ATAK Interactive, Inc.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Vice President of Knauf Maxwell Insurance Services

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Knauf Maxwell Insurance Services is a full-service personal and commercial insurance agency serving the Greater Los Angeles area.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ATAK Interactive, Inc to accomplish?

• Produce a cleaner, higher functioning website
• Establish branding and create organic inbound leads

SOLUTION

How did you find ATAK Interactive, Inc?

Other

Why did you select ATAK Interactive, Inc over others?

Close to my geographic location, Great culture fit, Company values aligned

What was the size of ATAK Interactive, Inc’s team?

2-5 Employees

What was your primary form of communication with ATAK Interactive, Inc?

Email or Messaging App

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The goal was simply to redo our aging website after a merger and a few key changes in organizational structure. We worked with ATAK to achieve a better website and digital footprint.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Final product

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Having known David professionally for a few years, we always knew he would be the choice when it came time to retool our website. However, we still did bring in a competing firm to provide options to our leadership team.

Once we chose to work with them, David and the entire ATAK team delivered timely, polished work and they were a pleasure to work with. The professionalism and polish of their work amazed us, and we have since referred ATAK to several clients because of their outstanding work and wonderful customer service.

Highly recommend them and respect the way they run their business.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The culture is apparent in how nimble this company can achieve results. They were timely, thoughtful, and provided expertise.

Are there any areas for improvement or something {provider_name} could have done differently?

N/A

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the President and Founder of AMC Strategies, LLC - a boutique consulting firm that specializes in strategic planning for Academic Medical Centers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ATAK Interactive, Inc, and what were your goals?

ATAK Interactive developed a beautiful, new website for AMC Strategies. Our goal was to provide an easy to navigate, fresh looking website that featured the unique facets of our business for the academic, medical, scientific and educational clients we serve.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We had a very outdated website (launched in 2003). A client referred us to the ATAK Interactive team. After speaking with them and seeing examples of their work, we were 100% on board with having ATAK Interactive develop our new website.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

After a kickoff meeting with the ATAK Interactive team, outlining our goals for the project - they presented a mock up of our website. The first draft was such a massive improvement from what we had in the past. After a few edits, the final deliverable was submitted. It was stunning!

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked directly with the President, Development + Operations and a senior web designer at ATAK Interactive.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Clients love our website and find it very easy to navigate. The design features our uniqueness, our experienced team and our client list (depth and breadth) which is what we need for our line of work.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

ATAK Interactive is a very professional group with outstanding customer service and communication. During a urgent update of some of our web content before starting a large new client engagement, I reached out to them to ask for 24-hour turnaround on content adjustments and they immediately got back to me and hit this deadline for us.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

ATAK Interactive's top-notch customer service is most impressive. As a small business, we rely on other businesses to support us - I see the ATAK Interactive team as an extension of our team.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No improvements needed. Please keep up the outstanding work. Thank you!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of Just a Kidney. Just a Kidney is the first free location-based social networking platform that facilitates one on one communication between potential living kidney donors and waitlisted transplant recipients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ATAK Interactive, Inc?

We hired ATAK Interactive, Inc to design and build our Web App

SOLUTION

How did you select ATAK Interactive, Inc and what were the deciding factors?

We were referred to ATAK Interactive, Inc by our Graphic Designer. We really liked what they had to offer and were very reasonable.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

After an initial design meeting they started the design for the online store first. Then we proceeded in designing the Web App. Had weekly meetings to go over what had been done and what needed to be done next. Very efficient!

How many resources from the ATAK Interactive, Inc team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked with 3 people. The President of Development + Operations, the Senior Programmer and the Art Director.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

They created a very user friendly Web app that we hope will save many lives!

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

This was our first time creating an App and we feel that working with them was so smooth and easy to navigate! Our weekly meetings were very effective in creating an environment that made the process a success!

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

We worked with another Company to start and felt like we weren’t being heard. When we switched to ATAK Interactive, Inc we felt heard. They were so professional and easy to work with.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

It did take much longer than we had anticipated.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Founder of a retail company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ATAK Interactive, Inc?

ATAK Interactive built our e-commerce website from the ground up on a Magento platform.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to create a streamlined minimalistic website that would be aesthetically pleasing and easy for the customer to navigate through.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

ATAK Interactive stood out from the other proposals because they were the most communicative and detailed. They also didn't come in with an absurdly high quote off the bat that we would have to negotiate down from which I didn't like from some of the other vendors.

Describe the project in detail.

We wanted to create an aesthetically pleasing website with a great user experience. ATAK was thorough in asking exactly what we wanted down to the color scheme, front, text, pages, etc... They are meticulous in their brainstorming process and will make sure you're happy with the end product.

What was the team composition?

