GKV

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a Senior Associate Brand Manager at KENT Worldwide, a family-owned company that manufactures and markets agricultural specialty ingredients and consumer products, focusing on animal care and nutrition. We operate globally and are headquartered in Muscatine, Iowa.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire GKV to accomplish for KENT Worldwide, especially in the animal care or an nutrition segments?

GKV has helped me create our brand from scratch and launch it into the marketplace. Our goal is to be the best at home ice cream, shakes, and smoothies mix. We needed to create brand awareness through social media posts, a robust website, engaging pages on Amazon, and launch into retail with our second phase of the project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

GKV has designed our website, managed our social media, created assets, planned media, and provided analytics.

What is the team composition?

My main contact is Beth, who is phenomenal. She is an extension of me and cares about the brand. She is supported by several people on the social media and analytics team.

How did you come to work with GKV?

GKV works with several brands at KENT Worldwide and was highly recommended.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $250,000–$750,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September 2024, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen results above KPIs and standard benchmarks. We’ve also generated over 50 million impressions. GKV’s sales materials have helped us land a major national grocer. Their creative assets are top-notch and go along with a great social media strategy, implementation, and management.

How did GKV perform from a project management standpoint?

GKV is very well-organized and conscious of my budget. They want to deliver the best results in the areas that make the most sense and are effective. We communicate through virtual meetings, emails, and messaging apps.

What did you find most impressive about them?

GKV is very responsive and helpful in every way; they’re truly the best to work with. They’re all very nice, professional, and great people to work with. They’ve become an extension of my team, and I feel like we’re a true team despite being on the other side of the country.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’ve delivered and exceeded expectations.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Sr. Brand Manager of Kent Precision Foods Group

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Food & Beverage Manufacturing

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Research & recommend brand marketing foundations & positioning
• Develop & execute new media campaign based on new positioning
• Develop & execute social media and influencer strategy

SOLUTION

How did you find GKV?

Referral

Why did you select GKV over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from GKV were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Develop updated brand marketing foundations and positioning focused on increasing HHP with younger consumers (Millennials & Gen Z) including creating and executing new marketing campaign based on new positioning including media strategy, planning & execution as well as shopper marketing and execution.

Specific deliverables were to increase category & brand HHP with younger consumers, driving and supporting new distribution and expanding consumption beyond current consumer category perceptions.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• ROAS results all above KPIs and standard benchmarks
• Increased HHP for brand & category
• Sales increases directly tied to marketing & advertising programs
• Project was completed on time and on budget

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

• Project management was exceptional - better than larger, more expensive agency I was using for another project
• Weekly status calls and trackers were detailed and consistent which was a big help to keeping me and the project on track
• Project and account team were very responsive and key part of the success as they weren't just and agency vendor but an extension of my brand team which was under resourced

What was your primary form of communication with GKV?

Virtual Meeting

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

There were many areas and qualities GKV exceled at but there were 2 key areas that stoodout versus many other agencies I have worked with throughout my career:

• Financial responsibility - meaning they treated my budget and expenses as if it were theirs, taking extreme care to recommend spending levels and media strategies that would provide the biggest return, even suggesting lower spending levels on media than I had planned and moving it to increase shopper spending to really focus on converting consumers to purchase
• Responsiveness - always responded quickly to any call, email or small addition/change quickly and without sending me an estimate for every little thing before they did it, in most cases I never even saw a bill for these small things which has not been my experience with other agencies.

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

I was very happy with the work and the working relationship with GKV and really don't have an areas that I can think of that could have been better.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am a Director at Fybe

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are an Electric Cooperative and an ISP.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Rebranding of Roanoke Electric Cooperative
• Rebranding of Roanoke Connect

SOLUTION

How did you find GKV?

Referral

Why did you select GKV over others?

They are the expert in challenger brands.

How many teammates from GKV were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

This project included the rebranding of a 80+ year old Electric Coop and it's subsidiary which is an ISP. The scope included market research, employee interviews, creation of vision and mission statement, creation of brand that includes all components, brand inside training, communications, and strategy.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Fybe brand effort immediately generated awareness and ensured that every interaction with a Fybe employee was an on-brand experience for the customer. An experience that is a competitive advantage for Fybe.

