The problem
LJ Hooker New Zealand wanted to overhaul the user experience across its many office websites and give its New Zealand marketing staff more autonomy. The network's websites were constrained by overseas corporate systems: the core data lived in Australia, and local teams had limited room to present their own offices and markets the way they wanted. LJ Hooker needed a New Zealand web presence it could run locally without breaking the link to the group's data.
What we built
Working alongside LJ Hooker's digital marketing agency, who handled the visual design, Applicable built the platform and the 80 websites that run on it. The build includes integrations that pull core property and office data out of Australia, New Zealand locality APIs so addresses and suburbs resolve correctly for the local market, and an overlay of CMS-entered extended information so each office can add its own content on top of the shared data. One codebase, one data pipeline, 80 sites that each look like they belong to their office.
The result
The site set launched across 2014 and 2015 and has been maintained and added to since, with Applicable as the ongoing partner. That longevity is the outcome the old site pointed to: a multi-site platform still in service and still being extended years after launch, rather than one that had to be rebuilt. For a franchise or multi-office business, this is the pattern that works: shared data and code, local control over content, and a team on a retainer to keep it moving.
Key takeaways
- Applicable built LJ Hooker New Zealand's set of 80 custom office websites over 2014 and 2015.
- The platform integrates core data from Australia, New Zealand locality APIs and CMS-entered local content.
- Applicable continues to maintain and extend the site set as LJ Hooker's ongoing development partner.
