Fred Astaire Dance Studios needed to create a web platform to maintain the Fred Astaire branding across the organization. The company wanted a website that would be modern, mobile responsive, and serve as the web presence for corporate as well as its 170+ franchised locations. The website platform would need to be centralized, and easy for non-technical franchisees to maintain their own local content. The ultimate goal of the centralized web platform is to maintain the Fred Astaire brand and messaging across the organization while providing the company the ability to easily deploy new features universally or allow said features to be turned on at a specific franchise location. Another goal of the platform was to automate the lead generation system so franchise locations would automatically receive form submissions from interested visitors in their geographic area. The web platform would ultimately serve as a tool for corporate and all of its franchisees to save time and money while marketing their web presence online.

The OPG team performed a comprehensive review of the Fred Astaire Dance Studio’s legacy website and worked with the Fred Astaire team to determine the mission and vision not only for the website, but for the business and direction overall. From presentation, brand and design through to full content review and selection, OPG and the Fred Astaire team worked together to determine the most valuable content to transition to the updated site (leaving behind the obsolete content). OPG worked very closely with a select group of studio owners and the corporate office to gather requirements, feedback and input to ensure that the full scope of input was received, balanced and incorporated where relevant. Once the mission was set, supported by validated requirements, the OPG design team created a unique look and feel for the site, focusing on a fully mobile-responsive design. Once the design was conceptualized and approved the OPG development team went to work to develop a powerful, multi site content management platform deployment. Once developed, the OPG Q/A team took to their work and, together with client review and input, finalized the site and prepared for a seamless launch. The final live deployment of the platform was flawless, with no downtime. The platform continues to be extended and adapted to the business needs of Fred Astaire Dance Studios to this day, with the staff at Fred Astaire in full control of all day to day content operations without any technical knowledge.

Fred Astaire Dance Studios has moved from a legacy web platform that was dated in its presentation and supported by outdated technology and content, to a modern, adaptive platform that dramatically enhances the reach of the organization to its customers, while improving the opportunities for conversion. The centralization and consistency of brand across the organization furthers this value and provides Fred Astaire with true and real time control over web and marketing operations. In short, the project continues to be a success for both OPG and the Fred Astaire organization.