The Challenge

Fuller’s needed to redesign a complex pub microsite ecosystem: 207 centrally-managed sites (381 in total) spanning distinct sub-brand journeys, including food-led, hotel-attached, events and weddings, transport-hub, and craft beer. The two-phase tender didn’t guarantee the design phase to whoever won the research, so the research itself had to earn the follow-on work.

The Outcome

The research converted a non-guaranteed Phase 1 engagement into a retained Phase 2 design partnership. The hotel booking journey, flagged as a key weak point in the original 2020 research, went on to show sustained improvement: Fuller’s own half-year results reported website direct bookings up 20% by September 2022 against H1 2020, rising to +46% year-on-year by FY2023.

The Approach

Led an evidence-first research phase combining behavioural analytics (heatmaps, scroll maps, session recordings), competitor benchmarking against direct comparators, and qualitative interviews mapped to real customer journeys (Food & Drink, Hotel, Events). Logged 665 discrete research observations and synthesised them into 89 prioritised test ideas, scored against a weighted model covering traffic, revenue impact, effort and behavioural evidence.