halfGenius

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the VP of sales and marketing for Lima Company, a mechanical contractor that provides heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), plumbing, and refrigeration services. We also handle building automation and co-generation projects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire halfGenius?

We had to refresh an outdated website.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to bring our online presence up-to-date and increase touchpoints with current and future clients.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We met them at an Arts Unleashed event and pretty much knew it was a fit. They had us at hello.

Describe the project in detail.

They helped us refresh our website and fine-tune our message. We also had to figure out the content and consistency of our social media messaging and newsletter. Another parallel project was creating the sell sheets for the services we offer. They also did a video for us that highlighted a full day at New Jersey Motorsports Raceway in Millville.

What was the team composition?

At any one time, up to 5–6 people from halfGenius were involved in our project. We truly feel that their whole team was vested in our company and our success.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What outcomes or results can you share that demonstrate progress and/or success?

We just finished the major project, so it’s a bit too soon to tell. The video was awesome and our clients and friends loved it.

How effective was the project management?

These folks are great. From the start, their team was very organized, collaborative, and responsive. They hit all of our deadlines and the follow-up was impeccable. With my schedule, it was a must.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their honesty, integrity, and energy were refreshing. They just want to do the right thing for people, and that comes across in their actions.

What tips or recommendations do you have?

Not at this time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Valentino is a luxury fashion group with stores worldwide. We are based in Rome and have couture men’s ready-to-wear, women’s ready-to-wear, the secondary younger line. I am the social media worldwide digital communications manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with halfGenius?

We were creating content specifically for use on social media that was in relation to our biggest standalone store worldwide at the time. It was a big investment for the company, and on a communication level and a visibility level, the content was important. They were trusted with the creative concept production and deliverables of content for our social media platforms which are YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

We have our own in-house team, but they only provided fonts and maybe some copy. The concept, production, creativity, and execution were from halfGenius.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a store opening on Madison 5th Avenue in New York — at the time the biggest store in the world for my company — and they created a time-lapse film. They were on-site when the store was in the construction phase and continued to move the camera around to get the shots needed until they had a finished product. They also created video content for the in-store cocktail and after-show parties.

The challenge they had was the location. It was a building site under construction, so the challenge was the logistics and coordination with all the various teams. They rose to the challenge, and their videographer was excellent. The end footage was approved immediately. There was no need to go back and forth or have re-edits. The timing was essential, and they delivered it on time and to the brief. In the end, we were all very happy.

During 2008–2012, they also created a custom designed YouTube channel for us, as that was when YouTube still allowed custom channels. They have since taken all those down, but they designed an innovative and custom-built channel for us.

What is the team dynamic?

Rachel [President, halfGenius] was the project manager.

How did you come to work with halfGenius?

We met at a digital conference in Austin, Texas. They presented me a deck with some creative ideas and I really liked them. They were approved internally and then we moved forward to start collaborating.

We vetted other companies and we have our own always-ready set of collaborators, but in our field, we like to mix it up a bit and not always stay with the same people. It’s important to get a different perspective every now and then.

How much have you invested with them?

They were competitive and the value for the quality/quantity ratio was a good match for us.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them on this project in April of 2014 and the video was completed in December.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We were happy that the video was approved immediately. There was no back and forth edits or changes to be made, so they understood the brief, the company, the aesthetic, and our DNA very well because usually there are edits to be made.

How did halfGenius perform from a project management standpoint?

They were excellent; always accommodating and available. I could not fault that in any way. We communicated through emails and phone calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The availability, flexibility, and ease of communication was impressive. They definitely go above and beyond to satisfy our needs, and the speed of the execution was perfect.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could maybe pitch ideas for other platforms. But at the time of the request, that might have been a harder sell.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If they could share as detailed a brief as possible up front, that always helps the provider. They’re extremely pleasant to work with.

BACKGROUND

I'm an accountant executive at Grey, which is a full service ad agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

We hired halfGenius to develop software that would allow fans to create and print cheer signs on site for our Canon Little League sponsorship project. The goal was to promote Canon PIXMA printers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

After I told halfGenius what we were looking for, they came back to us with a few ideas, and then produced an app allowing people to use their iPads to create their own cheer sign and print them right there, on site.