We worked with the CEO/Founder David and Designer/Developer Galina.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The outcome was a beautiful and well functioning website. ATAK was patient in waiting for decisions and made any changes until we were satisfied.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The highest praise I have for ATAK Interactive is their communication skills. They never leave you in the dark. It's quite the opposite. They're always there for you every step of the way.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They answer all questions within a 24 hour time frame and get any work done very quickly.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Principal of Berbay Marketing and Public Relations, a marketing and public relations firm specializing in professional services firms, including law firms, real estate companies and financial services firms.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ATAK Interactive, Inc?

We have worked with ATAK on several projects including brochures, ads, and website redesigns.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal for one recent project was to create an attention-getting brochure for a law firm. 

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We have previously worked with ATAK on several projects and have developed a relationship over time.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Our client wanted to redesign their firm brochures, the material they use with current/prospective clients. They wanted something creative and more modern.

What was the team composition?

We worked with Nikola Nikolic and David Ephraim.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We provided ATAK with a creative strategy, including examples of brochures our client liked, and asked for them to design initial concepts. ATAK created several concepts that we shared with our client and as a result, landed on one that we all loved.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

ATAK was patient with us as we went through multiple rounds of revisions and changes. They were very responsive and provided us with creative ideas even though at times, there wasn’t a clear vision for the project.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are very easy to work with, professional and good listeners.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the business development manager for a contract manufacturer within the health foods market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ATAK Interactive, Inc?

We brought in ATAK Interactive to manage our B2B marketing program and campaigns. They’re in charge of all our trade materials to ensure we’re catering to our customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In sum, they created, designed, and modified our site considering SEO best practices. We wanted to ensure that the right consumers were finding us online, so they assisted in all aspects of that endeavor, building the website from the ground up.

They ran weekly marketing campaigns through HubSpot each week. They’re HubSpot certified and actually introduced us to the CRM, helping us transition away from Salesforce. The team laid the groundwork for that platform, even integrating it with our “Contact Us” form on our website.

What is the team composition?

We first worked with Austin (CMO, ATAK Interactive), who gave us the pitch and built the team. Since, we’ve been interfacing with Julien (Managing Director, ATAK Interactive), who’s a HubSpot guru. Recently, they’ve brought on Anca (Marketing Director, ATAK Interactive), and Ryan (Inbound Marketing Coordinator, ATAK Interactive) too.

How did you come to work with ATAK Interactive, Inc?

I was not involved in the hiring process, but I believe we were referred to ATAK Interactive through HubSpot when we were investigating investing in a new CRM platform. Upon further research, our team found that they had a desire to collaborate with us, and their services fell within our budget.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since June 2018, and the projects are ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since the website launched, we have about 80% more visitors to our site compared to last year. The average time spent on the website has likely doubled. That usually results in more leads for us. Several users have complicated the site’s look. It represents our image accurately, which brings us to the next level. 

How did ATAK Interactive, Inc perform from a project management standpoint?

Without our partnership with ATAK Interactive, we would’ve fallen behind on our marketing. They keep us on our toes, making sure to follow up on ads placements and even letting us know if we’re behind. It seems like they’re part of our internal team as opposed to an external partner.

In our work, we communicate using phone and email but also employ Google Drive to share ad progress. Of course, HubSpot was also a critical part of project management. I don’t think we’d be able to use HubSpot effectively without them. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re ruthless when it comes to staying on schedule. That’s something that’s pretty rare in our experience. I’m personally happy that they balance their creativity well with given deadlines.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be great to see them think even more creatively and outside the box. Although, they provide excellent value for cost and cater their work toward us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I haven’t had experience with their team outside of HubSpot, so I’m not sure how everything would be managed if another CRM was being used. If a company wants to use ATAK Interactive, switching over to HubSpot would really give them a boost.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a private Foundation that is aiming to close the PlayEquity gap through grantmaking, education, advocacy and convenings. My role oversees operational.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ATAK Interactive, Inc?

We hired ATAK Interactive to be a design partner in creating all of our branding, collateral, web design graphics, across our different activities, events, etc.

What were your goals for this project?

To create a positive partnership so that we had a go-to design partner who understood our goals and our process and would be able to work with us to apply our vision to our end goal.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

ATAK came recommended through our current outsourced IT provider.

Describe the project in detail.

The overall project/goal is to create compelling graphics/visuals/design to allow our work to stand out and to be positively represented through visuals.

What was the team composition?

