Embacy

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the product manager at Deutsch Online, the largest German language online school in Europe.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Embacy?

We've hired Embacy to develop the new identity for the school and to design the showcasing website deutschonline.ru.

What were your goals for this project?

It was important to develop an identity for the school that would stand out among the competitors. It was important that the identity would be flexible and could be easily used in different mediums: social media, our website, YouTube thumbnails, presentations, etc.

We wanted a consistent recognizable style at every point where our students and potential clients would interact with the brand.

SOLUTION

How did you select Embacy?

We've looked over a lot of design agencies (over 200), and met over 20. We've picked Embacy because during our meeting we recognized their expertise. It was important for us to work with professionals, who we could trust in design. Also, Embacy had great cases in the educational sphere.

Describe the project in detail.

The project took 5 sprints (weeks): 1 week to develop the identity, 4 weeks to design the website. At the initial stage, we would meet every day, give comments, and make adjustments.

During the work on the website the first week was spent on the main page, the other three — the rest of the content for the website, adapting to different formats. After the project was finished, there were about two weeks for other adjustments that were previously missed.

What was the team composition?

We've worked with Embacy's project manager Daniel E.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've started to use the identity developed by Embacy on our social media and YouTube, which has improved engagement. The accounts have reshaped. We've got positive reviews from our students and noticed a rise in our analytics. Can't speak for the website at the moment, it is not live yet.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We've liked their sprint system and the speed at which the project moved very much. Daily check-ins — the perfect rhythm for our team, we always knew exactly what was going on in the project and could quickly react to any change.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We were particularly impressed by the speed. And we really like that we could rely on their team for the design. The manager helped us provide well thought-out comments and not lose sight of the business goals for the project.

Are there any areas for improvement?

For the improvements, we could note that we wish the team worked on their copywriting skills (we had to put additional work on numerous texts after the project ended).

And there were complications with a big amount of small changes: we've had a big project with a number of pages and in different formats, we had to note the changes on every page at every level. And we wish that the team paid more attention to the mobile version.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Simla is a tool for e-commerce and retail. We help people set up line sales in online stores and even offline. It's a B2B SaaS product. I'm the design director at Simla.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Embacy?

We've approached Embacy to make a new identity for our product and the visual language for our positioning so we could start on the international level.

What were your goals for this project?

To make a new identity for our product, and we were also interested in Embacy's Webflow expertise. We wanted to try a new tool for our web positioning, make a community, make a/b tests, attract developers, etc.

SOLUTION

How did you select Embacy?

We needed a company that had a great deal of experience with international projects, and that could walk the thin line between sophisticated "festival design" and regular working products that thousands of people use every day.

Describe the project in detail.

We had regular productive calls on the positioning. A well built, consolidated, competently set up managerial process. We could work in comfort. In Figma, we quickly saw different options and directions for us to pick. We got what we had asked for, and then were also presented with more options to pick from. Just generally a competently set up agency process.

What was the team composition?

Sofya Narbut was the project manager from Embacy's side. Everything was on time, quick reactions, good attention to detail. The art director Elisey had good vision and high skills. And the founder of the agency, Vadim Orlov.

A powerful presence, justifies the agency's reputation. Very responsive and very flexible. Don't usually meet people this flexible, but I could say that about everyone at Embacy. Good reactions to feedback, the whole team is very responsive.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We can't say anything, as we haven't launched yet. But we can confidently start with this solid base that we've got.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Art direction coming from both sides could make or break a project. Here it was mutually beneficial to have different angles, different points of view. I could openly air my disagreements, and they could quickly make corrections. It was very effective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The responsiveness, the degree of involvement, the painstaking approach. The wish to always match their self-imposed high standard of quality. Managed to make high-quality work in a limited time.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Already told everything personally to Vadim, so I don't want to repeat myself. But it was more in the format of finer details, whatever small things I could think of at the time.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Kodland is a coding school for children. We teach kids basic computing and different programming languages, to make games, apps, sites, etc. We have our own platform where the classes take place with personal accounts, tasks, and gamification. I'm in charge of the marketing department, with our entire marketing being my responsibility, including our website.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Embacy?

To make a new main page for our website, and a page detailing the courses.

What were your goals for this project?

