The Brandon Agency

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner/manager of Sawtooth Game Calls. We are new startup business in the outdoor and hunting space. We have a variety of duck, deer, and turkey calls.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Brandon Agency?

We used The Brandon Agency to for brand strategy, web development, photography, packaging design, and on going social media marketing.

What were your goals for this project?

The goals of this project were to launch the business and going forward to increase awareness and sales.

SOLUTION

How did you select The Brandon Agency?

Not only does The Brandon Agency have a reputation to be the best of the best, but I also saw their clients and work in the outdoor space and thought that The Brandon Agency would be the perfect fit.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

The Brandon Agency has done a lot to not only help get our business up and running, but they are also helping with the marketing moving forward. They initially helped to create a brand and a logo. The logo that they created is AMAZING! The Brandon Agency then helped create a website and now they are helping to promote the business to increase brand awareness and sales.

What was the team composition?

The Brandon Agency is great when it comes to teamwork and communication. I have been in contact with several people throughout the business and they all have been great to work with.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The initial goal of helping to launch our business was completed. Not only was it done fast, but it was also some of the best work I have ever seen. Also, it seems like everyday that the brand awareness and sales are going up everyday.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was awesome. Not only was everyone easy to work with, but there was also great communication.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Although I have been impressed by everything, I would say the thing that I am most impressed by is the logo design and web development.

Are there any areas for improvement?

none

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of operations for Newland Communities. We develop residential, master-planned, commercial, retail, and urban mixed-use real estate. In addition to overseeing our operational procedures and delivery of products, I’m also responsible for coordinating with our marketing department to ensure a cohesive brand identity.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Brandon Agency?

We hired The Brandon Agency to help us refine our overall marketing strategy and brand messaging.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Brandon Agency functions as our full-service marketing provider. They assist our internal marketing team in achieving a variety of goals. That includes producing both print and digital materials to communicate what it’s like to live in our communities. Their team helps with our photoshoots and frequently writes press releases. They also coordinate and manage all of our automated marketing campaigns.

They contributed to the success of a major project in late 2016. We were opening a community for sale to the public and required an enormous amount of effort from both our operations and marketing teams. The Brandon Agency developed and implemented an awareness campaign to coincide with the community’s grand opening. Then, they continued a diverse marketing push to maintain the advising momentum they cultivated leading up to the opening.

More recently, they’ve helped us further evolve and update our brand identity. That process required them to coordinate photo shoots and video testimonials between multiple parties. They worked around weather delays from a hurricane, but still completed the project as scheduled. That process was fairly effortless on our end. They took the lead and delivered.

What is the team composition?

They assigned a project lead as our primary point of contact.

How did you come to work with The Brandon Agency?

They were already under contract with us when I started this position, so I don’t know how we found out about them. They were interviewed and hired by our VP of marketing.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend over $1 million for their services each year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2016 and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

While marketing seems like an intangible factor at times, we’ve consistently reached our sales goal thanks to their advertising efforts. The Brandon Agency helped us achieve and maintain a significant presence within the real estate market. We’re one of our industry’s leader’s regarding digital outreach and traffic. The marketing materials they produce captures the lifestyle experience of living in our communities. People recognize our brand.

How did The Brandon Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

While I’m involved with their projects, our marketing director handles the day-to-day project management and task allocation. However, I haven’t heard any negative criticism regarding their performance. Whenever I contact them, their project lead is responsive. Generally, they offer a quick turnaround time compared to other vendors.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We appreciate their willingness to meet with us face-to-face and work through complex tasks. They make the time to sit down with us and listen to our feedback. They’re available whenever we need to change directions.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the marketing director for frogg toggs Outerwear. We sell technical raingear, waterproof fabric, personal cooling products, and waders for hunting and fishing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Brandon Agency?

We engaged The Brandon Agency to broaden our brand awareness, enhance our marketing channels, and provide insights and content for digital and social advertising.

What were your goals for this project?

We were looking to increase brand visibility, drive B2C sales, and improve how we capture and communicate with our customer base.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We had a previous business relationship with some of their team members. We consulted their prior clients and found that they had a reputation for excellence.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

The Brandon Agency handles nearly every facet of our marketing division. Their team helps develop all creative products in our marketing sales portfolio. These products include photography, label and hangtag development, retail packaging, and POP displays. They also manage the backend of our Magento website. They handle the creation, management, and distribution of all our advertising, including digital (both AdWords and keyword), social, and print content.

