CIRCUS

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Future Students Business Partner of University of South Wales

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

The University of South Wales (USW) is one of Britain’s most exciting and ambitious universities. Innovative, thriving and sustainable, we work to build better futures for our students, our communities and our partners economically, socially and culturally.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire CIRCUS to accomplish?

• Production of VR tours highlighting the key facilities and spaces across our various study locations.
• Generate immersive VR headset versions of the same for use at recruitment events nationally and internationally.

SOLUTION

How did you find CIRCUS?

Online Search

Why did you select CIRCUS over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from CIRCUS were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The University of South Wales required VR immersive video tours to represent the five study sites, alongside those highlighting student life at USW and our Clinical Simulation Centre home to practical learning for our Health students. All videos required edits in both English and Welsh language. In addition to desktop/mobile edits another key output was immersive 360 versions for use on VR headsets at national and international recruitment.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ensuring accurate representation across all key facilities and that the tours brought USW to life. Key metrics to demonstrate success include analytics of video views and progressive web traffic, and also peer and enquirer applicant reviews and feedback.

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

Circus360 were very responsive across all facets of the project. As with all projects of this nature there were a lot of moving parts, and Circus were always on hand to support with advice and guidance whenever needed. The plan for capture and outputs was an evolving process, and Circus were excellent at facilitating this and ensuring requirements were addresses whilst delivering an outstanding final outputs.

What was your primary form of communication with CIRCUS?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Circus360 are a perfect combination of creative and profession. They were an ideal fit for the project we wanted to deliver and did so fantastically.

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

We were very happy with the pre, during and post-project service and support. Would highly recommend.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Recruitment Marketing Officer focusing on Events Management for a unversity, with an emphasis on prospective student visits.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CIRCUS, and what were your goals?

We wanted to create a virtual visiting opportunity for prospective students who could not experience the University in-person, something we know anecdotally is key for recruitment and conversion.

As we were a bit later in developing this experience compared to other universities, we hoped to create something unique that stood out from a traditional virtual tour.

SOLUTION

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

After meeting with several virtual tour companies, the decision to go with CIRCUS was unanimous - our first meeting with Jay and the team demonstrated immediately that their creativity, innovation, and above-all professionalism were well ahead of anyone else.

CIRCUS immediately understood what we wanted and were eager to work with us to create something unique and exciting.

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

Our first meetings with CIRCUS involved the development of the primary idea, moving away from a map with pictures to a more interactive, innovative platform based around a series of themes, each of which includes 360 images, audio and video.

CIRCUS helped us develop the themes, then allowed us to choose the locations we felt were most important for filming, and which should be 360 vs. drone video footage. We worked closely with both filming teams to ensure that the town and University were captured at their best and to as full an extent as was possible; both teams were incredibly professional and innovative, thinking on their feet as we moved through town.

Much of the more detailed development work such as text and sharing of pictures was done through a series of Google folders and sheets.

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

We worked closely with the Director, as well as our initial contact/project manager. During filming we worked with two teams of photographers/videographers, each of which was about 2-3 people.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project is only just complete and has not been publicised, but the feedback internally is overwhelmingly positive, and the Directors are very pleased with the professionalism of the site.

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

We communicated primarily through email and a shared Google sheet, where we made changes and alerted the other team as to the updates. The team was always happy to have a virtual meeting whenever needed to straighten out details.

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

The immediate understanding of what we wanted and the excellence we hoped for in our final product; our first meeting with the creative team was professional and innovative, and they were enthusiastic and excited to work with us from the start. The final product is fantastic.

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

The filming schedule was delayed a few times due to weather and distance, and while this is absolutely not anything that could be controlled, it was probably something we could have understood better at the outset.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Head of Global Marketing for a product line at a cybersecurity company based out of Finland.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CIRCUS, and what were your goals?

