Key Takeaways
- Bold and Dynamic Design: The website features bold branding, sharp angles, high contrast, and parallax background effects, making it visually striking and user-friendly.
- Robust Performance: New hosting arrangements ensured the site could handle heavy traffic during on-sales for major acts, providing a seamless user experience.
- Accessibility compliance: Co-op Live’s website meets WCAG 2.1 Level AA accessibility standards, making it accessible to a wide range of visitors, regardless of their abilities.
- Versatile content management: Peppered's flexible building blocks empowers Co-op Live to effortlessly showcase a wide range of content types, from highlighting their local impact initiatives to spotlighting premium areas.
Introducing Co-op Live
Co-op Live is a brand new arena situated in Eastlands, Manchester – an area that has seen consistent, long-term regeneration in recent years. As the largest indoor events arena in Europe, Co-op Live is set to revolutionise the live entertainment scene. The venue's immense capacity and advanced technological infrastructure position it as a premier destination for high-profile concerts, sporting events, and large-scale performances. Co-op Live aims to attract a global audience, enhancing Manchester's reputation as a vibrant cultural and entertainment hub.
Beyond its impact on the entertainment industry, Co-op Live is playing a significant role in transforming the local area of Manchester. The arena is a key component of a broader regeneration project that aims to revitalise the local area. Here are some ways Co-op Live is making a difference:
Economic Boost: The construction and operation of Co-op Live has created thousands of jobs, both directly and indirectly, stimulating the local economy. The influx of visitors to the arena benefits local businesses, from hotels and restaurants to retail outlets.
Sustainability Initiatives: Co-op Live is committed to sustainability, incorporating eco-friendly practices and technologies in its design and operations. The venue aims to be one of the most sustainable arenas in the world, with features such as renewable energy sources, efficient waste management systems, and green transportation options.
Community Engagement: The arena is dedicated to fostering a strong sense of community through various initiatives and partnerships. Co-op Live plans to support local talent and provide opportunities for young people to engage with the arts. The venue will also serve as a community space for events and activities that bring people together.
Cultural Impact: By attracting major international acts and events, Co-op Live will enhance Manchester's cultural landscape, providing residents and visitors with world-class entertainment options. The arena's presence will reinforce Manchester's status as a leading cultural city, drawing tourists and cultural enthusiasts from around the world.
Challenges that Co-op Live were facing
Before partnering with CultureSuite, Co-op Live faced several challenges in preparing their pre-launch site to function as a comprehensive event platform. The need to manage on-sales efficiently was critical given the high volume of events and its 23,500 capacity. Additionally, creating a bold and dynamic design that reflected the venue's cutting-edge nature, while ensuring the site could handle heavy traffic during on-sales, were major considerations.
Moreover, Co-op Live recognised the importance of creating an accessible website that is inclusive and user-friendly for all patrons. This meant implementing features that would assist visitors with various disabilities, including visual impairments, hearing difficulties, and motor challenges. The goal was to ensure that everyone, regardless of their abilities, could easily navigate the site, find information about upcoming events, and purchase tickets without barriers.
After a series of discussions to understand their ongoing needs, we determined these to be the goals of the project:
Bold branding and design: The site required bold branding with sharp angles, high contrast, and parallax effects to stand out from other arena websites.
Fast performance: The website had to handle heavy traffic during on-sales for large acts, necessitating robust hosting and fast load times.
Accessibility compliance: Ensure the website meets WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards, incorporating features such as keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility, and adjustable text sizes to make the site accessible to all users, regardless of their abilities.
A versatile platform to showcase content: Demonstrating Co-op Live’s impact on the local environment and highlighting premium areas were crucial for engaging their audience. The new website needs to have versatile page templates for a range of content types.
How were these objectives met?
CultureSuite’s extensive experience in the performing arts and live entertainment sectors positioned us uniquely to address Co-op Live’s challenges. Our understanding of the intricacies of event management, accessibility, and user experience required for large-scale venues allowed us to tailor solutions that not only met but exceeded Co-op Live's expectations.
Peppered gives venues a sustainable foundation to grow from
Many of the challenges are solved by the use of Peppered – our all-in-one CMS that’s designed for cultural organisations. Its versatile content management tools enable Co-op Live to effectively showcase their local impact and premium offerings while the platform's built-in accessibility features are compliant with WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards to ensure an inclusive experience for all patrons.
The platform, built on a sustainable Saas model, offers significant advantages over a custom-built website. Peppered empowers non-technical staff to easily edit and publish content without relying on developers. Moreover, Peppered receives updates every three weeks to ensure the platform stays current with the latest web standards, security practices and SEO principles
Peppered also integrates with a wide range of ticketing, event planning and CRM platforms. Co-op Live took advantage of this by integrating their CRM with Peppered, enabling the team to serve specific content to signed-in users. That means sharing documentation on the venue only with promoters who have been previously identified or partnership specifics with users who have appropriate access.
Robust hosting to handle high traffic loads
Next, the team turned their focus to hosting arrangements. To accommodate the high traffic during major on-sales, CultureSuite built a new static HTML page which can be activated ahead of Co-op Live’s busiest on-sales, allowing the site to handle over hundreds of thousands of visitors in a short amount of time. The result is a website that remains stable and responsive even during peak times. From November 2023 to July 2024, the Co-op Live website has handled over 1.5 million visitors.
A bold website design to keep visitors engaged
With such a high number of visitors to the site, the branding and design needed to match the venue’s lofty ambitions. CultureSuite’s design team implemented bold typography, sharp angles, high contrast, and parallax background effects, creating a visually engaging and distinctive online presence. This helps deliver an engaging and thrilling digital experience to align with the events and performances at Co-op Live.
A versatile content platform that's flexible and easy to use
To help Co-op Live showcase their contributions to the local community, Peppered’s versatile building block and extensive ‘parts’ library offers a variety of ways to display content while meeting the highest accessibility and UX standards. The platform's adaptable templates and customisable modules enable the venue to create engaging, purpose-driven pages that resonate with their diverse audience segments. This versatility ensures that Co-op Live can effectively communicate its multifaceted identity as both a cutting-edge entertainment venue and a responsible community partner.
The result?
The project culminated in a successful website launch that met all of Co-op Live’s objectives. The bold design and robust performance ensured a seamless and engaging user experience. Ben Tipple, Head of Communications at Co-op Live, praised the results of the project:
“Working with CultureSuite on the new Co-op Live website has been a seamless experience, with a significant shared focus on brand, style, and multi-user experience. From its striking design through to its accessibility and speed, the website meets the multitude of overlapping needs of the business, spearheaded by a smooth customer journey, brand identity and ticket sales.”
CultureSuite’s work with Co-op Live demonstrates the power of Peppered CMS in transforming an event website to meet high standards of accessibility, automation, design, and performance. By addressing key challenges and delivering innovative solutions, CultureSuite helped Co-op Live create a dynamic and user-friendly platform that stands out in the competitive arena market.
Next steps
No matter what stage you're at in your search for the perfect web platform or digital marketing tool for your venue, we'll help you get the information you need to make the right decision.
- Join our community of venues and get insider insights.
Learn how to get the most out of Peppered, gain insights from other venues, and add new features to the Peppered development roadmap. Visit CultureHub. - Want to see how Peppered works?
We’re proud of how easy we make it for venues to manage their website. That’s why live event venues around the world trust Peppered. Book a personalised demo. - Looking to partner with us?
If you’re a technology provider, design agency or supplier for the arts and culture sector, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us here. - Want to learn more about digital tools for venues?
Explore our industry insights and expert advice by heading over to our resources page, YouTube channel or subscribing to our newsletter.