The main goal was to show to the visitors all the relevant information about the school. As a startup, we change rapidly — we often change both our courses and the platform, and our old site had outdated info, as we've made it back when we founded the school.

A lot has changed since then, and we wanted to provide up-to-date information in an accessible, understandable, and pleasing way. The other goal was to make a website where our visitors could easily find answers to their questions and save us plenty of time on calls and sales.

We could respond to easy questions with a link to our website, or our potential clients wouldn't even ask those as they'd already read the information on the website.

By the time we get to the sale, they're informed and warmed up to us, and we would spend time talking about more particular details about the education. The final goal, an emotional one, was to get a "wow" effect from the website. To make it look fun and cool and to set us aside from the competitors.

SOLUTION

How did you select Embacy?

That was one of the criteria by which we picked agencies, we'd looked at their previous project and whether that "wow" effect was there. But if we don't take into consideration the portfolio, their previous clients, what projects they did, what finally made us choose this vendor is the structure of the communication we had.

We had a call over tasks and goals, how will the project be handled and how would that work, that every single day I'd be able to see the progress. That I wouldn't have to ask different people, but that I could clearly and easily see the work done each day, and what's next.

That was very important, as we've had bad experiences before when deadlines got delayed, and you didn't know how they work, and that's just frustrating. But here the process is clear, transparent, and I didn't have to worry about the results.

Describe the project in detail.

They came up with three different concepts for the website and picked a spotlight. A spotlight that lights the way of the student and this learning way is made of code and various IT elements. We've span this idea in various ways, tried different options, and finally decided on illustration style and that the spotlight would color these illustrations, and sometimes we would use illustrations with the photos of our students, mixing the real and the virtual. The first week we were jumping too much between wildly different options, and that was somewhat worrying as I couldn't clearly picture the final result. But after that, we've figured it out and we're very satisfied with the final result.

What was the team composition?

I don't know anyone on the team other than the project manager. We communicated directly and I think that's the way to go, as it was very convenient to not have to split my attention between different people.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Not sure about the success as the new website just released and it's too soon to talk about conversion rates. But overall, I see plenty of new pupils applying, and it seems that the new website got better conversation than the old one. And lead-generation wasn't the website's goal.

The website is to provide information, produce that "WOW" effect, and for leads we use different tools. We consider the project successful, not to get too emotional, but because everyone here liked it. We've shown it to our employees, our clients, and we all like it a lot better than the old one.

Way better, way more contemporary, way fresher. Right now we consider it successful because we like it, and we'll look at the conversion rates later.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The design process was effective. Guys structured Figma really nice so it was easy for me to show the results to my colleagues. In the end of the project there was a small delay in Weblow development but overall everything was nice

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Every time they suggested creative options. Didn't think in cliches, even if that's a cliche to say. In the first week we didn't just think of the final design direction and kept moving, but every time there were more developments, new ideas, and we've tried plenty of different things.

And if they didn't work, they were easily discarded, but at least we've tried. And plenty of them did work, and they've made the website more distinguishable. The other thing that personally impressed me is how well they took our feedback. I think we're a rather critical team.

I took feedback from our team, structured it, and decided on what to bring up. We've discussed with the project manager what options we could take, what needs to be fixed and what doesn't, and all that was in speaking tone, no one got hurt (we've had bad experiences before), and the communication went great.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We didn't really understand that situation with your vacation. We didn't discuss it in August and then all of a sudden we couldn't get the final website by previously agreed deadlines. I didn't really understand what happened there, otherwise, everything would've been perfect, but that happened. So the area for improvement is to warn in advance over possible delays.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder of +X, a recruiting agency. We specialize in helping companies to find creative executives, art directors, managers in design fields.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Embacy?

To introduce us to the market, we needed a brand identity and a website.

What were your goals for this project?

It was important to position ourselves right: to show how we're different from other agencies on the same market, what's special about us, and what we focus on. The brand identity had to show us from the right angle.

SOLUTION

How did you select Embacy?

We looked at two things. Design quality and workflow. I was impressed by Embacy's portfolio and saw projects that were executed in unusual ways, that utilized graphic design principles in ways that are seldom found in web design. Embacy had high design culture and we need that, as our audience is exactly the people paying attention to design. This design culture was the deciding factor. And in our case, being a startup, we wanted to launch as soon as possible. The workflow with this transparency and speed was the most suitable for us.

