Box UK wins English Heritage online brief

English Heritage has awarded Box UK a three-year contract to redevelop and manage its website. Box will also advise English Heritage on search-engine optimisation and accessibility issues.

English Heritage head of online services Anne Wright says the project will involve replacing the website’s existing content-management system with a much more powerful one, “that will allow us to do so much more”.

Wright adds: “We have a lot of brand-awareness issues. People think we’re just like the National Trust, but we do much more: we support archaeology, help preserve listed buildings, run the Blue Plaque scheme and provide educational services.”

English Heritage already has an e-commerce site, run by a third party, which sells gifts and membership, but Wright says this will be taken further in house. Box will advise on developing sales.

English Heritage is funded mainly by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, although it also has some income from its 540,000 members as well as from ticket sales and shop profits at the 400-plus historic properties it administers around the UK.

Box was responsible for the award-winning National Maritime Museum site and the recent redevelopment of the Imperial War Museum’s online presence. Other clients include UB40, the Royal Observatory Greenwich, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority and McCann Erickson.