A Decade of Digital Growth

For nearly 10 years, iCandy Design has served as the dedicated digital partner for Leckford Estate. Leckford Estate encompasses unique commercial, leisure and conservation initiatives, requiring a digital platform that could successfully house and manage these distinct ventures. The primary challenge was providing a smooth public experience, while simultaneously enabling nuanced back-end operations across the full estate site and specialised sub-platforms, including Leckford Golf, Leckford Fishing and Leckford Farming for Nature (FFN).

The distinctive feature of this collection of sites is that clever business logic has been integrated into the cohesive front end. We built a robust, centralised architecture for sustained site growth, incorporating complex back-end features like secure booking systems for golf and fishing and a custom, dual-view FFN portal. The FFN portal delivers a public view alongside a secure, login-protected environment for farmers and account users, allowing Leckford Estate to manage B2C and B2B engagement from a single powerful platform.

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Overview

Deliverables

Website Architecture & Development: Engineering and maintaining the centralised platform covering the whole estate.
Custom Technical Integration: Developing and implementing complex, specialised back-end systems to smoothly manage business operations.
Leisure Booking Systems: Creating dedicated, secure online booking and reservation platforms for Leckford Golf and Leckford Fishing.
Farming for Nature Portal: Developing a custom, dual-layer system that provides both a public information view and a secure, private login area for farmers and account users (B2C/B2B functionality).

Infographic Design and Integration

To meet complex informational and engagement needs, we specialise in the design and architectural integration of bespoke, high-value components. We created and embedded a series of infographics to translate technical, agricultural data into clear, concise visual content.

This visual design work was critical for educating visitors on, e.g., the six regenerative practices and the full production process, demonstrating our agility in combining distinct content design with robust development to support the Estate's unique educational goals.

Integrated Booking and Visualisation

For the high-value leisure assets, we constructed bespoke, revenue-generating systems. Real-time availability and booking are deeply integrated into the website's architecture. This allows customers to view, select and book specific river beats or lakes immediately.

Crucially, we built in a custom map visualisation for each beat. This feature is essential for anglers, as it provides a clear, detailed overview of the terrain, boundaries and access points for the exact beat they are booking, enhancing the customer experience and reducing administrative queries for the Estate team.

Ongoing Digital Strategy

Our partnership provides continued growth through strategic marketing and security maintenance. We support ongoing site performance by running targeted digital advertising campaigns, including Google Ads (PPC) and Social Ads management, specifically designed to generate high-quality leads for the Estate's landscaping and design services.

Our strategy focuses on identifying, targeting and converting prospects seeking high-value garden design and landscaping, supporting the team in acquiring new clients.

We also utilise social advertising to showcase the beauty of the Estate, promote key seasonal events and drive high volumes of relevant traffic. Essentially, this work is paired with comprehensive annual maintenance, content support and continuous site security scans, ensuring the platform remains stable, visible and protected year after year.

"I just wanted to pass on my thanks for the work you have done in developing the website. It is a fabulous site and I am delighted with how you have developed the brief to produce such a great vehicle for us to communicate our brand."

Head of Leckford, Waitrose Farm
The Leckford Estate