Sector 5 Digital

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior video producer at Norwex, a cleaning and personal care company. I’m in charge of our video department, producing all of our videos. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sector 5 Digital?

We had to do some CGI work for our latest product, so we hired Sector 5.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our teams initially had introductory conversations. We explained our needs, timelines, and budget. Once these things were approved internally, Sector 5 told us what they could do for our project. We gave them references for the animation style we wanted. 

From there, we received draft versions of the animation and underwent three rounds of tweaking the drafts. After that, Sector 5 rendered high-resolution versions of the animation. Everything was built from scratch. 

What is the team composition?

Alyssa (Marketing Coordinator) was our contact person, while Doug (Chief Creative Officer) was the team's mastermind. I communicated with him directly. Other people were on the team, but I mainly dealt with Alyssa and Doug.

How did you come to work with Sector 5 Digital?

Sector 5 was referred to us. 

How much have you invested with them?

Our investment was between $10,000–$15,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

This project lasted from February–July 2022, though we’re not making the deliverable public until October 2022. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

To measure success, we had weekly status meetings. We provided feedback while Sector 5 was rendering the first drafts of the project. Their work was effective because they understood what we wanted and made it happen. 

How did Sector 5 Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Sector 5’s project management was good. To communicate, we use emails and Teams. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their experience in CGI and photorealistic animation distinguished them from others. I worked with several CGI artists in the past, and Sector 5 was a different level — this truly caught my attention while looking at their reels. Apart from that, they were professional. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there weren’t any. Their communication was great, and we had a great experience. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you need photorealistic CGI, try Sector 5 — you won’t be disappointed. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Mavenir is a software end to end cloud native Network Provider I am the Chief Marketing Officer

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Sector 5 Digital, and what were your goals?

We wanted to build a tool for online experience for our customers and to use it to market our services and software products as an engagement tool not our sales.

SOLUTION

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

we were very interested in the graphical technology Sector 5 Digital have and we also found a very good and proactive team to work with

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

We specified the scenarios we wanted to implement and they have asked us and guided us to go into details until we reached the actual tool. The specification and requirement phase took quite a bit as it was a new area for Sector5 but they immediately understood the need.

So after some education they have been also proactively suggesting improvements. We had several phases, as we started with a first implementation and then refined it. It came out that very important was the overall user friendly. interface, usability of the tool anywhere and also the animation was giving that extra credibility and enthusiasm to the experience. Today we have done Phase 3 and we are thinking now to go towards Phase 4 and 5 and we are also thinking of some more virtual Reality experiences.

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

We worked mainly with 4 people, CTO, CEO, Head of Development and customer engagement account responsible

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Well there are many feedbacks, but I would say that the deliverable is a well structured tool, which w can now continue to develop and enrich. As far as feedbacks, the best is the success we had with Executives and Customers at our Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in march. It was appreciated by everybody and there are so many new ideas on how to continue to develop. Best comment was: This is the best project that marketing has done to help sales in our company.

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

The project management was really tight and strong. Dates and milestones and also a very strong description of deliverables. In general very good, sometimes a bit too much, but it came with the benefit of keeping everyone on track.

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

Their commitment, beyond their technology. Also, the team is very friendly but always extremely professional and realistic.

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

I think for the initial project we think they did very very well. For the future we expect a new approach with a framework we can work within. But in general very impressive

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the co-founder of a small healthcare company that offers alternative, natural therapies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Sector 5 Digital, and what were your goals?

We challenged Sector 5 to create a video that explains our company's value proposition in an easy to understand, 60 second video.

SOLUTION

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

We have seen their work for other companies and included them in the sourcing process.

Describe the video(s) and the process in detail, including the project steps and all stages of production.

We had a discovery meeting with a very high-level "what's possible", followed by 3 shorter meetings that spanned from storyboard creation to project check-ins.

Who did you work with and what was the feedback process like?

Our project lead was proactive, communicative and ensured that Sector 5 had the resources necessary to deliver on this project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The new video has been a hit! Sector 5 over-delivered and now we use this video as a "lead-in" on our website and our customers now use it when featuring our products!

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

We were kept up to date on all aspects of the project, including a call where we reviewed a concept video to ensure the team was on the right track. The final product was sent to us via dropbox for quick/easy viewing and feedback.