What was the team composition?

We work with the agency principal, a dedicated account manager, and some support staff. We have open communication with every member of the team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Brandon Agency has exceeded our expectations. They deliver high-quality products quickly at fair prices. The team demonstrates professionalism and efficiency in every project.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Their excellent communication enables their exceptional results. They keep us updated on all open projects and maintain a high level of organization. Their managers and skilled professionals are some of the best in the business.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their team has satisfied my demands for excellence in marketing our brand and products. I hold vendors to high standards in performance and efficiency; The Brandon Agency has more than surpassed them.

Are there any areas for improvement?

While opportunities for improvement always exist, they are infrequent and minor with The Brandon Agency.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

CresCom Bank is a financial institution based in South and North Carolina with 34 branches. I’m the president of the commercial bank and founder and current director of the institution.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Brandon Agency?

They helped us from day one to create a name, tagline, and marketing strategy relative to the times. We started with them back in 2000, so social media was not quite as popular as today. They also handled the public relations side of a startup bank. We use them today as a full-service advertising partner, which includes social media, public relations, creative, and advertising campaigns and the executions that we choose to invest in, in order to further brand and market our products.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They have 99% control of our Facebook page. We need to approve any outbound content because of the nature of our industry, but they’ve done a really good job of learning our business and it doesn’t take a lot of editing once we get content from them. Any commentary that comes in on the site that they believe is positive or might help us improve a service, they share with us. They recently signed us up for LinkedIn as a company. They also handle our Twitter feed which hasn’t been material, but they believe it’s an important part of the social media piece for the future. Scott Brandon, the CEO, was involved with our company from the beginning and continues to stay involved. I would normally be hesitant to have someone outside of the banking industry create content because of compliance, but they’ve learned our requirements very well over the years.

How did you come to work with The Brandon Agency?

I was Scott's banker at my prior employer, and part of being a community bank is that you look for talented people within the market. He chose to invest in us and in our market. There are several good agencies, but given the family type relationship with Scott, we didn’t consider any other agency. I knew him as his banker and I also knew him in the market for the talent that he brought to the table.

How much have you invested with The Brandon Agency?

This is confidential. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2000, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement? 

For two consecutive years, we have been awarded Best Bank by the Reader's Choice Myrtle Beach Herald, and in the fall of 2016, the Charleston Post & Courier Readers Choice # 1 community bank. Without the Brandon Agency's expertise in branding, PR, social media and advertising strategies, we would not be recognized in our communities to the extent we are. It is a twofold compliment to the Brandon Agency for creating opportunities through their executions and CresCom Bank for our ability to deliver the experience the client values once the relationship opportunity is created. 

How did The Brandon Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

We have an account representative that manages the daily tasks of our relationship. We have a monthly meeting that she oversees and Scott and his team participates in. We have four people internally within the bank that are on our marketing committee. In the fall, we set the objectives for the coming year as a group with everyone’s input to make sure we’re on the right track. In the next meeting, The Brandon Agency comes back with suggestions on where we might consider investing the next year. They develop a plan which includes the creative material and executions, and we use that to execute our advertising and marketing through the next year. We’ve been doing this together for 17 years, and have grown together, so our process has become very efficient.

What did you find most impressive about The Brandon Agency?

We looked at several checking account acquisitions companies to help us with the acquisition project. The Brandon Agency suggested we use someone else because that was not part of their expertise. This acquisition strategy allows us to grow households. When we get a customer’s checking account, we consider that we’re part of their household. That allows us to gather other pieces of their financial lives and provide more services. We invest $600,000 a year with this other partner. The value of that to me from The Brandon Agency’s perspective is they understand what they’re good at and they not only will help you leverage that for your benefit, but they also won’t take you down a path where they don’t feel they can provide value. 

Are there any areas The Brandon Agency could improve?

For me, with marketing investments, the return on investment is often difficult to quantify. As a banker, we like to see black and white results. For instance, in our industry, if you place a certificate of deposit advertisement and hit the right rate and term, you can see the increase in dollars timely. In contrast, you can't really quantify a lot of the branding work. I don’t know how they can improve in that respect, but it's something that would be of greater value. We would benefit from having measurements for our executions and seeing the direct results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Brittain Resorts and Hotels is a resort management company. I’m the vice president of sales and marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Brandon Agency?