We asked Circus to film a short film in VR on a cyber attack. The aim was to then upload the film into headsets to send out to prospect customers

SOLUTION

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

We searched for a VR company based in London and then had an initial kick-off call with Circus. The team were truly fantastic, had a wealth of knowledge and had some great ideas. So we were confident in going ahead with them

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

They filmed a VR video in 180. Our deadline were very tight as we needed to deliver the project within 8 weeks. Despite this, Circus were able to deliver at every given deadline

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

I worked with Jay the Creative Director. Joby, Head of Production, and also their copyrighter and sound lead.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project launched on time (in early December) and it has so far generated some fantastic leads for our sales team to follow up on

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

Fantastic communication. I am super grateful to the whole team, as no matter what time I emailed, they would always respond (often v late at night). The team are super hard working and responsive.

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

Their level of knowledge and expertise around VR was incredible — I learned so much. Working with Jay and Joby was great - such nice guys and a true pleasure to work with.

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

No nothing! Couldn't fault them in anyway

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Porter Novelli is a PR agency in London working for a variety of clients. I work as a Senior Account Executive on the Health team and worked closely with the team at CIRCUS on this project.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CIRCUS, and what were your goals?

We hired CIRCUS to help us develop a disease awareness campaign on behalf of one of our pharmaceutical clients, as we had some beautiful imagery that we wanted to house in an exhibition space. Our goal was to create an exhibition that could educate people about the disease, tell patient stories, provide resources for those impacted, while keeping people engaged throughout the exhibition.

SOLUTION

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

Through researching different vendors, we found CIRCUS online and what made them stand out was their online presence, and great examples of similar work they had created in the past. Following our initial call with the team, we could see they already understood the idea and what we wanted to do with the campaign.

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

We worked closely with CIRCUS to discuss what the project would look like, and they understood our vision very quickly. They developed the exhibition space, suggested content that we should create to enhance the experience of attendees, and delivered the final product on the date we asked.

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

There were three people in the core team, including a creative director and head of VR production.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Although the project has not yet launched, our client is extremely pleased with the outcome, and we look forward to building on what has been developed over the next few months.

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

CIRCUS communicated really well with us and kept us in the loop with timings regularly. They met all deadlines they set for themselves, and those that we set, and were honest and open with any concerns / further ideas they had during the development of the exhibition.

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

They are really professional in terms of their correspondence with us and presentations to our clients. They really understood our brief, as the design space they developed was spot on.

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

Sometimes different versions of documents would get lost in the email traffic, and on both ends, creating a more streamlined process for version control would've been helpful.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the web project manager at Staffordshire University. We’re a UK university and higher education provider.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CIRCUS?

Since we could no longer do so on campus due to COVID-19, we approached them because we were looking to develop a 360 virtual tour platform to engage with prospective students and market ourselves digitally. We wanted CIRCUS to create several UX prototypes.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially went on a design and development process. We did UX testing and gauged the user acceptance of the different UX mockups. Then, we went forward with those developments, and CIRCUS came up with an innovative UX solution that was fully compliant with the best accessibility guidelines.

The virtual tour is posted on WordPress, which ended up being very attractive for us. Firstly, because it provides content management features. Secondly, because we’d already had experience internally with the platform.

What is the team composition?

We work directly with the developers and a project manager, creative director, lead web developer, director of photography, and head of design.

How did you come to work with CIRCUS?

Not only were we impressed with the functionality of the virtual tours, but their high-quality 360 photography made them stand out in the UK market. Also, we were pretty impressed with their storytelling abilities, use of visuals, and the technology they worked with. That’s why we chose to work with CIRCUS across the competitors.

Once we made the initial contact, we gave them the scope and quickly realized we were both on the same page, making us very keen to go forward and work with them.

Additionally, cost-saving was another point of difference for us. Once we assessed the difference in cost between the first five years, we found out that it was less than a quarter of what some subscription business models were offering, so it was an obvious choice. We were still able to achieve a feature-rich and fully accessible VR experience by paying for the development upfront.

How much have you invested with them?

Over the two year years, it’s £50,000 (approximately $69,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in October 2020, and the first phase was completed in July 2021. Now, we’re working on phase two, which will be completed by the start of next year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We measure our success by their ability to contribute to our online engagement and conversion metrics on our university website. We’ve seen a targeted increase in our virtual open day activities, which has produced an increase in conversions of about 10%. Moreover, we’re conscious it’ll continue to improve once we finish phase two, and the project’s reach will also expand to other campuses.