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

This company was refreshing to work with from the very beginning. Great attitudes from our project manager all the way to the founders. Even though we were a small company, Sector 5 Digital treated us like a special customer. Which is not always the case for projects like this one.

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

None that we can think of. They crushed it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re an oil and gas company focused most closely on software. I’m head of global marketing. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sector 5 Digital?

We typically host an in-person customer event each year, composed of customer-driven technical solutions as well as a keynote that we use to showcase new things we’re working on. Due to COVID, we needed to cancel the event and host a virtual experience.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In pivoting to a virtual event, we decided to focus closely on the product announcement. They provided ways to host this event online effectively and announce new projects to inform our audience that we’re still innovating in ways that distinguish us from competitors. 

They conceptualized the event, storyboarded, handled creative and graphics, and took responsibility for registrations. Their team also promoted the event through social media and managed our communications about the event. We even called on them to source music and voice talent. Our team was reduced in size in 2020, so we didn’t have the in-house resources to take this project on alone.  

What is the team composition?

There were many people working behind the scenes, but we had direct contact with their CEO, account director, account manager, and creative director. 

How did you come to work with Sector 5 Digital?

They were brought to me by our corporate office. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in October 2020. The event occurred, and we’ll be working with them again in the first quarter of 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We exceeded all of our benchmarks, and about 800 registrants attended the event. At the end of the event, we had over 30% participation in our survey. Lastly, we’ve had about 350 views on demand since the event.   

How did Sector 5 Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was second to none, and I can be a harsh critic. After all of our meetings, I received a follow-up email about what was discussed. They maintained communication to make sure that all parties were still aligned.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their attention to detail went above and beyond just managing the project. Their CEO would make routine progress check-ins to ensure that our team was happy with their work. There was a true interest in cultivating a relationship that would grow beyond this single project. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They did an amazing job. I’m sure they could’ve done even more with additional time, but we were operating on a short timeline. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you provide the proper timing for execution, you won’t be disappointed. Trust that their process gets the best results.  

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work in the marketing department of American Airlines. My role has changed about five times in the past three years, and I’ve worn many hats from creative to strategy and email work. I’ve done pretty much the whole gamut. At the time I was working with Sector 5, I was a senior analyst. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sector 5 Digital?

When I partnered with Sector 5, we were trying to get our 3D assets from another company. Our company was doing a VR project and needed a lot more assets to show our fleet.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We told them we had a VR program and a concept of what we wanted to do, and they storyboarded everything out for us. They worked on everything from the creative concept and how it should flow to building everything out, including the portable VR gear.

After we created that, they also created a microsite with a new technology that we gave to an agency that was hosting for us. 

What is the team composition?

I worked directly with four key people throughout the project – their creative director, account manager, and technical artists. While there were other people working behind the scenes, their approach is that less is more, and ensuring requests and feedback don’t get lost in communication

How did you come to work with Sector 5 Digital?

They had worked with a previous manager before my time, but I had also known and worked with some of the Creative Directors when they were at another company prior to creating Sector 5 Digital. That is when I got involved in the modeling process for the VR program.

We knew their designers did a good job helping us get our assets together. Once complete, I developed a VR project that I wanted to bring to my internal team. After getting the green light, I chose them to create the experience.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2016, and the microsite went live in January 2018. The VR program was completed in March 2017. Since then, we continue to ideate and complete other projects. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Much of the project was face-to-face interactions and sales. The only kind of success metric I had was that we ended up buying a lot more VR gears because it was successful for other departments. They were super accurate, and the VR model was very detailed. 

The VR Gear doesn’t have cables or cords, so it’s easy for people to put the headset down and experience what it was like to sit in our cabin seats. It was super successful.

We did some roadshows with it. When we’d have a company event or a concert, we’d have this VR experience outside these events, and people could see virtually what it was like to sit in our fleets’ seats.

Out of all the roadshows and events I did, everybody loved it. They absolutely were amazed. It looked really lifelike. They came up with a solution to make it portable, so I literally only had to carry around a suitcase with goggles in it to set up a whole show. 

Not only was this VR gear successful; our sales operations also picked it up after the roadshows and loved it so much. We’d purchased 200 more of these VR goggles. I took them to our sales department in some countries so they could see it and learn how to use it themselves. They then took it on sales calls. 