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

The project was executed to precision and stayed on the timeline. GKV was extremely responsive and willing to make themselves available at any point.

What was your primary form of communication with GKV?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

GKV was an expert in challenging brands and had a unique approach to branding that was unlike any other I have seen. Not to mention their commitment to serving their customers with excellence.

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

There isn't anything that GKV could have done differently in my opinion.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of marketing for Soli Organic, an indoor organic grower of herbs and leafy greens.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with GKV?

GKV has helped us create our launch-to-market strategies for our first products under the Soli Organic brand. They developed creative concepts including ad copy. taglines, and graphics, and we refined and executed the campaign.

Most of the advertising efforts have been focused on digital and mobile advertising through relevant media networks, shopping, and order/delivery sites to help drive sales velocity. The media team is very engaged and delivered very high ROAS plans that meet or exceed our objectives. 

These campaigns are hyper-targeted based on our consumer and product distribution. We target specific organic shopper profiles most interested in our products that are in close proximity to the retailers where our products are sold. It's a highly efficient approach.

We engage with our GKV team on an ongoing basis. We revisit our strategy and marketing effectiveness weekly and make any necessary changes.  We also have planning and brainstorming meetings to develop longer term strategy and plans. We also work with GKV to plan and execute consumer insights studies, and identify ideal insights and media partners to work with.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

GKV has helped us create both our marketing and launch-to-market strategies around the transition we were making. They’ve developed all of the ad copy and creative, primarily for digital advertising and social media, as well as other creative assets.

Most of the advertising efforts have been focused on our main social media channels — Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest — which are the more effective for us. We’ve also created digital advertising through a couple of different networks and culinary sites.

These marketing strategies have been geographically hyper-targeted because we don’t have national distribution. Thus, we’ve considered the proximity of our retail locations to target specific organic shoppers interested in our products. To build this target audience, GKV has helped us build out the demographic and psychographic profile of these consumer personas.

GKV also engages with us on an ongoing basis. We revisit our strategy, do research, have brainstorming sessions to develop insights and plans, and identify great inside partners to work with.

What is the team composition?

We work with an account executive who coordinates the interactions with GKV’s team, a media specialist who does all recommendations and buys, and a social media team that handles all of our social media channels. We also work with a shopper marketing expert who is in charge of our shopper-targeted market and a head of creative and several different creative people within that team who handle copywriting, animations, and the overall creative strategy. Their resources vary depending on the specific project we’re working on.

How did you come to work with GKV?

I had worked with GKV in a prior role around 10 years ago. When I had the opportunity to launch an RFP for this new project, I contacted them again due to my previous positive experience. Ultimately, we selected them as our partner agency for this project.

How much have you invested with them?

We have a limited budget and aggressive growth goals, so while our budgets may not be those of big CPG, we still feel like an important client and we get the best quality work from GKV - from strategy to creative to media planning and program execution.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2021, and our engagement is ongoing. This year, we renewed our contract with them for the entire 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Before working with GKV, we were really struggling to find an efficient way to market and reach consumers due to our limited distribution. However, GKV was able to help us develop a way to target our specific audience within our specific distribution regions, making our marketing spend efficient.

When we launched our marketing strategy, our primary objective was to improve our ROAS. So far, we’ve been able to exceed our ROAS by 50% by implementing GKV’s recommendations and deploying their creative assets.

How did GKV perform from a project management standpoint?

GKV is very proactive and always asks the right questions. Additionally, thy are responsive and recognize the dynamics of the business we are in. As an example, we needed a video clip for a conference, and we had three days to get it done. They were able to pull the assets together and create a compelling piece and delivered it on time.  

To manage projects, we have weekly status updates and use a Google Doc that we keep updated in real time. We go through that document each week to either push items, add, or change as needed. In addition to those weekly meetings, we regularly communicate with GKV’s team at least 3–4 times a week.

What did you find most impressive about them?

GKV has been an excellent  partner due to their thoughtful strategic approach, outstanding creative capabilities, and precise execution and measurement.  I always feel that we get the best creative work from the team. They’ve elevated our creative assets to a completely new level, and we’re really only at the beginning of our journey. We feel the work we’ve done with GKV is engaging and unique in our category, so I really appreciate their ability to help our brand stand out through creative work.

