+62%
Organic traffic growth year on year after launching the redesigned site.
Events / Web Design
A faster, ticket-first website for a much-loved Cambridgeshire air show.
The Little Gransden Air and Car Show needed a website that could handle a rush of summer ticket buyers without slowing down. We built a fast, mobile-first site that puts booking front and centre and gives families, exhibitors and traders one clear place to act.
0.9s
Mobile load time achieved, down from a sluggish experience on the previous site.
+38%
Increase in click-throughs to the ticket booking page from organic visits.
The Client
About Little Gransden Air & Car Show
The Little Gransden Air and Car Show is a volunteer-run charity event held each August at the historic Little Gransden Airfield in Cambridgeshire. Since 1991 it has brought together flying displays, classic cars, live music and a dusk firework finale into a full family day out.
Over the years the show has raised over £400,000 for BBC Children in Need and other local charities. With 300 or more vehicle exhibitors, dozens of traders and thousands of visitors each year, it is one of the region's best-loved community events.
The Challenge
The website needed to do most of its work in the few weeks when ticket demand peaks.
Booking buried below the fold
Buying a ticket was not the first thing visitors could do. The clearest call to action competed with everything else on the page, and conversion suffered as a result.
Slow on mobile when it mattered most
Most visitors arrive on a phone after a social post or announcement. Traffic spikes around early-bird release, and the old layout struggled to keep pace.
Booking journeys were scattered
Tickets, trade stalls, car registration and VIP passes all lived in different places, so each audience had to hunt for the right route before they could act.
Limited search visibility
For a seasonal event, the site lacked the structured service content and local targeting needed to be found reliably year on year through search engines.
The Brief
A clear set of priorities
The new site needed to feel welcoming, energetic and trustworthy, while staying simple to use and straightforward for volunteers to maintain year after year.
- Put ticket booking front and centre
- Make it genuinely fast on mobile
- Unify every booking route in one place
- Modernise the design without losing the warmth
- Build an SEO-ready structure for a seasonal event
- Make annual updates easy for volunteers
The Approach
Built around the people using it
We started by mapping what each visitor needed to do first: buy a ticket, exhibit a car, book a stall, or plan their day. Then we built the site around those journeys.
/ Information architecture
Content was reorganised around the main visitor actions, so families, exhibitors and traders each find their route within a couple of taps and move naturally towards booking.
/ Visual design
Bold event photography, clear typography and generous whitespace carry the charity's warmth and energy without becoming overdesigned or hard to navigate.
/ Development
Built in WordPress with Divi using reusable sections volunteers can update each year, with ticketing handled through TicketFlex and streamlined forms for trade and vehicle registration.
/ Search optimisation
Each page was given a clear search purpose covering the event, the location and exhibitor information, supported by logical headings, metadata, internal links and locally relevant copy.
Key Features
What we delivered
Bespoke event design
A custom visual direction built around the show's character, audience and the cause behind it.
Mobile-first development
Layouts designed for the phone first, where the majority of ticket buyers actually arrive.
Unified booking hub
Tickets, trade stalls, car registration and VIP passes brought together into clear, obvious routes.
SEO foundations
Search-friendly headings, metadata, internal links and image optimisation throughout every page.
Volunteer-friendly CMS
Reusable sections the team can update each year without rebuilding pages from scratch.
Conversion-focused CTAs
Booking prompts placed at the moments visitors are most likely to take action.
The Outcome
A website built to sell tickets and simple for volunteers to run the rest of the year.
+62%
Organic traffic, year on year
0.9s
Mobile load time
+38%
Click-throughs to booking
Designed properly. Built to work.
The Little Gransden project combined clear strategy, considered design and practical development to create a website that is ready for the busiest week of the show's year and straightforward to manage for the volunteers behind it.
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