Everybody that touched the VR gear was amazed. It was phenomenal and amazing, and Sector 5 did a great job. 

How did Sector 5 Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They were always hands-on and coming up with new ideas, which was great. We didn't accept all of their ideas, but the majority were accepted because they were well-thought-out. 

Luckily, Sector 5 was close to our headquarters, so we’d have weekly touch bases. I’d come in and do checkups. Once we have something bigger to show, we’d go in and have face to face meetings. 

Sector 5 also handled a lot of the project iterations on their end before they came to me. They would come with good ideas to make the VR experience more interactive, such as letting users walk through doors and aisles of different cabins. 

We’d have managers see the progress and path we were going down. The Sector 5 team nailed it every time. Some of the managers that saw their work started hiring them for other things, such as designing the new video screens and systems on our new campus. 

That just showed how much people liked their work. We kept hiring them for other things, and they’d come up with different ideas. That wasn't in their scope of work, but they were so innovative and had so many good ideas that their scope expanded.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They did some work for us that they didn't have to really do. They went the extra mile to make sure we were happy with what we had and purchased. 

After we completed the VR project, we needed 1–2 spiels that weren't in their scope of work, but they went ahead and did it anyway.

We were also working on doing live TV spots, and Sector 5 came up with a great strategy behind those. It didn’t happen, but we were on the verge of pushing the button on a live TV campaign with them because their strategy was spot on. 

A lot of agencies would say that adding more work wouldn't be a problem, but they’d charge $3,000 for a couple of images. Sector 5 didn't nickel and dime us like that. I appreciate that, and I appreciate that I knew exactly what was going on with my projects every step of the way. They've been an amazing company.

They had a lot of innovative ideas, and at the time, VR was super new. The Sector 5 team was on top of everything. They were on the cutting-edge side of this tech, and companies came to them asking for ideas. They were really innovative and trying to push the boundaries on where they could go.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing really comes to mind. They knocked every project out of the park. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Try a small project. They’re willing to try small projects to show you what they're capable of, which is pretty amazing. If you're nervous about hiring Sector 5, they'll definitely start with a smaller project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

At the time of my work with Sector 5 Digital, I was the manager of a Texas company in the aerospace and defense sector, on the industrial manufacturing side. The company designed, created, and serviced helicopters.

I was the internal manager of the marketing communications team. We were responsible for the visual communications of the brand. At the time, this included a pretty large step forward in visual identity and visual customer experience engagement design.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sector 5 Digital?

In the beginning, we started with the challenge of how we could better visualize and communicate a product that wasn't fully to market yet. In many senses, it hadn't even been fully developed. Most of it was still in the design and precertification phase of the aircraft.

Our job was to market the aircraft to very particular audiences, beyond what we could just put onto a PowerPoint or brochure. We wanted to identify some visual ways to educate and engage the audience. That's where we engaged Sector 5 Digital.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sector 5 helped us better visually represent an end-state product: what it would look like one day, when it was in production and in service. In the beginning, we did that with 3D models and photorealistic scenes of the product in use.

We showed how the aircraft would be operational, and the types of services and product capabilities it would have. We showcased that through 3D digital and print material.

The deliverables grew significantly over the course of our 3-4-year engagement with Sector 5. We started out with not simple but static photorealistic representations of an end-state product. We used those in a lot of different ways: in our print brochures, in wall calendars for customers, large scale prints for trade-show booths, and digital versions for the website and social media.

Over time, seeing the quality of Sector 5 Digital's work, and the speed and cost-effectiveness of our relationship, we started to do more and more complex work together. We did more 3D visualization and customer experience creation of future end-state products, thinking about not only showing what the aircraft might look like in future situations, but starting to build it into VR.

For example, we had full-scale product mockups, which were basically giant fake aircraft that people could get into and look around, to get a sense of the scale and look and feel. These things were typically very expensive and took a lot of time to make. There was only one made, and it couldn't be everywhere at once. 

The internal challenge my team was trying to help solve was giving more people that experience when there was potentially only one of them. We started thinking of ways to physically and digitally replicate that experience, and actually go several steps further, into a somewhat fully immersive experiential design.

About two years into the relationship, I had a separate challenge internally, with our engineering innovation design team. They were wanting not just ways to represent future- or end-state product capabilities, but also the design, architecture, and aesthetics of those products. 