Describe the project in detail.

We needed a brand identity and a website to introduce our agency to the market. The identity consisted of a logo and plenty of graphic elements that we would use in our marketing, online, and social media. The website shouldn't have been massive and unwieldy, but had to present our services to the two audiences: potential employees and potential employers, that would get recruiting services from us. We needed a survey form for both of them. It was also important to show in the communication, in the copy on the website, why people should work with us, who should and who shouldn't, why should they fill out a survey, and how we can help the employers. Embacy worked not only on the design but on the text too.

What was the team composition?

I don't know how big the team was in the back office on this project. I worked directly with two people: the project manager and the designer. It was extremely comfortable. Most of the communication was through the project manager. I'm surprised how knowledgeable the project managers at Embacy are in questions of design, content, and marketing too, everything relating to introducing a new brand. It's surprising, unusual, and very convenient to solve all the questions through a single competent person. I'm assuming there's the culture at Embacy of exchanging ideas about all the ongoing projects to help with the overall quality and there's a lot of people involved in the brainstorming and reviewing the process every step of the way.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Right after going live, the website got a lot of attention, with a lot of surveys filled out by high skilled job seekers. We expected fewer suitable surveys, not everyone cut out to be creative top managers, but we got high-level managers already working at big companies. It means they saw the website and the values presented in the design, filled out the surveys, and showed confidence in a new brand.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Rarely I see such an effective workflow. I can't think of another example like this. I'm impressed by Embacy's approach, their know-how, the innovative format. Not many people structure their work like this, but it is very good. The daily calls with the daily results and the daily updates, it's just... wow. I told people about this using a lot of exclamation points. After a discussion in the morning I can see the progress with my own eyes in real-time throughout the day, and the next morning we can discuss it. I don't think anyone works like this. The only limitation is the client, like me. To be honest, it was a little challenging.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed by the unprecedented price-to-quality ratio. The speed and the quality of the result lead to high-quality projects in a short amount of time and spending less time per project the team saves their own time and my money. This is a perfect combination for any startup, with high-quality results delivered quickly and rather inexpensive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

First of all, I had to think a lot about this question. Maybe it would've been even better if Embacy was more than a design studio, and added to the process marketing expertise. Maybe more work with research, branding strategy, platforming, etc. Expertise in marketing would've been valuable.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Head of Marketing at the Business Education Unit of Mail.ru Group, one of the biggest Russian IT-companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Embacy?

We hired Embacy to create two landing pages to promote our Soft skills and Negotiations courses. During the process, we also decided to create schedule pages for each course.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed to produce landing pages that would create an emotional response within the website visitors and would correspond with the client's JTBD.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Our in-house team didn't manage to create the landing pages in the required time frame and we were looking for a contractor. We found Embacy through a recommendation of our Art-Director. We needed a good team we could trust because we wanted this project to go without failures and any need to check if the team we hire is okay.

Describe the project in detail.

In two sprints Embacy designed and built landing pages for both courses. Each sprint for each page we first chose the concept, then a style direction, and only after we proceeded to design page itself.

We provided Embacy with our own copy so instead of focusing on structuring the page, they could focus on design and illustrations more. After desktop was done, they designed tablet and mobile layouts, only then proceeding to the Webflow build. I would say it all was pretty quick.

What was the team composition?

In our team, there was a project manager, a designer, and an illustrator. I would say everyone has done a pretty good job. I enjoyed Embacy process and the manager was following it carefully, which resulted in the great work. The designer shown work that was up to my expectations, the same for the illustrator.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I can't share commercial KPI details, but generally, these landings work well in generating leads. We have a lead-generating test on the page and it was taken by a couple of hundreds of people already. We also got positive feedback from some other units in the company that these landings are awesome.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

For me, it's five out of five. I've told Embacy CEO that their process is great several times already. Daily calls and updates, very transparent process. It is perfect for clients and also it assures awesome results in the end.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The process is amazing and the team really follows it carefully (which is usually not the case in agencies). I also really liked the variety of options and opportunities to upgrade current work each day.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Maybe I am inattentive, but I haven't seen any points that really need improvement. Everything we agreed upon was done.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Think32 - we do thoughtful marketing for growing dental practices. I am the co-founder

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Embacy?

Design and develop our agency website.

