When 150,000 users flooded a web platform in just four hours, with no ramp-up, no downtime, and real-time interaction required, Redberry made it possible using Laravel Cloud.
Built on Laravel in just three weeks for the Bank of Georgia, the project delivered a high-stakes, emotionally charged experience on Georgia’s Independence Day (May 26), allowing 63,622 Georgian emigrants to submit a form and light up a digital flag displayed live on a giant LED screen in central Tbilisi.
The project presented significant technical challenges: It had to handle massive traffic surges, process tens of thousands of form submissions in real-time, and broadcast each update instantly to a digital canvas. All in under three weeks for a four-hour campaign. And it worked.
Here's a look at the real-time Georgian flag Redberry built in three weeks using Laravel:
The Challenge: Real-Time Engagement at Scale
With only three weeks to deliver the entire platform, Redberry had to build a system that could simultaneously support different elements:
- Mobile-first submissions for tens of thousands of Georgian emigrants
- Instant pixel updates on a public LED screen
- Interactive live data streams for local spectators
And all without a complex onboarding process: no accounts, logins, or passwords. Users just submitted their name and country of residence through a form and watched as their pixel lit up Georgia's flag in real-time.
The platform used IP-based logic to deliver a separate experience for visitors in Georgia. Instead of a submission form, they saw real-time data on Georgian emigrant participation and a live view of the flag outside the Hall. This dual-interface design enabled both local and global audiences to engage with the campaign, showcasing the scale of the Georgian community worldwide.
“With just three weeks to launch and only four hours to execute, we had to handle a massive flood of traffic from the start without a ramp-up period. That’s often the nature of high-visibility brand campaigns, such as this one for the Bank of Georgia, which serves over 2.5 million customers.” – Giga Giorgadze, senior fullstack developer at Redberry
Scaling with Laravel Cloud in Just Three Weeks
Scalability was a key concern from the outset. Laravel Cloud enabled Redberry to quickly set up hosting that could scale elastically to meet sudden surges in traffic.
We chatted with the Redberry team to learn more about the project:
The campaign ran for just four hours, during which the platform handled over 150,000 visitors and processed 63,622 user submissions. Traffic surged massively during the event, with users from the U.S., Europe, Australia, and the Middle East flooding the platform to participate.
“We’ve built countless projects with Laravel, and we’re accustomed to the seamless productivity it offers during development. What Laravel Cloud brought to the table was that same level of efficiency, but now for deployments and infrastructure, allowing us to scale instantly without worrying about downtime.” – Nika Jorjoliani, head of Engineering at Redberry
Backend Stack: Laravel Cloud, Filament, PostgreSQL, and Pusher
Laravel Cloud made it easy to spin up infrastructure and scale it to meet demand on the fly, with zero-downtime deployments. This was a critical feature for Redberry, as the platform displayed real-time updates on a massive LED screen in downtown Tbilisi.
The deployment setup itself was intentionally lean and straightforward:
- A single Laravel application cluster on Laravel Cloud
- A Pro 2 vCPU and 2 GB RAM instance capable of scaling to two instances
- A managed PostgreSQL database
- A single Redis cache
What made the setup notable wasn’t its complexity, but its speed and reliability, as it was delivered in just three weeks and able to handle massive, spiky traffic during a highly time-sensitive event.
Laravel Cloud's flexibility ensured the entire process, from frontend interactions and pixel rendering to broadcasting, stayed fast and responsive.
Given the three-week deadline before the actual launch and the real-time requirements, Redberry had to choose a backend stack with rapid feature development and reliable tools. The team used Laravel’s built-in capabilities for real-time broadcasting and queues to process thousands of incoming submissions reliably.
PostgreSQL provided a stable, scalable database layer for persistent data, while Pusher and Laravel Echo handled real-time messaging so that pixel updates could be broadcast directly to the screen as submissions were received.
Filament powered the admin panel, giving the team role-based access control, moderation, and monitoring without sacrificing speed.
Backend business logic stayed streamlined, allowing the team to focus on delivering a stable, scalable core experience under immense load.
Frontend: React, Inertia.js, and Canvas
On the frontend, React and Inertia.js enabled the team to create a reactive interface that could switch seamlessly between user states (emigrant vs. local) without a traditional API. Inertia.js handled both initial rendering and background polling to determine when the campaign ended, allowing for smooth transitions to the final thank-you screen.
The Canvas animation was custom-built using the native Canvas and Blob APIs. No external libraries were used. When a new submission came in, Laravel broadcast the event via Pusher; Laravel Echo on the frontend picked it up and triggered a red pixel to light up on a pre-rendered white flag.
That interaction played out live on one of the largest LED screens in Georgia, turning the display into a massive public tribute. Though exact foot traffic wasn’t measured, hundreds gathered at the Tbilisi Philharmonic Hall during the four-hour campaign to watch the flag come to life dot by dot.
This separation of responsibilities—Inertia for app flow, Canvas for animation, and Echo/Pusher for live updates—allowed Redberry to build a reactive interface under intense time pressure.
Tailwind CSS ensured the design matched Bank of Georgia's creative requirements while supporting the rapid iteration the team needed. From pixel animations to real-time updates displayed on Cloudflare Turnstile-protected forms, the UI remained lean and engaging.
Designing for Accessibility and Impact
Design decisions weren’t only driven by technical requirements; they had to make the campaign's emotional core accessible. Every screen was tailored to the visitor's context: emigrants were greeted with a simple submission form, while local Georgians saw real-time updates and the evolving flag. Mobile-first design ensured accessibility for all ages and skill levels.
You, Too, Can Build in Three Weeks
Redberry and Bank of Georgia created a tribute that felt personal and real-time for Georgians worldwide. Making the most of Laravel's scalability, integrations, and real-time features, the team built a platform that connected people across borders through a shared celebration.
“Laravel let us stay focused on delivering an emotionally impactful, deeply symbolic experience for the Georgian diaspora without having to think twice about the tech stack.” – Kosta Milorava, lead developer at Redberry
The result was a memorable visual experience that could scale under immense demand; 150,000 visitors and 63,622 submissions in just four hours. A powerful reminder of what can be achieved in little time with a focused team and a developer-friendly framework like Laravel.
Check out Laravel Cloud and make effortless scaling built-in from the day you launch.