Our objective with The Brandon Agency is to stay at the cutting edge of marketing as it relates to hospitality and travel. We have an in-house social media manager and she is the liaison between our company and Brandon. We represent about a dozen properties, so to have one person manage all the pages is too much.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They manage our social media, including Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. We use them for digital content creation including videos and they write articles for us every month for our social and SEO. We use another company to manage our SEO. We produce 10 videos a month that highlight something new in town or something new on the resort. It might be a new slide, a new bar, a restaurant, etc. They handle TripAdvisor, TripConnect, or Instant Book which is kind of a PPC program.

How did you come to work with The Brandon Agency?

The father of our owner knew the father of The Brandon Agency’s owner.

How much have you invested with The Brandon Agency?

This is confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

I think we’ve been working with them since the ‘80s, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

It’s been tremendous working with them. They have been helping make the company successful since I was 10. They’re the biggest agency in Myrtle Beach. The Brandon Agency has helped us create as much success as any other bigger city agency has. We have seen significant results in terms of followers and engagement on social media. They do an amazing job.

How did The Brandon Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

We haven’t had any delays. Everything seems to go fairly smoothly. They always have enough resources to accomplish what we need.

What did you find most impressive about The Brandon Agency?

The owner is extremely talented, successful, and keeps up with trends. Their company is becoming more successful which means we’re less important to them now, in a healthy way. They’ve bought up 3 or 4 agencies across the country in the last 2 years. The owner seems to do a good job of putting good people beneath him to manage all the accounts. Even though he’s busy, I can still call him and he’ll meet with me to discuss a project.

Are there any areas The Brandon Agency could improve?

They're pricing is a little high for Myrtle Beach but competitive for an agency their size. Online outsourcing makes the expense hard to justify on smaller projects but you still need that face to face presence for a true creative partnership on larger companies. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief marketing officer of Farmers Telephone Cooperative. We are a communications provider that offers Internet and wireless voice services, as well as security and digital TV.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Brandon Agency?

We made a decision years ago not to have a lot of internal staff on the marketing side, so The Brandon Agency acts as our marketing department. We heavily depend on this resource to assist us with campaigns.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Brandon Agency helps us manage our website and PR services. They are a full-service agency.

Today, we have a certain number of homes in our area that still don’t have our services. We are currently running a campaign to win these potential customers to Internet, voice, and digital TV. The primary medium we are using is direct mail. For selected areas that had low penetration of our services, we’ll be doing multiple marketing tactics that include geofencing and TV sync.

The Brandon Agency also assists with the assembly, editing, and placement of content for a local channel on our digital TV system. They do all of our creative ad copy, whether digital or traditional. We also use them to do disconnect survey tracking and reporting. In addition, they help us manage Facebook and our website. We have strategic meetings of our budget year and we make decisions about how the funds will be spent. Together, we create an adjustable yearlong plan based on past results. We take our sales history for the prior year and try to figure out what media works the best for different products. We then pre-buy media to get more bang for our buck. Every year for the last four or five years, we’ve increased the percent of our budget that goes to digital advertising. 

How did you come to work with The Brandon Agency?

We had previously used a different agency. Several years ago, we had a few agencies come and do presentations to show us how they worked and provide estimates for their services. After The Brandon Agency did their presentation, I knew right away they were the right fit for us. They had experience in the communication space as well as a very strong creative presence. They were very technical and forward-thinking. We thought they would help us move forward. They had experience working with other communications providers plus they were knowledgeable about our major competitors in our service territory. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The most recent project started in December 2016 and it’s ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We are in a very competitive area. We track our net numbers and our service orders on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis for all of our products and services. We tie these numbers back to specific campaigns to determine which advertising medians work best for each product offering. 

The Brandon Agency’s team is very creative, marketing savvy, and well-verse on the digital media side. They usually give us several options to try out. As our relationship grew, they are learning to understand our style. At the same time, they challenge us and make sure we try different things to see what works best in our marketplace. We’re trying to get better every week at sales and retention—that’s our ultimate goal.

How did The Brandon Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

We have an excellent account manager who helps us manage our projects daily. Every Wednesday, we have a weekly status call to go over our projects. They provide spreadsheets that help us stay on track. We use email, phone, and text to communicate. We try to have a quarterly meeting at one of our locations to review and plan. 

What did you find most impressive about The Brandon Agency?

They have a tremendous amount of experience and provide a lot of different services for us. They’re always available, aggressive, and technically sound. We have a great relationship.

Are there any areas The Brandon Agency could improve?

If we had any bumps in the road, there was always an open door of communication.