Creative Era Media

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm one of the owners of a Calgary-based kombucha company that sells to over 1000 locations across Canada as well as direct to consumer via an online store.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Creative Era Media?

To manage our social media - creating content, scheduling posts. The goal was to increase followers and engagement with our target market.

SOLUTION

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

Creative Era found us and reached out to pitch services, at the time we had someone inhouse doing this. When that changed for us we liked what we saw in their work elsewhere and chose them based on that and Nolan having a great pitch and seeming like someone we would like to work with.

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

Creative Era took over our social media in full. I communicated what events or info we wanted to have included in posts each month in a shared sheet and they curated content and scheduled posts.

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

Two people. Georgia and Nolan. Not sure what their specific positions were but Georgia was who I worked directly with for providing the content and Nolan is who did photography and video/reel development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had increased engagement and followers increase - not sure of the exact metrics on either but improved steadily over the course of working with them.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective, their communication is excellent and anything we were working on was done when it was promised and very well.

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

Streamlined and simply process to be able to work with them for our needs. Only ever had two points of contact and response times were always great. They were also very flexible as things came up, and we wanted to add them to the already scheduled work that month.

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

Nothing specific comes to mind for this. It was a great experience overall.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the operating partner in Melrose which is a casual dining restaurant

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Creative Era Media, and what were your goals?

Creative Media is our social media management company. Our goals were to increase our social media presence, create more content that is engaging for our followers and help to build a solid engaged social media base.

SOLUTION

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

Their knowledge of social media, their ability to lay out their plan and how they do things and how they grow brands, how they build engagement. They were young and hungry for business. THey were very organised.

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

We meet weekly via online zoom meetings to discuss upcoming planning. They visit our location once a month to get a lot of shoots of food, drinks, the space for content creation. We communication almost daily on Slack with new posts, content and needs from both sides.

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

Just one - Nolan, company owner.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

My social media base has grown 15% since they have taken over, also they are building our engagement and feedback which type of content does well and has user feedback.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective, they are very responsive, open to feedback.

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

They are organized, they know what is going to be posted well in advance, they send over regular work orders to me for what they will need for us to make them on regular dates. They are very open to feedback, and I can see huge improvements in their work in the short time I have used them. I have never had to ask twice for something, never had to follow up. they say and deliver on what they are going to do.

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

He is building a fantastic company and it is exciting to be a part of this growing group of entrepreneurs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a membership-based massage therapy provider with 10 locations in Edmonton, Canada. I’m the president, overseeing operations overseas. We don’t have an advertising arm in our company, so I handle that as well.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Creative Era Media?

We had absolutely no presence of social media, including Instagram and Facebook. When advertising came under my responsibility, I hired Creative Era to build our social media presence and social media advertising effort.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve created everything we posted to our account in the past three years, including graphics, photos, and videos. Creative Era handled all the editing for all these mediums as well. During our promotions, Creative Era handled our in-store advertising, including poster design and point of sale advertising. Finally, they created a contact form for site visitors to fill out.

What is the team composition?

I worked closely with Nolan (Founder). He was my first point of contact and has remained so throughout the project.

How did you come to work with Creative Era Media?

Nolan reached out to me. We set up a meeting, and I really liked his personality and direction. I’d worked with a few other providers in that space, but Nolan brought the social media experience. We had a Google Ads resource, but they weren’t working for us either.

How much have you invested with them?

The budget was around $150,000–$200,000 CAD (approximately $188,000–$251,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 2018–April 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our social media following went from non-existent to 2,500 followers. We also increased our ability to reach out to guests personally, rather than through print, advertising, or radio. We’ve been able to build connections with people and grown significantly as a company these past three years, even through COVID.

How did Creative Era Media perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate over Slack and have monthly calls. Our meetings used to be in-person until COVID, and we’ve just switched back to face-to-face meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Nolan makes us a priority even though he has other clients and there are other people in their company.

They also understand our business, even though it’s fairly unique. Nolan actually subscribed to our service and went through a massage so he could learn about our business. This makes a big difference, as he has up close experience with our services. I always feel valued while working with them; they initiated conversations and would check-in on the campaigns themselves.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wanted to expand into different areas of marketing after COVID and had to end my relationship with them because they didn’t offer what I was looking for. Increasing their service offerings would allow them to be a one-stop-shop like I was looking for.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you understand the point of the project and the deliverables, as well as how you’re going to measure success. Creative Era will educate you, but you have to let them know where you’re starting from.