We went from simply visually marketing and communicating the aircraft aesthetics and capabilities to actually designing them with our innovation engineers. We went deep into the incubator side of the company, of where the new products come from. The new group jumpstarted the creative side of our innovation team.

What is the team composition?

We started out with them when they were smaller. Doug (Chief Creative Officer) was my main point of contact. In the early days, I worked with one of their initial 3D artists and one other gentleman, who got us going from a visual standpoint. Over time, we acquired an account manager as part of the team relationship, who became my day-to-day contact there. I worked with lots of others over time, as the relationship grew.

Chelsea (Account Director & Head of Client Service) ran our day-to-day relationship for the last three of the four years we were with Sector 5.

How did you come to work with Sector 5 Digital?

They found us. I started with the company in 2015, at the time when we were figuring out some of these challenges. Someone in the internal team told me about this company that had been trying to get its foot in the door, but there really wasn't a good match at the time, or a proven need for external agency support on the digital communication side.

The internal person fitted with those capabilities took another position, and we didn't immediately backfill the 3D visualization capabilities of the team. We started having needs about how to visualize internal products, and that's when I thought about Sector 5. This happened to be their core skill set, so we gave it a shot and did a project together. Within a couple of years of them trying to get their foot in the door, we went backward and tried to find them again.

How much have you invested with them?

We did a small test project with them in 2015. We did $30,000–$50,000 in 2016, over $1 million in 2017, and close to $3 million in 2018.

What is the status of this engagement?

The conversation started in late-2015 or early-2016, and our first project was around April. I worked with them up till January 2020, which was for our CES showcase.

I worked with them throughout the spring, when the pandemic came and our team changed a bit. I left the company in the summer of 2020. Our last major contact was in February or March 2020, when we were debriefing our last project together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

A lot of it was experiential feedback, there were ways we could measure impressions, which were important but they were part of a larger aggregate total of a lot of different communication impressions we were getting. Sector 5's project piece was only one part of a larger experience.

There's one big piece of feedback where we knew that something we did together really hit the success metrics we were looking for. We had a large military trade show, and it was one of the first times we had deployed the VR work. We had a two-or-three-star general who had been not a nay-sayer but on the fence on these particular projects. 

When the general came out of the VR experience, he said a lot of positive things, but the one that really hit home was that it opened his eyes and changed his mind about the capability of the actual aircraft project that our company was working on. He was able to essentially fly something that didn't exist yet. He was able to put himself into that immersive experience in person for a future-state project goal. That helped him see the capabilities of that future aircraft project. 

Without Sector 5's work, I don't think we would've been able to achieve the same kind of success. We changed the minds of some very influential people on those very long-term, large-scale projects. It was huge to get that kind of feedback real-time, especially from a high-ranking official in the military, directly to our CEO. 

That immediately validated the usefulness of this type of project, which was kind of an experiment for us at that time. It was an immediate reinforcement to that type of work. It changed the minds of internal folk, in that this type of work seems to be resonating with our customers, and we should be doing more of it. 

How did Sector 5 Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated through email, phone calls, text messages, and a project management tool. It changed a little bit throughout the years, as the tools and the technology evolved. If I was in meetings, the call would go to my voicemail, and they'd follow up by text and email. 

Over time, we started to use tools like Slack and Skype. We were on chat and text message even before the pandemic. The team was local to us, so they could pop up to our office, or we could go down to their studios for product reviews. 

Our communication covered the spectrum, from emails to in-person, in-depth reviews. There were times when we would have part of their staff on site, full time on a project. They would come to work with our engineering team for a day or a week. We started to immerse and partner together.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're easy to work with, transparent, honest. Doug and Chelsea specifically were always very honest and transparent with me. If it was something they knew they could do, they would say so, and they would do it. If it was something they couldn't do, they would never over promise and under deliver. 

I had to be very mindful of budgets and timelines, so I had to trust them. Developing that trust early on is crucial in a relationship. Eventually, friendships evolved from it, too. It's always great to have people that we like working with and trust. That way we can hold each other accountable. We would hold them accountable on their deliverables, but they would push right back. That's what made the collaborative environment work really well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We were constantly beating them up on whether they were competitive on price, deliverables, and skill sets. We were always challenging each other to improve. I think, for the most part, they were great to work with. 