Additionally, GKV is very engaged with our business and spends a lot of time understanding what’s important to us. They are a true business partner we rely on, which is very helpful. They simply go the extra mile for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Home Services company specializing in energy-efficient home heating and cooling, plumbing, and electrical services. I'm a Vice President.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire GKV?

We wanted to reboot our messaging, promotions and imagery to better focus on our target market/customer while the category was growing increasingly competitive.

What were your goals for this project?

Materially increase awareness among several customer segments through time while also growing the business.

SOLUTION

How did you select GKV?

We have been working with GKV for over 16 years. It started as a basic direct mail project and has continued to grow. Through the years, GKV’s challenger brand philosophy has helped us communicate our differentiation. They consistently deliver great creative that drives business growth.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

GKV delivered the strategic messaging, media creative design, media planning and style guidelines for supporting direct marketing channels.

What was the team composition?

The GKV team leverages various resources through time (based on the task at hand). We've leaned on their creative, digital, production, and media competencies. The team ranges from 4 to well over 15 resources at times, based on our needs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We shown consistent increases in unaided brand awareness while delivering solid business results.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

GKV is exceptional. With aggressive timelines they do a great job. And, given the nature of our business we sometimes need to create or change something at a moment’s notice. GKV is extremely nimble and flexible to helps us quickly react to market conditions.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

-I’m most impressed with their combination of superior strategic consultation and creative development. -They are as committed as we are to driving the growth of our business. -They work extremely hard to always keep us a couple of steps ahead.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They could push us to share more insights and real time data to enhance their contributions to the process. Admittedly, this mostly falls on our organization... I've learned that their appetite and aptitude for data and metrics is there (even while their not making constant requests).

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company manufactures vitamins and omega-3 ingredients for the supplement, food, and beverage industry. I was part of the digital marketing team in charge of our website content, development, and improvement, working closely with agencies and IT.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired GKV for the creative design and build of several of our B2C websites. The goals of the sites were to increase brand awareness with consumers, showcase our partner products, and educate consumers.

SOLUTION

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

Our company had worked with GKV for several years. They really listened to what we were trying to achieve and came up with creative solutions and ideas. They are organized, efficient with project management, responsive, and really easy to work with.

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

The projects were a few years ago and I am no longer with DSM to access the project files. SOW included the design of three sites, then working closely with our IT who took the designs and functional requirements to build the sites in AEM.

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

I can't recall the specific number. I worked closely with the project manager, account manager and IT.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The projects had tight deadlines and GKV went above and beyond to ensure the projects stayed on track.

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

We had regular weekly calls and primarily communicated via email.

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

Their customer service and support were phenomenal and they have an amazing eye for design.

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

We wanted an agency that could design and build in Adobe Experience Manager, the CMS our company had moved to from WordPress. If GKV had experience with AEM we would have continued the web development projects with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re one of the largest vertically-integrated coffee companies in the world — meaning we grow, harvest, mill, roast, and package coffee products before selling through multiple channels. As a senior marketing manager, I handle the largest brands in the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with GKV?

We were trying to make our long-established brands more relevant to the modern consumer. The goal was to distinguish ourselves as a “mainstream” brand as opposed to café type brands or drive-thru products. 

That was quite the challenge when we weren’t relying on a brick-and-mortar restaurant to sell our coffee. Not to mention, it’s hard to make coffee different to the average consumer whose main experience of coffee is brewing it in a kitchen and watching the steam.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

GKV has led positioning campaigns and produced ad material for our brands. In the beginning, they pitched a number of opportunities, several of which I’d seen over the years because we’d done similar things ourselves.

However, the breakthrough really came from their attitude and execution. I was absolutely floored by everything that they’d produced because it was so far superior to anything we’d tried before. GKV would take the gist of an idea and push it to a whole new level.

They understood that we were trying to target a different audience, so they were careful about overhyping our product. Instead, they positioned the brand as the “devilish delighter.” That meant portraying us as having a bit of a snarky edge without trying to downgrade anyone. 

They then supplemented that attitude with exceptional photography and a bank of new creative assets. 

What is the team composition? 

