SENSIS

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the marketing and communications manager for Vantage Bank Texas. We were a $500 million bank before merging with Inter National Bank of McAllen.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Sensis?

We needed an advertising and PR firm to guide us through the merger.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to implement branding and PR strategies that introduced our new look and feel to our target customers and communities.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Our ownership had worked with them in the past. Based on that positive experience, they decided the Sensis team would be a good fit for this project as well.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Because banking is such a competitive landscape, we tasked Sensis with completely revamping the legacy brands of each entity. They helped us create a new identity that promoted the surviving elements and values of both companies. Once we finalized the new brand, they designed and executed several communication and promotional strategies. Their team was responsible for graphic design, print ads, billboards, customer welcome kits, debit card designs, digital ads, social media posts, and PR campaigns. They continue to manage these efforts.

What was the team composition?

They provide a few strategists, a graphic designer, a PR person, a radio specialist, a digital designer, and a project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our stakeholders are pleased with their work. Board members and senior executives are equally impressed. We’ve received positive feedback from our customers and communities, indicating a high level of awareness regarding our new position. The execution of the improved brand has paid off very well, and we have a great deal of momentum to capitalize on.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They’ve been excellent. The Sensis team is very accommodating and knowledgeable. They’re receptive to our feedback and deliver high-quality work—it’s been truly unique and represents us well. It feels like they’re part of our internal team. They’re passionate and show a high level of dedication and commitment to our partnership.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They’re not in it for the money or their own personal gain, but because they care about our success. They treat our brand as if it’s their own. It’s a highly collaborative relationship. We’ve really gotten to know their team over the course of the work. They have great customer service skills, and it helps them deliver top-notch products.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They provided some resources that we’re up to par with the rest of their team, but they were removed from our project immediately.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company is called NextDecade. We are a management and development company of liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects. We are currently developing several projects in the United States. The project that Sensis has been working with us on is called Rio Grande LNG, which is a proposed LNG export facility at the Port of Brownsville, Texas.

What is your position?

I'm the manager of communications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Sensis?

We engaged with K. Fernandez Marketing, which has subsequently become the Texas branch of Sensis, just as we were beginning the early development stages of this project. What we were looking for was an agency that had excellent local contacts in the area and was culturally well versed.

With the high Hispanic population in that area, we needed an agency that could work in both Hispanic and English markets, particularly for public relations activities and as separate support advertising on an as-needed basis. We've had Sensis on a retainer since then as well as doing additional projects along the way, including a lot of community outreach in particular.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Sensis was our public relations representative for this project. They have largely been tasked with helping us organize community outreach events, working with local media relations and helping us with our graphic design. They helped us put together the look and feel for the Rio Grande LNG brand.

They've also been working to help us set up many public events, speaking events, and open houses, as well as producing much of the print material that goes along with those events, then helping to communicate information about those events to stakeholders in the region directly.

How did you come to work with Sensis?

We began partnering with them in late 2014 just as this project was starting to get moving. We felt it was very important to find an agency that had a good understanding of the local area as well as one that had broader public relations and advertising experience in Texas. I initially did an online search, looking at companies that had that kind of experience with offices in that area as well as companies that had experience within our industry.

I reached out to about 10 different agencies. We set up initial phone calls with those agencies to discuss what we were doing and how they worked, followed by a round of in-person interviews. We thought Sensis was the best pick, given our internal strengths and capacity and their ability to support our project.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We have spent somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000 working with Sensis yearly.

What is the status of this engagement?

It's ongoing, and we have them on a continual retainer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or other feedback from this engagement?

We don't have metrics, but I think Sensis has done a very good job in helping us reach the people in the community that we needed to talk to or get involved with as well as helping us craft our message for the local audience. They've done a very good job of distinguishing our company from other companies that are also looking at developing in the region.

It's hard to identify specific data because we're not a typical advertiser. We're still a development company. The feedback that we've been getting from local groups, including local media, has been very positive. I think Sensis has done a fantastic job in helping us get the right message to the people we need to reach.

How did Sensis perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very good. They're very well organized, which has been great for me because I have an extremely busy schedule. They've done an outstanding job accommodating my schedule and working with me in order to pull off what we needed to do, sometimes under very short timeframes and in less than ideal circumstances. Every time, they've managed to deliver on time and on budget.

They've really done a very good job at managing what we are trying to do. Their communication with us and their flexibility have been excellent. They have always kept us updated on what we need to know on an ongoing basis.

What distinguishes Sensis from other providers?

I think it's their flexibility. In many ways, I feel that we're their only client. I know that's kind of a cliché. The way that they have been able to sometimes just drop everything else, get what we needed done, and bring in any additional partners, if necessary. They've really done an outstanding job of that. I've worked with a number of different agencies, and their ability to find the time to get the job done has set them apart.

Is there anything Sensis could have improved or done differently?

I'm sure there are. I think it's a learning curve for both parties, whenever you enter a relationship like this. But, I can't say there's something specific that stands out. It's been a very good relationship for the year and a half that we've been working together.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

My organization is university extension in Los Angeles.

What is your role and responsibilities, please?

