fun, confident, conversational but knowledgeable persona, our designs used clear bold text and imagery of ingredients to emphasise the connection of food – and respect for the ingredients.

Once the creative direction had been signed off, we took those concepts and applied them to various contexts, including a redesigned logo, a new house style guide, and promotional assets.

By taking the time to interrogate their values, their proposition, and their self-perception, Brew Digital was able to craft a new brand identity for Froghop that truly reflects their innovative approach in the food and beverage industry. The bold colour palette and vibrant imagery is fresh and modern, and provides a great foundation on which to build the next chapter of the company.

Accompanying the brand redesign, Froghop wanted a completely overhauled website that featured a contemporary design, an excellent user experience, and clear, concise copy detailing who they were and what they could provide for their clients.

Froghop had produced a sizable bank of resources and webinars over the years, but discovery on their old website was suboptimal. The redesign needed to factor this in and make the process of finding relevant content easy and intuitive.

The process began with an in-person decision sprint, where we gathered the key Froghop stakeholders together to scrutinise the brand, the website, its structure and the value proposition for the customer. This initial session uncovered the need for further decision sprints focusing on the website.

In subsequent sessions, we collaborated with the Froghop team to examine their website, its messaging and areas for improvement. From this work, we determined that the site felt outdated, information was difficult to find and the brand's value proposition was unclear.

We worked to identify their target audiences and what each of these segments would require. Once that crucial information had been identified, along with the journey that users would undertake to find it, we collaboratively mocked up a site layout that became the basis of our wireframes. Concentrating on information hierarchy, the block plan succinctly demonstrated user flow, providing clear direction for our copywriter.

This structure was then passed to our designers to create wireframes, maintaining a relentless focus on user experience, information density and balancing Froghop’s expertise with their fun and conversational personality. The designs were promptly approved and passed to our developers to convert into a live site.

After liaising with both developers and designers, our copywriter worked directly with the client to create new content for the website. Nearly every page underwent a rewrite to better appeal to Froghop's identified target audiences and to ensure clarity of information.

Working to a tight deadline, our project manager coordinated with stakeholders to ensure the website launched in time for Froghop to showcase their renewed brand identity at a prestigious food manufacturing conference.

As a full-service digital agency, Brew Digital was able to manage all aspects of Froghop’s requirements in-house. We provided a consistent point of contact for the client and ensured continuity from the initial brand redesign to website creation. We intimately understood Froghop, its priorities and objectives, and had developed a strong relationship with the business owner and employees.

The website is the culmination of that working relationship, transforming discoveries from decision sprints into a visible testament to the expertise and personality of Froghop. The impressive bank of resources, once difficult to find and navigate, are now front-and-centre, with new filtering options to help readers quickly find relevant information. The copy speaks clearly to different target audiences, ensuring relevance whether it’s a large multinational food manufacturer or someone looking to take the next step from their kitchen.

Most importantly, using the latest web development practices, our team created a website that propels the brand forward and gives Froghop a platform to build upon for the next phase of its journey.