It surprised me how engaged their team was. The group that originally pitched to us is still the one working with us today. They didn’t pass us off to a junior team after the initial meeting, and there hasn’t been a lot of turnover.

How did you come to work with GKV?

Our new VP of sales and marketing had a history with GKV, so we reviewed them along with a few other agencies. Each agency pitched some interesting, creative ideas — none of which were particularly new, but each had their own spin to them. 

At the end of the day, we all agreed that GKV had a handle on what it meant to grow a regional brand with a national distribution. 

How much have you invested with them?

It’s a little over $5 million between all of our brands. We expect that cost to go down since a lot of it went to producing our creative. Those assets should last us a couple of years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since September 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve never had an agency that was as willing to help us figure out our ROI as GKV. They’ve asked for our sales data in different markets, ran strategy pieces, and returned with a breakdown of our progress and costs. 

Of course, COVID-19 has impacted our numbers, and we prioritized specific markets to be strategic with our spending. But, accounting for that, we saw our sales were higher across the board for markets that ran the campaign. The more marketing we did, the higher the returns.

How did GKV perform from a project management standpoint?

I was seldom on the phone with a single person. We have weekly call-ins with five team members on their side and two from ours. They’ll go through everything on our agenda to make sure we’re sticking to our timelines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They worked hard to build the brand persona and mood board so that we were in agreement with what we were trying to convey. Then, they matched that direction with astonishing execution.

No other brand has made coffee look as god as GKV. The soundtrack, the copy, the snarky attitude without being over the top, even the coffee pour — all of it just worked. I would’ve loved to have been in the offices to see my peers’ faces when they saw our ads for the first time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’re currently redoing some of the creative for one of our brands. The first round was good, but we realized that we were focusing too much on the origin story and hadn’t emphasized the coffee enough. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open in your communication and listen to their advice. There’s a lot of bad advertising out there, and you have to trust that they know what they’re doing. For one of our brands, I shrugged my shoulders because I’d seen similar ideas before. But, then they came back with an execution that took things to another level.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of marketing at an investment management firm located in Baltimore. We primarily manage mutual funds for the US market. I’m responsible for our marketing and advertising efforts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with GKV?

Our company was founded in 1999, but we’d recently evolved into a more independent organization. We hired GKV to establish a digital identity and basic web presence that reflected our values. Soon, we expanded their role to include visual branding services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In terms of web presence, we had nothing. GKV started by helping us formalize our brand and translate it into a new website. They created a UX that provided contextual information about our company and the services that we offer.

After setting the foundation for our visual identity, we moved further into the digital marketing space. The GKV team took over our social media and implemented strategies that better targeted our audiences.

Over the past two years, we’ve primarily been refining our visual brand. At the end of 2016, we went through a minor rebranding exercise where GKV designed a new logo and updated several aesthetic elements, including color scheme and font choice. Since then, we’ve been implementing the new aspects across our different business lines. GKV is supporting these efforts as we gain traction in the market, and they’re managing our analytics campaigns.

Recently, we started an initiative to build out our international business. So far, the GKV team has been instrumental in helping us conceptualize our efforts. From a visual perspective, they’re figuring out what this new property should look like and how it will fit into our overall brand.

What is the team composition?

I have two main points of contact who handle my day-to-day needs. I also work closely with about six members of their web services team and around three people on the visual side. GKV’s senior management is also involved, but I don’t regularly interact with them.

How did you come to work with GKV?

We’re both located in Baltimore, and I know some of their staff. When looking for a vendor, I knew we aligned with GKV’s views on company philosophy. Their values are in line with how we see ourselves in our market. After reviewing their past work, I found the GKV had succeeded in projects that were similar to ours.

Additionally, we liked that they offered more than just web services. Although we were initially only looking for help with our website, we predicted the eventual need for visual branding assistance. With that in mind, we chose GKV because they had the internal capabilities to assist with both our current and future needs.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2014, and it’s an ongoing relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

GKV created a website with an intuitive UX design, encouraging users to visit our website and engage with our content. Since partnering with them, our email list grew from zero to over 3,000. About 50% of that group actually views our content.

Overall, the analytics results have been great. Our website is consistently recording new and repeat users. Our web traffic rates have been doubling each year, and our social media presence continues to grow. Anecdotally, we’ve received positive feedback on our materials from others in our industry. Our logo distinguishes us from our competition.

