Asahi

I’ve been working on the Asahi Super Dry website since February 2018 as the sole backend developer, collaborating with a frontend developer and project manager. Built using Python and Wagtail, this marketing and blog platform serves local teams across the world, including the US, UK, Ireland, Italy, Canada, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and many other markets.

Global Compliance and Age Verification

One of the most challenging aspects of this project has been navigating the complex regulatory landscape across different countries. Each location has varying age restrictions and content rules for alcohol-related websites. To address this, we built a custom security “age gate” system that asks users where they’re from and when they were born. This sophisticated system even handles granular requirements, such as Canada where each province might have different rules. The site defaults to English, but each local team can translate and customise their pages to suit their local market requirements.

Content Management Platform

We’ve developed a comprehensive CMS platform that balances brand consistency with editorial flexibility. Given Asahi’s strict brand guidelines, we leverage Wagtail’s systems to enforce the look and feel whilst giving content editors the freedom to write what they need. The platform includes a wide variety of branded widgets that editors can use to build engaging pages and blog posts, including embedded videos, rich text sections, nutritional information tables, and collapsing FAQ sections.

Product Finder Integration

Several of the local sites feature an embedded “product finder” map that helps users locate Asahi products in their area. These maps are powered by SleepyMap, a project I built from scratch, and they serve thousands of users each month across the various regional sites.

Advanced Competition System

A major component of the platform is our sophisticated competition form builder, which extends Wagtail’s standard form capabilities. This system allows content editors to quickly build competition mechanics and collect entries with advanced features including instant win mechanics, detection of repeat entries within dynamic time windows, and tiered prize allocations. The flexibility of this system has enabled us to create diverse competition formats that regularly attract tens of thousands of entries when they run.

Technical Infrastructure

The flexible translation system (internationalisation, i18n) I built ensures that each regional team can effectively localise their content whilst maintaining the core brand experience. This technical foundation supports the global nature of the platform and enables consistent deployment across all markets.