There were times when we would see that a deliverable or skill set might have been slipping. I was always very candid with them about wanting to feel like I'm their most important client. We would joke about it, but we were also very serious. 

We've always tried to be mutually beneficial to each other. As they grew over time, I'd tell them when a big project for a big-name brand was impacting our project—to always be mindful of their partnerships and where they're going. I don't have a lot to ding them on overall.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should establish mutual respect and trust upfront. I was always appreciative of the talents and the time and the focus they gave to our account, even when we weren't necessarily agreeing to spend money yet. 

The pro-tip is not to take advantage of them but to start that cadence of mutual respect for each other's time, and each other's budget. If we ask for their trust, we should be ready and willing to give them ours.

I would encourage anybody working with them to be very transparent, to put their cards on the table. The more information we provide to them, the better they'll do and the better the product they'll deliver.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a $14 billion hygiene-focused company working in a number of areas. One of our divisions is working on industrial water solutions, mainly for power generation. I’m the marketing director for Latin America, working on digital solutions that help our sales reps and service technicians, as well as on customer-facing solutions that leverage the IoT devices we have on the field.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sector 5 Digital?

Most companies are going through some type of digital transformation at this moment, including ours. One of the major solutions we’re working on is a cloud-based platform that takes data from chemical dispensation controllers used in different customers’ unit operations. We have close to 25,000 of these controllers around the world, on the premises of Fortune 500 customers.

We’re tracking a lot of information, including pH and conductivity, and wanted to leverage it to give customers an enterprise view of their operations. It wasn’t just a matter of understanding what was happening in a plant in New York City, for example, but in plants everywhere, globally. It would enable sustainability directors to apply best practices and improve their outcomes.

The solution would leverage predictive analytics using data from multiple sources. It would show our customers where their unit operations could fail, related to water situations, and allow them to respond a lot quicker and avoid potential downtime. We’re developing this solution internally and with other partners.

We needed a way to translate that work into something simple for customers and sales reps. We didn’t just want to get into the conventional “I touch this and I see a flash of light.” We went with Sector 5 Digital, with thoughts, to help us manifest digital into a very immersive type of experience, not a traditional customer experience.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sector 5 Digital worked with us to storyboard a number of different ideas and philosophies on how we could leverage and tell a story. The hard part was telling a very basic story around water. It might sound boring. We wanted them to help us create a unique narrative. We had the technical details and just didn’t know how to explain it to our customers. It was a matter of making the value proposition strong enough so that anyone could understand it.

We had other agencies working on it but for the customer experience center, which was impacted by COVID-19, we wanted to create an annex to our existing customer experience center. We went to Sector 5 Digital to help us tell that story.

The AR experience is as followed, someone walks into a physical 2000-square-foot round room, and there’s a collaboration table in the middle. The whole thing is called the “Digital Collaboration Center.” We have 3D glasses on the table, which give people full 36o-degree immersive experiences that tell them what the product is. It starts off by giving them the importance of water and allows them to pick their adventure.

We have five services that fall under the 3D umbrella, and we’re able to give customers guided tours on them. We have technology that helps determine the probability of legionella formation. The person wearing the glasses feels themselves gliding through the sky, going down into a cooling tower, and manifesting themselves as a legionella bacterium.

We present the challenges, the physical issues, and other elements. We show how our solution can help detect the probability of that formation. That 3D narrative makes it easier for them to understand why legionella is an issue, and how our solution helps solve it.

Sector 5 Digital not only worked on the story but also developed the software to show that story on these nine 3D projectors we have around the room. They didn’t build the room, but they helped in its design.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Jeff (CEO), Shawn (Creative Director), Justin (Account Manager), and two other people.

How did you come to work with Sector 5 Digital?

We had some initial drafts and concepts, but our CEO thought they weren’t good enough. He wanted something major and memorable. That’s not our skillset, so we did an RFP to hire a creative agency. We had four agencies pitch to us and picked Sector 5 Digital based on their experience. They’d worked with major film studios on things with the impact we were looking to bring.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested about $750,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Sector 5 Digital in July 2019, and their part of the project ended in December 2020. It should’ve ended around April 2020, but we were impacted by COVID-19.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve had a lot of good test runs with it and showed it to our CEO, who was blown away. COVID-19 impacted how many people could visit our location. We haven’t officially opened up to customers and have mainly had internal stakeholders on the experience. Our CEO usually talks a lot and is a very good visionary, and he was just quiet.