The team was composed of the Chief Creative/Design Officer, who was always available, though our we have a primary point of contact, our project manager, who does a great job of keeping track of all of our requests, status updates on requests in-progress, and translating/applying our conversations into reality.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

They have effectively created great design themes across large events that have yielded very positive feedback.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Extremely effective, in no small part due to their responsiveness.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Working with them is like having real-time colleagues who understand our vision and our goals. They get our purpose and are able to bring all of those pieces together.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Might be interesting if there are other methods, outside of email, for tracking email and progress on projects.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CEO of Telstraight International, a reseller of networking hardware, data capture hardware, and various other commercial and consumer-grade products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ATAK Interactive, Inc?

We hired ATAK Interactive to help our company establish a brand and create a website that included a large number of customized integrations and connections.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to establish an online presence and connect directly with our customers. We had sales, marketing, web development, and brand goals. Each was segmented and focused on specific action items and development markers.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We interviewed several similar companies but found that we were the most comfortable with ATAK Interactive. When we sat down with their CEO and CMO, we immediately felt like they were just as much a part of our company as we are. There are no cookie-cutter solutions provided here. They will tailor their services to fit their clients’ needs.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We started with creating the name and image of our brand by first identifying our key strengths and added value, which helped create a tagline. Alongside the brand development, the webpage was built on Magento 2 and required an enormous amount of custom code. We needed our existing ERP to communicate directly with our web page in order to accommodate inventory and pricing changes, along with product detail imports, order imports, customer imports, and so on.

Everything was built from the ground up. ATAK Interactive has even supported our marketing campaigns and social media presence as well.

What was the team composition?

We’ve worked with approximately eight to ten people who have worked on web design, API development, brand development, and marketing. Each team has a lead that takes our ideas and goals, breaks down the finer details, and then reverts it back to their own unique teams.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We started with $0 in sales on a new platform and very quickly rose above $60,000. Beyond the sales, we became connected to a new organic customer base that we had no previous means of accessing. The boost to the customer base and additional revenue were additional stabilizers for our business.

ATAK Interactive can literally do it all including branding, web design, coding, SEO, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Blog, etc. They’ve been involved in every component of this project.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

After understanding our goals, we created a checklist and roadmap to move through the details. We all knew the order in which things were going to be done, who was going to do them, and when they were going to be done. This allowed the development work to flow naturally and all parties were on the same page throughout.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their ability to customize services to accommodate all goals is striking. We operated on a new ERP system that ATAK Interactive had no prior knowledge of, but they were willing to take a deep dive into the system to figure out how to integrate it with our new web page. Furthermore, billing is transparent and the care they provide their accounts is second to none.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can’t think of any area that can be improved. ATAK Interactive deserves five stars all around.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the creative director for all our companies at Anderson & Vreeland Inc, a company in the flexographic printing space. They’re the parent company of Nova Polymers, a company that manufactures equipment and materials that are used to produce ADA compliant signage. For example, we produce the signs you see in a hotel with raised type in Braille. We’re also an American Institute of Architects continuing education provider and continuing education about the ADA Act as it relates to visual impairments. Architects then specify our material and contract documents.

The third company that we own is the Provident Group. That company makes a niche product that’s also used in the flexographic printing industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ATAK Interactive, Inc?

Anderson & Vreeland Inc. is an older company. We originally had a very old website built on HTML that was very difficult to update. We had some content, but we needed to clean a lot of it up, add to it, and reorganize it in a smart way. There were also modernization efforts needed for our marketing and CRM.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ATAK Interactive, Inc has been influential in transforming the perception of Anderson & Vreeland Inc. They completely rebuilt all three company websites with WordPress. Each of the websites looks unique and has its own domain. They moved all our organization’s websites onto a dedicated server with a guaranteed 5-9 uptime with a really fast response rate.

They help us understand our CRM by implementing HubSpot to understand our traffic on our website and the behaviors of the visitors. In the marketing space, they help to create ads that are in print publications, promotional videos, social media campaigns, and email blasts. Their team contributes press releases and blog posts. Any posts they write are posted according to SEO principles to drive more traffic. They also develop our educational content and understand customers’ data.

They have a recipe for success, and they apply it, not exactly the same for each company, but the basic model and belief system is the same that they apply and then tweak it for the individual companies.

What is the team composition?

Austin (CMO, ATAK Interactive, Inc.) was my point of contact for strategy. There are two project managers we deal with on day-to-day matters.

How did you come to work with ATAK Interactive, Inc?

A colleague of mine knew one of their previous partners. We got to know each other on a personal level first and started talking about what they did. The firm we were working with was still using antiquated technology and wasn’t progressive in the way that they were building things out. Austin and I clicked.

I’m a very relationship-driven person and I took the time to start knowing about him and what his beliefs were about how he ran the company. I met some of the people that were working there and the next thing I knew, I was giving them work to do. The next thing I knew, we were moving all our business to them.

How much have you invested with them?

