ActiveColor

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the director of marketing for Lawry's Restaurant Inc. The company is family-owned and it’s been in business for almost 100 years. We have six fine dining restaurants in the country, and our most iconic brand is Lawry's The Prime Rib. Aside from that, our company owns other fine dining restaurants as well as a couple of gastropubs, and a casual concept restaurant called Lawrey's Carvery.

The company has restaurants under the Lawry's name and other fine dining restaurants that don't have the name. Also, we have six international and four domestic prime rib restaurants.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ActiveColor?

We have a design company that we’ve partnered with for website development. However, we were looking for another agency to revamp our website since our previous partner was too expensive for us. We needed a team that could produce high-quality work at a cost-effective price for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ActiveColor revamped our website. The team was tasked to bring in our two platforms — mobile and a desktop — under one umbrella. They currently handle maintenance and other small projects on our backend.

What is the team composition?

We directly work with the owner and we also contact two team members on a daily basis. There are also two more members who work on the technical and development tasks.

How did you come to work with ActiveColor?

We screened 4–5 different companies that specialized in the restaurant industry and had creative abilities. We wanted a local team here in the Los Angeles area so we could work with them face-to-face to have a stronger relationship.

Another criterion was the balance between technical and creative skills. We wanted to work with someone who could deliver that to us.

During the decision-making process, it came down between 2–3 companies because we came across agencies that had technical abilities but lacked the outside-the-box thinking skills. Ultimately, we went with ActiveColor because they were really open to working with us. We felt that they wanted to collaborate with us as opposed to just making recommendations.

They weren’t the cheapest nor the most expensive agency, but they fit right in our particular budget. The price came in right where we needed it to be.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve already invested almost $50,000. The initial quote was $39,000 but due to the things that we wanted to add to the website, the cost went up.

What is the status of this engagement?

The ongoing engagement began in July 2018. They currently handle maintenance and work on little projects that we can’t do on the backend.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

ActiveColor successfully brought our two sites under one umbrella which helped make managing our sites more efficient for us. In terms of Google presence, our old website wasn’t delivering for us and we were struggling with our SEO and visibility. The team helped us with what we needed in SEO.

They allow us to track our website traffic — the number of visitors and the activities on the site. I can’t give the exact metrics or comparison from the old website but the number of online reservations has substantially grown since the project began. Overall, our business is generally performing strongly across the board.

How did ActiveColor perform from a project management standpoint?

ActiveColor is excellent in communicating — this is something important to us. They've been responsive even before and after we signed the contract. Our teams communicate through email, phone calls, texts, and quite often we have in-person meetings when needed. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team is open to all types of communication and is highly responsive. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think they could work on making websites ADA compliant. This was from our initial brief and it wasn’t the top priority so perhaps that’s why we may have lost sight of this. It would be helpful if they could’ve shared how they made the ADA complaint.