The JET Awards, Just Eat Takeaway's (JET) annual restaurant awards ceremony, reward restaurants worldwide for their achievements. For the 2024 edition, the JET team wanted to create a digital experience that was faster, more user-friendly and more scalable than the existing solution. Cube was chosen as a partner because of its technical expertise and ability to enhance the platform to make it not only more efficient, but also easier to manage for marketing and team members in different countries.
During the previous edition of the JET Awards, the platform ran into technical limitations. The outdated system could not properly handle the huge spikes in traffic during the voting rounds, leading to frustration for both users and the team. Even minor content changes were time-consuming, and data processing was a complex, manual and error-prone task. The platform needed to be redesigned to improve both usability and performance.
The solution: flexibility and speed with a new digital experience.
Cube developed a completely new platform for the JET Awards in just three months, with a focus on speed, efficient management and an enhanced user experience. The system enables management of all stages of the awards, from partner registration and nominations to voting and the announcement of winners. Designed to grow with the event, the platform provides the stability and scalability needed to smoothly handle high spikes in traffic during the voting phase.
A mobile-first approach for an optimal user experience.
The new platform was designed with a mobile-first approach, meaning it is optimised for mobile devices from the ground up. This was crucial, given the large number of users visiting the website via smartphones and tablets. The mobile version offers a smooth experience, making the JET Awards accessible anytime, anywhere.
Flexibility for local teams with a user-friendly CMS.
Another key part of the solution was the development of an intuitive CMS, which allowed marketing and team members in different countries to manage content and monitor campaigns independently. Each market was given access to its own section within the CMS, allowing local teams to make updates independently without relying on technical support. This increased teams' autonomy and ensured that changes could be implemented faster. This allowed teams to respond quickly to changing circumstances and launch new campaigns or updates efficiently - essential to the success of the JET Awards.
Improved visibility in search engines.
Thanks to the implementation of SEO tools in the new JET Awards platform, visibility in search engines improved significantly. Just Eat Takeaway's review team provided valuable recommendations that were applied immediately, such as optimising titles and descriptions for Google. This resulted in better search performance, such as higher rankings for searches like "best pizza in Amsterdam".
Peak traffic? No problem.
Through smart global caching via Cloudflare, scalable voice processing with Message Queue and efficient data processing with ElasticSearch, Cube created a solution that ensures Just Eat Takeaway's platform remains fully operational even during peak times. Thanks to this approach, hundreds of thousands of users can search for information and cast their votes without any problems, while server load remains minimal.
Additional measures have been taken for the voting rounds of the JET Awards to ensure the integrity of votes. With reCAPTCHA, bots are kept out and suspicious voting behaviour is quickly detected. Each vote is automatically analysed based on user behaviour, allowing fraudulent activity to be quickly identified and blocked. A key measure was the use of "browser fingerprinting", which uniquely identified each vote. This increased the reliability of the vote and strengthened both partners' and users' trust in the platform.
Automated data entry with Google Maps API.
One of the biggest improvements in the new platform was the integration of the Google Maps API. Previously, partners had to enter their address data manually, which often led to errors such as misspelled street names or incorrect postcodes. This slowed down processing and made it difficult to verify data quickly. Thanks to API integration, addresses are now entered automatically, reducing the administrative burden while providing cleaner, more reliable data. This saves considerable time and made address processing much more efficient.
The impact: A scalable platform for the future.
The revamped JET Awards platform is more stable, resistant to peak traffic and ready for annual updates. Marketing teams can monitor campaigns in real-time, while manual data processing has been minimised. Within the CMS, teams can easily create pages for each stage of the awards and activate them at the right time. This streamlines the process and provides the flexibility to operate independently each year, with a scalable solution that ensures speed, accuracy and reliability. The new platform is not only more user-friendly but also significantly more efficient, allowing the JET team to focus on strategic decisions rather than technical obstacles.
The collaboration between Cube and Just Eat Takeaway shows how a well thought-out digital solution can not only improve the user experience, but also the efficiency and scalability of the organisation behind a large event. Cube remains a valuable partner in supporting the continued growth of the JET Awards.
"We get nothing but compliments on how the platform looks and functions."
Sophie Nolan
Global Marketing Campaign Manager at Just Eat Takeaway,
Our team. Or well, actually Just Eat Takeaway's team.
A social Front-end Developer who loves structure and always keeps an overview. A valuable colleague within our team - not only on the shop floor, but also at Friday afternoon drinks!
A social Front-end Developer who loves structure and always keeps an overview. A valuable colleague within our team - not only on the shop floor, but also at Friday afternoon drinks!
As fanatical as Jarno is in the gym and on the tennis court, he is also committed within Cube. His strength? Thinking along with clients' business and getting to the heart of business processes.
As fanatical as Jarno is in the gym and on the tennis court, he is also committed within Cube. His strength? Thinking along with clients' business and getting to the heart of business processes.
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