We invest $250,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2012 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The amount of traffic has at least tripled for each of the sites. Anderson & Vreeland Inc. went from old and stagnant to being young, full of energy, vibrancy, and new ideas. The entire industry gave us feedback on how much we’ve changed. We have curated a portfolio of best in class solutions for our industry. Those are the type of things that engages a different type of people.

On the content side, they shifted us from talking about products to people. We started doing more testimonials and making it about people because people connect with people.

They do exceptional work and the experience is really good. They took the time to get to know the company and what we wanted to achieve. A big part of our success is we consider them a partner and we interact as though they’re a part of our team.

How did ATAK Interactive, Inc perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is exceptional. We use Basecamp; everything is cloud-based. We have a marketing meeting every two weeks that generally lasts an hour. Julien (Managing Director, ATAK Interactive, Inc.) is amazing. He keeps everybody on task and does a really good job balancing being aggressive with being respectful. If we’re trying to put together a piece and people aren’t getting back to him with content that he needs, he’s really good at that balance of pressing when he needs to and knowing how to handle each individual person.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of the things that we love about them is their interest in getting to know the company. This allows them to write intellectually intelligent blog posts about products within our industry. They don’t have anything to do with flexographic printing or ADA signage, but they learned about accessibility codes anyway. If someone sends them a picture for us to put in our gallery of an ADA compliant sign and that picture isn’t ADA compliant, they know if it’s not compliant. They’re able to know the individual products and what they do.

Because of that, they’re able to organize the site in a way that is intuitive. They’re able to write content that is almost at an expert level for our site without having somebody from the field come and help them with it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing they could do better. I wish every experience I had with people was modeled after ATAK Interactive, Inc. We are super happy with them. They’re 100% dedicated. For example, we have tradeshows on the weekend, and they stay up late at night editing footage that we share to put together a video release early the next morning. We’ve formed friendships with them which makes everything better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You need to be open, overcommunicate, and trusting. Let them do what they do and be clear about what it is you want to achieve. They’ll ask other probing questions to fill in the gaps from what you don’t get. Once you do that, you must believe in the end vision that they’ve painted for you. If you’ve been open, they’re going to constantly be giving you feedback. Then you just have to trust the process.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re All City Employee Benefits Service Association [ACEBSA]. We provide benefits for the employees of the city of Los Angeles. We provide supplemental insurance and benefits such as a place where they can pick up movie tickets, theme park tickets, merchandise, and city branded merchandise.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ATAK?

The provider for the websites we had wasn’t doing enough to meet our standards. We needed our website redesigned and support on our digital marketing through social media. We wanted a bigger footprint on the digital side through our website. We wanted to bring in more business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They asked us exactly what we wanted and put it all together. They send us ideas and collect our feedback. They built a Magento site from the ground up and put our products into a web store. Before, people could see the products and would have to come pick them up or call in and order. The most important thing they did was make it easier to manage orders through a web portal, which they also linked to our in-store POS machines. We went live in about 90 days. We refreshed the site about two months ago.

They also do SEO and social media marketing for us.

What is the team dynamic?

We’ve interacted with about four people over the years including Austin [CMO, ATAK Interactive, Inc.] and David [CEO, ATAK Interactive, Inc.]. They were the main points of contact when we were building the site. Now, the main points of contact are Austin and Sarah [Content Marketing Coordinator, ATAK Interactive, Inc.], who is the social media/digital marketing person. I’m in contact with them daily. There was a girl who was working with them and doing what Sarah does now; she’s been the only switch in three years.

How did you come to work with ATAK?

Our marketing assistant researched companies. We had a couple of companies lined up for meetings, but after the first meeting with ATAK, we canceled the other ones. I felt comfortable with their understanding of what we were trying to do, and I didn’t feel like it was too much work for them to build a site from the ground up within the timeline. I felt comfortable that they were going to be able to accommodate us with what we needed. They were very detailed and they did their research. They had good ideas. They were a great fit from the beginning.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested $150,000 with monthly maintenance and the site build.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2014 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The previous site generated about $3,000 per year; last year, we brought in about $65,000. They did marketing promotions like online coupons that have really helped our bottom line. Before ATAK, our site was outdated and wasn’t functional; now it functions well and looks better. We’ve made a complete transformation from where we were before ATAK.

How did ATAK perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management rates at a 10 out of 10, the highest level. Everything was delivered on time and within our budget. Sarah and I have a weekly, in-person meeting. We also interact by email several times per day.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s easy to work with them. I can send Sarah and Austin an email and, within an hour, they fix the issue or whatever I ask them to do. They’re always responsive and take care of things. I don’t have to chase them down.

Working with them is seamless with no issues whatsoever. They are open and available to take care of our needs. They bring their clients’ visions to life quickly and efficiently.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.