SIERRA Production House

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for an international company present in 13 different countries as the head of content, so I run all the content creation for those countries. Our organization has more than 200 employees, and our main goal is to bring solar energy systems to more people in Europe.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SIERRA?

We needed SIERRA's services in order to create a video to increase our awareness across the 13 countries we work in.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SIERRA helped us create a video featuring three actors. This video explained our service of selling solar energy systems and installing them on the roofs of our clients. Therefore, it didn't only showcase the actors but also the products we offer.

SIERRA basically did everything. First, they created the script and were in charge of the storytelling process. Then, they filmed the video in a house with solar panels installed. We used the house of one of our customers, so we called them, and they were happy to help us with the shooting.

Once we selected the location, SIERRA brought all their staff, equipment, and the three actors from Madrid to shoot the video. During the editing process, SIERRA used the footage they recorded, as well as images and videos that we provided them. They were also responsible for the audio mixing. The final video was one minute and 30 seconds long, and it would be used for social media ads.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three teammates from SIERRA, including the art director, the account manager, and the video editor.

How did you come to work with SIERRA?

We found them on Google. We went through a lot of different interviews to select the proper agency for this project based on their price and work quality. SIERRA wasn't very expensive for us, which was great because we're kind of a startup. Moreover, we really liked their quality, as the case studies they had on their website were great.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent €14,500 (approximately $15,800 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from December 2023–June 2024.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We haven't published the video yet, so we don't have any metrics. We're currently waiting to finish a rebranding process because we also want to include other items in our campaigns. As for the quality of SIERRA's work, it was a great video and, overall, a nice outcome.

How did SIERRA perform from a project management standpoint?

SIERRA stuck to our budget, and their project management was well done. We communicated via emails, video calls, and WhatsApp messages.

What did you find most impressive about them?

SIERRA's friendliness was noteworthy.

Are there any areas they could improve?

SIERRA could have improved their costs. Moreover, I expected more proactiveness from them. When hiring an external agency to support a project, clients expect a proactive partner. We were busy with other projects, so we wanted SIERRA to fully take care of the project. For example, the customer selection for the shooting was expensive for us because they didn't cover that part.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

To achieve faster communication, reach out to them through all the channels they offer, not only email. Sometimes, email communication can take a long time, and you might need an answer quickly, so you can leverage their WhatsApp and phone communication channels.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a senior producer at a travel media company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SIERRA?

We needed support in a filming project that involved traveling through different regions of Spain. Our company is from the US, and this was a huge project for an end client that required a month of travel.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SIERRA supported the film logistics, finding talent, and booking locations. My team's company filmed the video and brought the production crew, and SIERRA supplemented our crew by providing a local producer and production assistant to help with the production logistics. We worked with our team's camera people, and SIERRA was our partner in helping us navigate Spain and tell the video's story from a local point of view.

What is the team composition?

We worked with SIERRA's two directors and with two production assistants. 

How did you come to work with SIERRA?

I found SIERRA online while searching for production companies in Spain.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with SIERRA from February–June 2024. Since this project was completed, we've engaged in another project with SIERRA.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to SIERRA's support, we delivered a beautiful final video to the end client, who had no notes. We usually go through a changes and edits phase with end clients, and although this customer requested changes on other videos, they loved the main final video — it was great to have that response from our end client. 

The team was good at adapting to changes and pivoting to fit our needs. We had last-minute production change requests from our end client, which was stressful for me since I'm not from Spain and have a basic Spanish-speaking level. Working with SIERRA was very helpful because they helped us navigate those changes.

How did SIERRA perform from a project management standpoint?

SIERRA delivered the project on budget and met the overall timelines. However, some of our original deadlines were modified due to changes from our end client, but ultimately, everything worked out.

What did you find most impressive about them?

When I first met SIERRA, they did an amazing presentation of their services that was well-organized, easy to follow, and visually appealing. The team's presentation was the most thorough I've seen out of all the companies I've worked with. Additionally, the team was good at keeping us updated throughout the project and trying to stay on time. SIERRA was thorough from the beginning until the end of the project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

During our production projects, all the shooting is usually planned and locked in when we get to the filming stage, and it's hard to judge SIERRA because this project was unique due to the production changes. However, SIERRA could improve by checking in with us more frequently to ensure the production plan was in place with more anticipation instead of addressing the immediate fires — this would help customers feel more assured and in control. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I highly recommend working with SIERRA because they're a great company. I suggest having an idea of what you want and a clear budget. SIERRA will share an extensive presentation of their services, and the clearer your project idea is, the more the team can present their services accordingly. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Customer Marketing of a SaaS-based digital adoption platform.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

My company empowers anyone, anywhere to have scalable success with technology they use everyday, achieving greater knowledge, expanding capability, and unlocking productivity for themselves and their organizations. Our digital adoption platform integrates seamlessly with applications to enable users, providing in-context information and guidance to immediately increase individual capability and collectively amplify productivity.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire The Next Cartel to accomplish?