How did GKV perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s been great. The two people managing our account have been very helpful in managing the ebbs and flows of our workload. There’s always someone available to address any of our issues. Their entire team is responsive, capable, and detail-oriented. They review all of their work before submission, checking for mistakes and making sure it reflects all of our comments and feedback.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of our biggest challenges was to develop a digital experience that works for both B2C and B2B consumers at the same time. Using their expansive skill set and experience with past projects, they put together a single design that appealed to both audiences. Their perspective added a lot of value to our web presence.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything specific. We’re really happy with their work and plan to keep collaborating with them.

Any advice for potential customers?

I recommend clients outline the entire project at the onset of the engagement. Come to GKV with a vetted list of objectives and any possible challenges or risks. If those aspects are communicated clearly at the beginning, the GKV team will be able to deliver a high-quality final product.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director at Brown & Toland Physicians. We’re an independent practice association of about 2,500 doctors located in San Francisco. We’re owned and operated by physicians, directly serving our patients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with GKV?

Because of some financial challenges, it had been a while since the last time we invested in advertising. While trying to expand our business, we recognized the need for a large-scale advertising campaign.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Because our organization consists of so many independent practitioners, creating a cohesive brand and an effective advertising strategy was challenging. We asked GKV to highlight the unique aspects of our business model, so they conducted deep-diving interviews with our board members and shareholders. With those perspectives in mind, they developed a full-scale promotional campaign—complete with television, radio, online, print, and outdoor components.

GKV created our slogan, “Independent doctors who know you like family.” Then, they initiated the campaign using a phased approach. We started with a series of teaser ads that included outdoor and digital elements. Our goal was to get our name out there before launching the full campaign. With the larger ad efforts, we planned to leverage our actual physicians and their patients. We’re still working with them to roll out the campaign.

We also tasked them with an additional project, which we folded into the greater production schedule. They worked on a physician-facing video for our recruitment process.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a core team that included Garry (Partner & Executive Vice President, GKV), Jeff (Chief Creative Officer, GKV), Kelly (Account Executive, GKV), and Andrew (SVP/Account Supervisor, GKV). For the production components, they brought in additional resources like a photographer and a director. We’re happy with everyone we’ve interacted with.

How did you come to work with GKV?

I first ran into them at a seminar about the baby boomer generation. GKV was describing different ways to target that specific audience through various marketing strategies. Specifically, they spoke about Medicare Advantage—comparing senior age groups from different time periods. I found the presentation powerful, and it stuck with me.

At the time, I was working with a different company. Soon after this presentation, I realized that GKV was our agency of record. We did a few projects together, and they were successful. I left that company and joined Brown & Toland Physicians, and the need for an advertising agency soon arose. Based on the seminar presentation, I knew that GKV had experience in our industry, so I reached out. We went through a small request for proposal (RFP) process but ultimately selected GKV.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2018, and it’s an ongoing project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

So far, we’re extremely happy with their work. Everyone, including our leadership board members, is very enthusiastic about this campaign.

Looking at the recruitment video specifically, GKV’s work saved us money, increased our efficiency, and improved our onboarding processes.

How did GKV perform from a project management standpoint?

They are very time oriented, pushing us to stay on schedule. Their processes are structured and efficient. We have a highly collaborative relationship. They listen to our constructive feedback, but also challenge our suggestions. They really encourage us to think about different perspectives and consider alternative approaches to problems. It’s an open dialogue, which we appreciate. When all is said and done, that’s the only way to get the best possible product.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The whole team works very well together, but they have individual strengths. For example, Jeff really focuses on the storytelling elements of advertising, while Garry is very strategic. With their hands-on service, I feel like I’m their only client. I can count on them to deliver on tight deadlines. I’m consistently shocked by their ability to meet our most aggressive demands.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Any advice for potential customers?

Clients should have an open mind and willingly discuss the project with GKV. It’s all about balance—be ready to both give and receive critical feedback. If they ever disagree with the proposed approach, their team will describe the ideas driving their concerns and suggest alternative solutions. Remember that it’s a partnership and shouldn’t feel one-sided.