I’m the dean of a university extension. Our responsibility is to extend the school's educational offerings to the broader community both in Los Angeles, nationally and worldwide. We have about 100,000 enrollments each year. We are primarily focused on providing adults with post-graduate certificates. We have about 120 certificates that are workforce-related that we offer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge or business goal you were trying to accomplish by working with Sensis Agency?

I had been alerted before I took the job that there were some difficulties and challenges around our marketing operation with a lot of dissatisfaction. In March of last year [2013], it became clear that we were having trouble moving forward the marketing projects that we needed to get done because of this I decided to bring in Sensis to take over our marketing operation.

Sensis came on in April and put in place a management team to partner with us. The goal from the beginning was for them to take over management to give us a sense of the kind of structure we should have as a marketing operation, to review our processes, and to lead us into the future with a new marketing operation that would be entirely our own. The goal was not to have Sensis stay with us, but to have them transition us to our own marketing entity. As of November, Sensis has fully transitioned out of our organization.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

Sensis provided a whole set of studies and insights throughout their time with us. They looked at the local competition. They looked at national competition. They laid out a strategy for us moving forward. They put together a plan for an institutional marketing campaign. Sensis created a digital roadmap for us on the ways we have to improve our technology to be part of the digital age. I think we are in good shape moving forward with this plan to become a real, first-rate marketing operation because of their help.

What was your process for selecting Sensis Agency with which to partner?

[The school] requires an RFP [request for proposal] process. We had three bidders on the project. Sensis was selected out of that process.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

Our partnership with Sensis included three members of their staff that were housed in our organization full time from April to November. Throughout the engagement we decided to add more items into our initial plan so we exceeded our original estimate but this was due to decisions on our end, not on Sensis Agency's.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

Sensis was brought in to create calmness and to ensure that our marketing team was productive. They did that. I rarely heard about issues, missed deadlines, or dissatisfaction after Sensis came on board. The people that they assigned to integrate with my team are people who are very competent. They emote calmness in the face of difficult times. That was very helpful. Part of what they did in the restructuring of our organization was identify new positions as well as rewrite a number of job descriptions in the marketing unit. They must have rewritten eight to 10 job descriptions for us. They really brought their marketing expertise in, and I’m confident we have a stronger marketing team because of it.

In addition to implementing a marketing framework, Sensis started to implement methods to improve our social media marketing efforts. They also helped to identify problems with our website that are going to have to be fixed. Sensis did a number of things to improve the delivery of our efforts. At the same time, they made sure that the projects that had been in the pipeline continued to get out on time. We ended last year with about a 3%-4% increase in enrollments above the previous year. Despite the mid-year interruption, we were able to come through fine. I couldn’t have been happier with what they did.

Is there anything unique about Sensis Agency that really makes them stand out, compared to other business partners you’ve experienced?

What’s important in a business partnership is that they want to do your work, not their work. From the very beginning, Sensis really wanted to understand our end goal. They were very focused on establishing calmness in the unit and creating a clear direction to guide their work. I’ll be ever grateful to them for having made that happen.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might have them do differently?

I wouldn’t identify anything. I think they did an outstanding job. I was really happy with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We’re a commercial bank based in the United States with a retail footprint primarily on the West Coast.

What is your role and responsibilities, please?

I'm vice president and senior marketing manager, focusing on multicultural marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Sensis Agency?

Our goal was to reach out to multicultural markets. When working with Sensis for this particular project, we were targeting a Hispanic demographic here in California. The project was to develop marketing and communication pieces that were culturally relevant, and communicate them directly to the Hispanic audience.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

Our work with Sensis started June of 2014. In September, we launched a print ad in Spanish throughout California which ran for a couple of months. We maintain a close relationship with Sensis, and keep in contact around any research, data, or insights that are available within the multicultural segment.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project? Are you satisfied with their performance?

This specific project was a branding campaign. There were no direct response metrics around it. During the development of the print ad, we were very satisfied with the way Sensis handled the project. They were primarily tasked with helping to flesh out our strategy to reach the Hispanic segment, including any cultural insights or relevancy that would contribute to the development of the print ad. From the beginning they took the time to really understand our bank’s brand. They were always on target, and had a keen grasp of our market. Their copywriting skills both in English and in Spanish were great. We had minimal edits.

Is there anything unique about Sensis Agency that really makes them stand out?

They are very data driven. They come to the table with a lot of questions that you may have never thought of, which helps to get you thinking. They bring a lot of data and research to help substantiate their recommendation, or to identify opportunities and challenges. The overall creative and management team are responsive and very professional. They take direction well, and are able to work with a limited budget and a tight schedule.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

No. They have been totally on mark.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a senior advisor and the contracting officer representative (COR) for a government institution.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Sensis?

We planned to offer an incentive prize for other federal agencies and organizations for their leadership performance. We needed a vendor to provide suggestions and help us design the stages of this initiative.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to conduct a successful competition and reward agencies and organizations for their above-average leadership.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We circulated an announcement that requested proposals for a contract. Sensis submitted the best offer.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

They managed the marketing and promotional efforts for all three phases of our challenge.

What was the team composition?

They provided a project manager who led several IT and marketing resources.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was a complete success. Over 75 agencies entered the challenge, and we awarded a final winner. Sensis helped promote the project and gain some exposure for our organization.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was a great business relationship. We communicated with their team regularly.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They’re very savvy.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They’re a small company. As they grow, they’ll be able to take on more work.