• Record Videos at Customer Networking Sessions
• Edit the Videos

SOLUTION

How did you find The Next Cartel?

Online Search

Why did you select The Next Cartel over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• GreatOutputs!

How many teammates from The Next Cartel were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We wanted to document 4 to 5 customer video testimonials/interviews at a Customer User Group in Amsterdam. There is great feedback from customers and internally from our team on the quality and overall turnaround of the video.The video was edited accurately and The Next Cartel's team also included our multiple edit requests graciously.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

To be able to publicly share these videos. To get customer approvals on marketing the videos. The overall quality and production of the video - which is great! :)

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

10/10. They responded promptly and were always communicative of the status.

What was your primary form of communication with The Next Cartel?

Email or Messaging App

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

They're a very very talented and warm bunch of people to work with :)

Are there any areas for improvement or something The Next Cartel could have done differently?

None as of now.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a co-founder of the AFIP foundation. We aim to inform and engage patients suffering from the most common heart arrhythmia: atrial fibrillation. Our ultimate goal is to end this heart disease by setting up new research projects in collaboration with patients and healthcare practitioners.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Next Cartel?

We hired The Next Cartel to create appealing English copy in order for us to reach out to a international audience. As we are a Netherlands based organization, we mostly offer Dutch (very specific and medical) content. The Next Cartel provided the resources we needed by offering us a brilliant copywriter with the exact skillset we were missing.

SOLUTION

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

We first did some research online, but it was hard to pick a suitable partner for us with the amount of copywriters out there. It was especially hard finding someone who was able to read into the medical literature we were providing. Someone in my network recommended The Next Cartel and mentioned that this agency provides content marketers that are excellent in doing background research and are good at translating tough topics into easy consumable pieces of information. After meeting Joachim, I knew that The Next Cartel and AFIP would be a perfect match.

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

We met Joachim to discuss our challenges with. He knew exaclty what we needed and he proposed a plan on how to reach out to an international audience. He then introduced us to Marina who ended up writing the content of our website. We briefed her with the articles to translate. Joachim set up a timeline for us and he continued to inform us on the moments of delivery. H

e pro-actively communicated with us and regularly asked for feedback which we shared in Notion. Once our feedback was applied, the content would be delivered to us in Word, which was exactly what we needed.

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

The Next Cartel assigned Joachim as Account Manager and Marina as the Copywriter. So there were 2 resources working together with us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We went from an average time on page of 3 minutes on our international blogs to an average time on page of 5 minutes. This has been a huge increase for us. Besides that, we noticed an increase in international donations of 35%. The content helped a lot during our international conferences.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow went very smoothly, thanks to Joachim's proactiveness. Due to my full agenda I wasn't always on top of everything and the latest versions of articles, but Joachim was always on top of it. We liked to communicate by WhatsApp and Phone and I would update feedback in notion. We met once a week, which was pefect for us.

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

I was very impressed with the quality of content and the way The Next Cartel's copywriters are able to really learn about a specific field of interest. You can tell the copywriters are genuinely interested in the topics they write about.

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

One thing that could have been done differently is the meeting with the copywriter sooner. I am a big fan of giving a briefing directly to the person involved without a resource in between. This caused us to have an extra meeting with Marina to eleborate a bit more on the topic. If she would have been in the first meeting, this maybe would have not been necessary. I shared this minor detail with Joachim and he took it really well. Overall we are very satisfied.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of a lifestyle company in the fashion space.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Next Cartel?

We hired them to work on a range of creative and technical projects, from branding to content creation to web design and development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Next Cartel has done a range of projects for us, mostly regarding web design and development. They've built our e-commerce website and created most of the material that goes into that. The team remodeled our site and created a new one from scratch. The team also collaborates with us for ongoing maintenance of the site. Ours is an e-commerce website with special features for the display of content. The team has continuously built new features, which they've executed from the idea phase to the launch. 

For each project, we start with a concept that lays out the goals, whether it's building a new website or producing a new content piece. We provide all our requirements, visuals,  any ideas we need to apply, and standards for our business. From there, they come back with detailed feedback and a proposal. Once we come to an agreement, the work begins, and they provide timelines. Once they're close to finalizing the project, we go through a review phase and provide comments to ensure changes are made. 

What is the team composition?

We've worked with at least four teammates from The Next Cartel. Three people are at the forefront; one specializes in the design, one in frontend development, and one in the backend and technical aspects. The fourth person is on the business side of the project. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent roughly $10,000–$15,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around June 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Next Cartel has been proficient and professional with their workflow. The team has been very collaborative in helping us reach our goals for our work together. We haven't had any issues with the review process; we've worked with them for over a year and have been super pleased with everything. 

Moreover, they're visual experts. Since our brand is very visual, we needed a partner that understood that aspect as well as the technical side. The Next Cartel meets in a very strong position in the visual and technical aspects. 