What were your goals for this project?

Well, we firstly needed a website (obviously) and we wanted the best marketing website ever to help grow our business. The ultimate goal was to stand out from the crowd since dental marketing is a crowded marketplace. Also, we wanted the visuals to represent ourselves.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We were desperately searching through Behance. Then we found Embacy's project "Landing page about a landing page" and it caught our attention. It was unique and maybe it wasn't in the design style we were looking for, but we recognised that this team had great potential to solve our task.

We researched the company and we found their process very appealing. We were in a hurry the quick result-oriented process fit our needs.

Describe the project in detail.

We needed a website containing several pages: home, about, services bridging page, service page template, blog, blogpost template and contact. We needed the design and build. Embacy designed awesome layouts showing a variety of options in the process which we really liked.

Then the website was built on Webflow, we really like this tool, it's quick, you get great results and it's relatively simple to use.

What was the team composition?

We had a project manager and a designer working with us. We really liked working with our project manager Sofya, she kept us updated and made the process very clear, she was always on time and had awesome suggestions in the process. The designer also produced awesome work, great typography, beautiful colours, and attention to detail!

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Shortly after we launched we did an online presentation to some dentists in Australia and we got a number of leads from there straight away. We also got multiple comments from colleagues in the industry about how different and engaging our website is compared to the other dental marketing agencies websites.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was a good partnership between Embacy and us. We had a great connection with our PM that was a reliable partner who had smart suggestions and really cared about the project. We had a vision and we all worked together to define it. It's really how it should be when you collaborate.

Embacy were the first design team that actually read the copy and worked with it correctly. They didn't just do copy-paste. The designer was awesome offering different compositions and colour palettes in the process since these were some tricky areas of the work.

It was good to have many options in such a short period of time.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The workflow is pretty good. They provided great results in a short period of time. Daily communication got it done quickly and we were always informed and kept up to date.

Are there any areas for improvement?

When it was in the Webflow build stage it required more quality control. But the dev is the most tricky part for everyone always. Still, we would recommend to better control the consistency between design and dev.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a visual communication agency based in Moscow, Russia developing infographics, presentations, videos and other visual products for enterprises

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Embacy?

We hired Embacy to rebuild, restructure and redesign our website

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to create a new website that could represent our services, cases and approach and attract more clients

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We hired Embacy because of their transparent pricing, relevant cases and professional blog. We were interested in their professional opinion and consulting.They were the only team we worked with

Describe the project in detail.

We selected Embacy as a vendor, filled out the brief and had one hour call to discuss all the details of our project. The Embacy team estimated the project for 2 sprints: two 5-day-long periods when they would develop the whole website. So the vendor was responsible for the concept, design and frontend development. Our role was to give prompt and regular feedback.

What was the team composition?

The project manager was the main person to contact with, he was responsible for the concept, design and the result in the end. We also knew the main designer of our website and the financial manager who was responsible for legal and financial side.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our parters and clients note that it looks fresh and attractive

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The Embacy team practices every morning video calls to present the results of the previous day and receive the feedback. It seemed an effective approach to us. The only process that was not so predictable was the frontend development.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The Embacy team demonstrated an extraordinary approach and perfect result comparing to our previous experience of web development. This team gives a good predictable result in less than a month and less than $5000

Are there any areas for improvement?

The team was perfect at creativity and design, the timing was also accurate. The process that looked more difficult was frontend development.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the head of growth at VCV and we are developing several products. The first one is a b2b service for companies to pre-screen candidates using video interviews and AI-based online assessments. And recently we've released a new free service for all job seekers to record their video resumes and share these links with any employers. This helps them to stand our from the crowd and land a job much faster!

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Embacy?

As we've just released VCV.me - a free b2c service for job seekers, we needed a new landing page to show the tool and explain its advantages and efficiency. The landing page was meant to be brief, bright and easy to understand, giving the whole picture of the tool which is quite new to the market.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to make out message clear for everyone. We have users from all over the world, so we message was supposed to be universal and with strong selling points.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We were looking for web design companies or freelance web designers, and luckily the team of Embacy has contacted us directly.

Describe the project in detail.

Once we selected the vendor, we had two introductory meetings where we agreed about the timeline and the price. The scope of tasks became clear so that helped us to make the right time and effort estimation.Then we started our sprint which lasted for a week and we got our brand new web-site within a week. Hard to believe but it worked!