The solution was amazing, and it was where we wanted to go as a company. It demonstrates the digital capabilities we have in a unique, immersive manner. The solution shows customers what we’re doing with technology, and more importantly, how we’re helping them improve their outcomes.

A lot of the other divisions that represent our company have also seen this, and many have asked when their turn is. We plan on expanding it more and more and if the pandemic hadn’t happened, we’d probably be in the third phase of the project.

How did Sector 5 Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Justin was and continues to be our project manager, and he’s fantastic at keeping to task on different activities. He’s helped us work through this project. We hadn’t worked with a creative agency of this magnitude, with this depth of 3D immersive worlds, so it was a learning curve. It probably was for Sector 5 Digital as well. It pushed them to their max.

On the creative side, Shawn helped flesh out the story. During the length of the engagement, I feel they’ve learned our technology as well as some of our sales reps. It’s funny to hear them pitch it out. They bring a lot of unique insights and a different thought process. Our core competency is water treatment technology, and theirs is the creative flavor.

Jeff has provided a lot of good leadership and engagement. There are many partners working on this, and Sector 5 Digital has been fantastic in working with them, making sure that we’re put ahead of many situations. They’re a partner more than a vendor.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I look at them as bringing a lot of technical prowess and understanding of the immersive environment. A lot of people in our company are starting to look at Sector 5 Digital and gauge them to see if there’s potential other work. Digital is a major direction our company is taking, and we’ve invested billions of dollars in this. The capability to continually tell a good story is something that we’re looking to expand more and more with Sector 5 Digital.

After the CEO demonstration, we did about a month and a half ago, there were at least 12 senior executives that came to me afterward. The hype is there, and there’s a lot of interest. It’s just a function of balancing where customers’ expectations are going to be. Taking this experience into a remote environment is probably the next phase.

The RUSH platform Sector 5 Digital is working on is a fantastic game changer. It’s going to be major for them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re doing a great job, and there’s not much I could mention as an improvement.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I wish I could do this project over because I’ve learned a lot about technology since the start. My advice is for the customer to make sure they have really good stakeholders within their company, who can help guide Sector 5 Digital. When we did this, we had a change in stakeholders and ideas. Sector 5 Digital is definitely a good project manager but ultimately, the individual at the company has to have a good strategic viewpoint.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a dermatology company that consists of three main arms, one of which is the aesthetics division. Our division sells injectables to a wide variety of customers such as physicians to reduce wrinkles. 

As the director of training and education for healthcare providers, I create content that helps our customer base use our products safely and effectively.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sector 5 Digital?

Our main challenge was trying to educate our customers about facial anatomy. If you can imagine, there’s a lot of things that happen underneath the skin when injecting the face. And, different anatomic components will change over time.

The traditional methods for education were either through textbooks (2D learning) or cadavers (hands-on learning), both of which had their own unique challenges. Textbooks don’t give a full sense of perspective and depth when it comes to anatomical layers, and cadavers are the most intimate way to learn but aren’t scalable due to resource availability.

We decided to create a 3D learning environment through VR to scale up the anatomy education process.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Sector 5 Digital created an interactive virtual experience that allowed our customers to learn facial anatomy. Users could peel away the different layers of an avatar’s face, going through the skin, soft tissue, muscle, and bone. All of this allows them to see what’s happening at each layer and understand where the blood vessels are.

The tool is also useful in teaching customers the right places to inject our product. The goal is to enhance results while avoiding areas that will look less natural or blood vessels that can damage the face. Toggling the age of the avatar will show how different areas change with time.

Currently, the solution is available on iPad, but Sector 5 Digital is working on bringing it to VR headsets. The new app will allow our customers to fly through a VR space and learn about the different layers of the face. It’s just another way of making the experience come to life.

What is the team composition? 

On our side, we have internal physicians as well as contracted external medical experts who consult on the project. They ensure that the scriptwriting, color, and anatomy are all correct.

Sector 5 Digital’s team consists of Jeff (CEO) who is involved throughout. He makes sure that his team delivers on the scope of work and keeps us thinking big. Then there’s Doug (Chief Creative Officer) who is the innovative thinker of the group. He tells us what’s possible when we come with new ideas.

