Case Study: Custom Solution for NYFTA's Expansion

New York Food Truck Association   (NYFTA) is a leading player in the advertising and experiential marketing space, creating unforgettable food truck experiences for global brands like Google, YouTube, and Nike. They bring the vibrancy of New York’s food culture to high-profile events, corporate activations, and brand campaigns. NYFTA needed a custom CMS that could integrate seamlessly with their existing processes, enhance SEO capabilities, and support efficient content management without risking data loss or compromising their established workflows, ensuring scalability and ease of future updates.

NYFTA’s previous website network couldn’t keep pace with the complexity of its expanding business. They needed a custom solution that could handle multi-location brand activations, manage a growing volume of content, and offer a sleek user experience for clients researching services online. Their website also needed to be future-ready, integrating with various third-party tools and ensuring scalability as they took on more projects with some of the world's largest brands.

Southwave designed and developed a CMS tailored to NYFTA’s needs, focusing on high performance, flexibility, and ease of use. We delivered a solution that elevates their online presence and simplifies their backend operations.

• Multi-Location System NYFTA manages multiple events and locations simultaneously. We developed a system, enabling them to create custom, branded sub-sites for various locations while maintaining a unified backend. This allows NYFTA to expand into new markets seamlessly and offer localized experiences without rebuilding the entire site from scratch.
• Custom Drag-and-Drop Page Builder We implemented a fully customizable drag-and-drop builder, empowering NYFTA’s team to create, update, and manage content without the need for technical expertise. Whether they’re showcasing a new project, launching a brand partnership, or promoting an event, the team now has the flexibility to move faster in the world of experiential marketing.
• Advanced CRM Integration - Hubspot Before the migration, HubSpot was already linked to NYFTA’s site forms, directing submissions into their CRM. Moving to a custom solution allowed us to refine this setup, ensuring seamless data flow from site inquiries directly into HubSpot. This adjustment supports NYFTA’s team in managing engagement and sales processes with greater ease, enhancing their ability to respond to leads promptly and effectively.
• Interactive Quoter (website lead magnet) Simple digital quoter that allows users to generate custom preliminary quotes based on their specific needs and event parameters. This enhanced the self-service experience, reducing the time from inquiry to action, and helping NYFTA capture leads more effectively.
• SEO and Page Speed Optimization In a competitive market where you fight for every second, speed is key. We made sure NYFTA’s website not only looks good but performs well. With advanced SEO settings and a laser focus on page speed, their site ranks higher in search results, bringing in more organic traffic and delivering a superior user experience.

When selecting the technology stack, our decisions were driven by the client’s specific needs and the challenges we aimed to solve. For this migration project with the New York Food Truck Association, we utilized the following technologies:

• CMS & Framework: WordPress, Nuxt.js, TypeScript
• Back-End: Node.js, Laravel
• Database: MongoDB, MySQL
• Cloud Storage: DigitalOcean Spaces
• Integrations: HubSpot, Postmark, Pinterest, Instagram

The only way to truly understand the value of our solutions is through the review of our clients. Samuel Ruel, a representative of the New York Food Truck Association, shared his experience working with our team:

“Southwave has a diverse team of experts that can specialize their workforce for whatever needs may arise. While developing the new CMS on Vue.js, we also suddenly had a need for designers to create visual assets for the new websites. Southwave was able to provide this service at an excellent rate, and the team was better informed than a freelance designer because the team already knew our business style and goals. Southwave does an excellent job of communicating accurate timelines and estimates for work completed. All of our milestones were met on time aside from a few delays related to unexpected changes and/or issues with development. Southwave fully met our needs as a company throughout the entire process.”

We are truly grateful for this review, as it reflects our commitment to delivering tailored solutions that meet and exceed our clients’ expectations. Hearing about the impact of our work inspires us to continue providing innovative and client-focused services.

You can find Samuel’s full review and more on our Clutch profile.

This project presented its own set of challenges, but our priority was clear: to address the client’s needs in a way that would genuinely benefit their business and support their future growth. For us, it wasn’t just about solving the problem - it was about creating a solution that is practical, relevant, and impactful, ensuring it seamlessly integrates into their operations and drives long-term success.

New NYFTA’s site is more than just a website - it’s a powerful tool that allows the team to deliver world-class brand activations with ease.

In the advertising industry, agility and innovation are crucial. NYFTA’s ability to deliver memorable brand experiences relies not only on its physical operations but also on its digital ecosystem. With our solution, NYFTA is now equipped with the tools to manage their SEO, rapidly growing portfolio of events and locations while ensuring every client interaction is seamless, efficient and secure.