What was the team composition?

The project manager, the team leader, the designer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Due to this landing page design made by the Embacy team we have successfully launched our new product and introduced to the job candidates market in different countries. The vcv.me landing page is giving a nice overview of the tool and a whole picture of how it works and how job seekers can benefit from the tool.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was super effective. We loved that sprint system when you see the workflow and plans for the day in the morning and check the result of the day in the evening. So transparent and so fast. I'd say extremely fast with the highest quality.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I like the style of communication, their speed and their deep research into the topic and the industry stood out. The team was very supportive and helpful, at the beginning we had so many questions and always got the answers right away. Thank you, team!

Are there any areas for improvement?

Haven't seen any.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a project manager for LaborX. We are a subsidiary of Chrono.Tech Holding. 10 people are working on the project, among them developers and marketers.

LaborX is a blockchain-based freelancer platform with cryptocurrency payments We helps clients and freelancers connect, providing efficient blockchain transactions and robust protections through smart contracts - wherever you're based

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Embacy?

We decided to change the design of our site. The old design was developed 3 years ago, was a prototype and did not meet our requirements. Our team has its own designers. But we wanted to try to do this redesign on outsourcing, develop a landing page, important pages and corporate identity, and then finish some pages ourselves.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to improve key metrics: reduce the bounce rate, increase the conversion by registration, and average pageview time. Also, we wanted to develop a corporate identity that would allow us to differ from competitors, was unusual and interesting.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

In other products of our company there were joint successful projects

Describe the project in detail.

In the first days of work, embacy prepared for us three basic prototypes for landing with interesting ideas. We chose a bright prototype with gifs, markers and doodles. In the first week of work, we received a ready landing page design. In the second week of work, the most important pages of the personal account were drawn and corporate identity was developed.

What was the team composition?

We were assigned a project manager and 2 designers. I spoke only with our project manager every day. Even after the project was completed, our manager continued to help us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After we mark-up and integrated the design on our website laborx.com, our failure rate decreased by 2 times. Also, the conversion conversion on registrations increased by 40%. We have improved the behavioral factor on the site. Also, after the redesign, site traffic increased. We are very pleased with the result.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

At the end of each day, Embacy sent the result of work, and in the morning of the next day we called up and discussed. If a question arose during the day, we quickly received an answer.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I am impressed with the speed of the team. For two weeks of work, we have developed 3 Landing Prototypes, Landing, 10 internal pages, a lot of modal windows, icons, avatars, buttons, text fields, standard blocks and so on. Embacy proved fast work can be quality

Are there any areas for improvement?

A rare case when I can not advise anything for improvement. Bravo!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a product manager in a company called Potok.Digital. We provide crowd-lending services, and I am in charge of our investor relationships.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Embacy?

Prior to the work with Embacy, we had a very poor landing page, so we wanted help to develop our digital presence.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The goal was to create two landing pages, one for our company investors and one for our users. They took down our original page and built both from scratch on Webflow. Both pages are mostly informational, and their team helped us to create the content and designs for each.

Our teams had several calls prior to the project to discuss our expectations, and then organized the development itself in two sprints. The first involved developing the finalized design concept, and the second was development as well as some content strategy for building it out from there.

What is the team composition?

I interacted with two members of their team regularly, but there were closer to 4–5 people on the project in total.

How did you come to work with Embacy?

One of my friends referred me to them based on their reputation, and from the beginning, we could tell that we were totally comfortable working with them.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost a total of $6,000–$7,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Their work with us lasted the two weeks of our initial sprints from October­–November 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t have official numbers to share, but in general, our conversion and click-through rates increased significantly. We’ve gotten very positive feedback from our clients about both of the sites.

How did Embacy perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Figma to track our progress throughout the work. Our teams also had daily calls to go over the larger updates from each previous day and to confirm the strategy for the next day as we moved forward. They did a great job of keeping us up to date and involved in the process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to work quickly, stay focused on our core goals, and deliver high-quality work was beyond what we expected.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The pace of the project made the decision-making process a little bit stressful for me, but that was a tradeoff we decided to make based on our budget for the project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be ready to work hard for the duration of the project, because they will work hard for you and the biggest challenge will be to keep up.