I’ve also worked with Addison (Lead Developer), who’s joined me for live cadaver courses to understand how to make our visuals compelling. He’s really invested in the project and strives to get our input along the way. Finally, there’s Chelsea (Account Director) who keeps us all on task. She makes sure that we stay on our timelines and prevents scope creep. 

How did you come to work with Sector 5 Digital?

My predecessor was already working with Sector 5 Digital when I came into my role, so I wasn’t involved in the decision-making process. 

However, I can say that we’d heard about their work on airline pilot and military simulations. Those programs allowed users to practice in a virtual setting so that they’d be much more prepared to go into a live experience. 

Learning anatomy to do facial injections isn’t as life-or-death as military training, but doing injectables wrong could cause major issues if you were to hit a vessel. That’s why we reached out to them.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them in August 2019, though the genesis might have been as early as 2017. We’ve been engaging them ever since.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Anytime we have a large-scale webinar event to show off the app, our net promoter score (NPS) jumps up to 87% or higher. It’s always a tremendous response when the demo is delivered by our faculty and run by Addison. 

Additionally, we contract healthcare providers to train on our products, during which they use our app to positive success. Our customer base is definitely excited to engage with the tool and is looking forward to having it online so that they can learn more.

The only negative is really about logistics. As the app expands to the masses, people need more expert support to understand anatomy. We’ve built in scripts and voiceovers, but our customers are looking for a bit more content than what we’ve currently provided.  

How did Sector 5 Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Chelsea is an exceptional project manager. She’s tough enough to keep us on track but also gracious in her communication. She works with us in a productive and professional way, which is a pleasure.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of the things that really impresses me about Sector 5 Digital is their dedication to the work. They’ve really immersed themselves into our business, going above and beyond on multiple occasions.

Addison, in particular, has made himself available as we do events demoing the program. I know that I can probably do this, and our faculty knows how to use the tool, too. But, Addison is an expert, and he makes our lives easier by helping us deliver amazing content to our customers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing jumps out at me. We’ve been extremely pleased with our relationship as well as the work presented, and a lot of that has to do with the individuals involved. They make for a great partnership.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

All of this is very expensive, so I’d encourage potential customers to have a solid understanding of the costs and how scope changes affect that. That was a learning curve for me being new to these kinds of relationships.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Marketing Manager for all of Rheinmetall's US Specialized Operating companies. We provide electronics, munitions and vehicle defense solutions in support of the US military's highest modernization priorities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Sector 5 Digital, and what were your goals?

Our next-gen infantry fighting vehicle is currently being digitally designed and we needed to develop marketing assets to provide awareness and engagement to the customer as the program progresses. This was difficult for us due to the fact that the solution is not yet a physical asset that we can take pictures/videos of. Sector 5 provided services to develop video animation and stills to use as marketing content.

SOLUTION

How did you select Sector 5 Digital and what were the deciding factors?

Sector 5 was introduced to me through a colleague. I met with the team initially and found out that they had also worked with a partner company of ours. We liked their examples of previous work and felt their team was qualified and excited to get our team what we needed.

Describe the video(s) and the process in detail, including the project steps and all stages of production.

We started with an initial meeting to talk through our objectives and understand Sector 5's capabilities to see if there was a fit. We then worked through a SOW to capture everything that we needed from the project. Both teams met to discuss storyboard ideas. Sector 5 provided two video animation reviews before the final video was created so we had time to make adjustments.

Who did you work with and what was the feedback process like?

We worked with Justin Barrow, Doug Fidler, Nel Santiago, and Josh Flores. Each review session included a demo of what Sector 5 had created, and outstanding questions they had on the specifics of the product/solution that they were trying to capture correctly with the animation. Our team was able to ask for adjustments in each iteration.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The animations that Sector 5 created enabled us to present these during a customer meeting so that we could easily showcase the functionalities of our vehicle solution. Visuals really help bring the digital design to life for the customer.

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

Justin was great to work with. He made sure that the project continued to meet milestones so that our video was finished by the due date. The team was easy to get a hold of even with very short notice. All communication tools worked as expected.

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

Sector 5's experience with other big name Defense Contractors was a big draw. We are impressed by their ability to understand our needs. They provide relevant options based on our budget and timeline.

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

Nothing to mention.