How did CIRCUS perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve performed very well. The team provides us with clear guidelines of what we should expect of the project. Our contact with their stakeholders is frequent and friendly, and communication is always very clear. For the most part, it’s been an ideal project.

We don’t use project management tools other than the ones we use internally, like Trello. We’ve done some collaborative work on digital environments, like Google Sheets, but it’s quite lightweight. For communication, we mainly use emails and phone calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

A lot of things about CIRCUS have impressed us. However, the most impressive thing is that they’ve done a fully featured and unique VR experience that still achieves all our strict accessibility requirements.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’d like to see more rigorous CRM integration, but I think that had more to do with us working within our constraints since we’re on a budget.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Do it. CIRCUS does a great job of presenting high-quality, visually engaging content that tells a convincing story from a marketing perspective and is also widely accessible across various devices. In addition, they’re definitely more than capable of doing that in a VR environment, so I don’t hesitate to recommend them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Learning and Outreach Manager for the Crossness Engines Trust. The CET manages the Crossness Pumping Station, a Grade 1 listed industrial heritage site in S.E London

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CIRCUS, and what were your goals?

We wanted to create a virtual guided tour of Crossness to engage audiences on-line. Our goal is to monetise this tour offer so providing a high quality product is essential to achieve this.

SOLUTION

How did you select CIRCUS and what were the deciding factors?

Researched and met with several production companies working in the field. Circus offered us valuable suggestions and guidance on producing the best user experience for our audiences.

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

Circus shot aerial drone footage and 360 photographs of the exterior site and interior spaces adding archive material and video footage at key points to create a rich, visual 'journey' through the site.

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

3

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Trust members are delighted with the tour. We did some initial testing with audiences in the tour development stage and have scheduled further evaluation sessions with testees in the coming weeks.

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

This was a step into the unknown for us, Circus is always available to answer any queries or concerns.

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

The stunning high quality visuals

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

The only improvement would have been the weather! Having to reschedule shoot days several times due to rain and still meet the project deadline was somewhat stressful - but we did it!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Editor of BBC Studios

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Media production company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire CIRCUS to accomplish?

• To deliver a 360 virtual guided tour which we integrated into a larger multimedia campaign

SOLUTION

How did you find CIRCUS?

Referral

Why did you select CIRCUS over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Referred to me

How many teammates from CIRCUS were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Circus delivered a virtual tour of the California Academy of Sciences using drone footage and 360-degree photography stitched together into an immersive virtual environment with voiceovers from contributors and informative hotspots embedded with images and text. Circus developed the creative, conducted the shoot, and built the environment.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We're interested in total page views, unique page views, dwell time, interactions.

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

CIRCUS was proactive, communicative, patient, and flexible throughout the project.

What was your primary form of communication with CIRCUS?

Virtual Meeting

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

The standard of the final piece is exceptionally high.

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

Not that I can think of!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

English Heritage is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CIRCUS?

english Heritage hired Circus to deliver a new virtual tour for Clifford's Tower in York that would be accessible from the website.

SOLUTION

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

The appointment was based on a tender process. Each tender was reviewed against a specifi set of criteria.

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

On appointment we held a project start meeting, discussing the aims and objectives, content and timescales for delivery. Englis hHeritage issued all of the content required for the tour with Circus producing all of the 360 site photography. The project involved a series of meetings, in line with the project delivery stages to assess the content, aesthetic, function and usability testing, bringing the project to successful completion.

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

English Heritage worked with the Creative Director throughout the process and team specialists to deliver the end product.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The virtual tour includes some additional access features such as audio options. These are features that have not been included in other english Heritage virtual tours and sets a new benchmark.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The team at Circus were very quick to respond to requests and additional meetings, where required.

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

CIRCUS was very professional and easy to work with. The team supported new ideas and found ways to integrate them into the build.

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

I feel our experience in working with Circus has been a hugely positive one and would welcome the opportunity to with the team again.