They came to the Little League World Series, provided iPads that people could use to draw, write, and customize their cheer signs. The app connected with printers enabling users to print customized cheer signs immediately thereafter.

The design was finalized internally before halfGenius developed and implemented everything.

What is the team dynamic?

We worked with Jason and Rachel, who came on site to install the software and make sure everything was running smoothly.

How did you come to work with them?

They came recommended by one of our production companies with a successful first hand experience. There was at least one other company under consideration but halfGenius had the more impressive proposal.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $15,000-20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Collaboration began in 2016 but this project began in July or August of this year and the whole thing remains ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The project was a definite success; it produced  great results both in 2016 and 2017.

The 2016 event had two dedicated iPads with their own functioning software. Users from that event designed and printed 600 different signs using the developed solution. The second event yielded more favorable results with  3600 cheer signs designed and printed. The waiting lines for the iPads were incredibly long and the experience appealed both to children and adults.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re professional and always willing to offer process feedback. Problem-solving and patience are also major strengths.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We have a personal relationship with them, they're a small company with great attention to detail. The nature of our relationship means we can be completely transparent without risking as much, which isn’t always the case with larger agencies.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The prices during the first year were fairly high but were reduced for us by the second.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the practice administrator for Bucks-Mont Eye Associates, an ophthalmology- and optometry-based practice with nine physicians. We've been in practice for about 45 years and have over 50 employees in total.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with halfGenius?

We needed to build a web presence, specifically by revamping our website and making it much more effective. We serve a lot of elderly people, though, so we didn’t want to do solely digital marketing; we needed a partner that could improve our online presence while also maintaining high-quality print work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Once we hired halfGenius, they learned everything they could about our company, industry, terminology, daily routine, etc. We have a few different ophthalmology specialties, and they educated themselves before working on our WordPress site.

When they had enough information, they started to update our old website. It used to be managed by Dex Media. but they were impossible to work with, and halfGenius understood that. They improved as much as they could, gave us their opinions, suggested themes, and rewrote a lot of the pages. Their team worked on both design and dev, and they even took professional pictures at our practice to get a really sleek site.

halfGenius also does SEO work, analyzing our keywords and giving us suggestions for what we should target. We had a blog on our previous site, and we collaborated on it together with halfGenius to make it more interesting and relevant.

Now that the site’s up, our next step is to focus more on social media and building our web presence, especially our Facebook page. The plan is still in being developed, though.

What is the team dynamic?

We mainly work with Rachel [Director of Business Development] and Jess [project manager].

How did you come to work with halfGenius?

We heard of them through word of mouth. We interviewed several agencies, but felt halfGenius was the most personable; they actually wanted to understand what we did and how we did it, and they wanted to help us find the perfect marketing strategy.

We considered hiring a company with specific experience in designing for ophthalmologists, but we chose halfGenius because we knew we could contact them at any time.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $10,000 on the initial investment, and we currently spend $1,600 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in December 2016, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Our old provider gave us monthly reports, but they just felt like empty numbers. With halfGenius, we get those reports, but we can also see the impact of their work. For example, now we receive inquiries from the website on a daily basis. That wasn’t happening before halfGenius.

Our patients love the site, especially their portal where they can watch videos and find helpful information. The whole look and feel of the site is much more modern and appealing, and we get consistent positive comments about it.

How did halfGenius perform from a project management standpoint?

Rachel knows our company extremely well. I can talk to her about any aspect of our work, and she knows what I’m talking about. She’s honest with us and doesn’t try to get us to spend money unnecessarily, unlike a lot of other agencies. I trust her and that she’s doing what’s best for our business.

Jess works hard and always meets our deadlines. I can contact halfGenius at any time, and they respond to me within minutes. They send me ideas, we workshop a lot of concepts, and it’s a very collaborative and friendly relationship.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Because halfGenius is a small firm, they were able to pay attention to and get to know us much more than other agencies. A lot of bigger places don’t take time to develop a personal and friendly working relationship, but halfGenius really became part of our team. Their solutions and work weren’t just a template, but designed specifically for our business.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I haven't had a negative experience with them at all.

Advice for potential customers?

Seriously consider using halfGenius. I know they’re small, but that makes you one of their most important clients, and their work is always satisfactory.