How did The Next Cartel perform from a project management standpoint?

They're efficient, communicative, and timely. We have regular check-ins of the workflow, progress, and deliverables. As for communication, we use Slack, email, phone calls, and Zoom and operate with Google Drive for file sharing. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Next Cartel's professionalism speaks volumes about the work they do. They're detail-oriented to minimize errors or miscommunication, which is one of the biggest highlights of their work because it helps reduce any issues. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

When any issues arise, we can speak with the team about them and work through them. The team has been very open to resolving issues and working out solutions. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to be as organized as possible, know what you want, and deliver the proper information so that The Next Cartel can do their best work. This approach will help keep everybody on the same page and ensure the result comes out well. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

One of the board members of a luxury bag brand, we involved TNC for creating a custom code website on shopify.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Next Cartel, and what were your goals?

We wanted different design choices than Shopify could provide us (based on available themes). Next to this we wanted a design that was tailored to our brand and customised accordingly to the design we pre-made but was not possible to make ourselves in shopify.

SOLUTION

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

For us it was important to find a vendor which had experience in building webshops on shopify and had experience developers which could make custom solutions tailored to what we had in mind in terms of design and functionality.

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

Two conceptual meetings, three in between projects and finally two meetings where we looked together and the finalized website. TNC works not according to the waterfall method but the agile method. Really great how the managed the project and keep us on a loop in short iterations and shows us the products in between so the final product wasn't a suprise to us and tailored accordingly to each step when we provided feedback.

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

3

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After launching the website we saw a decrease in 30% in bouncerate and our SEO was boosted by 150%

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

whatsapp and agile working method.

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

TNC is very skilled in what they do. They have great communication skills, quick reactions, and problem-solving. They have a very good attitude that tailored to fashion brands.

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

no

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Product of Ample

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Ample is a new energy delivery solution for electric vehicles. It uses Modular Battery Swapping to deliver 100% charge to any EV in a few minutes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Create a promotional launch video

SOLUTION

How did you find SIERRA?

Online Search

Why did you select SIERRA over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Strong proposal

How many teammates from SIERRA were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Create a promotional launch video for online and media distribution.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

1. Storytelling and end video of original storyboard
2. Quality/craft of end video determined by perception of stakeholders

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

Excellent project management: collaboration, accountability, and communication.

What was your primary form of communication with SIERRA?

Email or Messaging App

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

1. Creative & Craft: They came forth with strong proposals that were not off-the-shelf ideas or templates.
2. Partners: They work with you as an in-house team would, versus an external agency with rigid do's and don'ts. There collaboration and communication were excellent.
3. Accountable: They follow through, communicate very well, and never leave you in doubt.
4. Fun: They made the project even more enjoyable.

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

N/A

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Growth of a software company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are the leading Bitcoin wallet for Web3.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire The Next Cartel to accomplish?

• Rebrand Logo, fonts, colors
• Sizzle video for the rebrand campaign

SOLUTION

How did you find The Next Cartel?

Referral

Why did you select The Next Cartel over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me

How many teammates from The Next Cartel were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Rebrand: logo, fonts, colors, brand guide, sizzle video for the rebrand campaign

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Our rebrand sizzle video tweet received 55k impressions: https://twitter.com/xverseApp/status/1658459030665191426?s=20 And very positive comments from fans.

What was your primary form of communication with The Next Cartel?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

All items were delivered in a timely manner, and the team was highly responsive and available to all our needs. Felipe ensure to follow up on every detail and allowed us several revisions until we reached a level even beyond our expectations.

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

We could tell from the impressive variety of brands and styles that Cartel could offer us a unique and very special brand that would standout and visually convey our voice.

Are there any areas for improvement or something The Next Cartel could have done differently?

nada

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the owner of Alessandra-Louisa Management a social media boutique agency that manages and supports content creators.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Next Cartel, and what were your goals?

We were in need for a new website which is why we contacted The Next Cartel. As we made some unfortunate decisions in the past the webpage was in a coming soon status for quite a while - We didn't know how to start and how to end. We needed creative skill as well as IT skills and a developer.

SOLUTION

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

We are more that happy to have chosen The Next Cartel for our project. The Next Cartel was introduced to us by a common friend and work-partner. We were looking for someone creative and technology-driven who is always up to date and understands our business. The Next Cartel checked all boxes.

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

We had a kick off meeting and several video-calls throughout the project. The Next Cartel made a timeline in the beginning to give us structure and security - we highly appreciated that! They always kept us in loop, made good suggestions (without asking them to do so - which is rare and highly appreciated) & were available all the time.

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

A project manager was our main point of contact throughout the process. There was 1 fun stack developer working "behind the scenes".

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since launching our webpage, we have a lot of requests coming from there. Clients love the updated design, and they now have a better understanding of our services.

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

We had a stand-up once a week with their project manager and developer. If there were any questions in between we communicated via email. Their answers to our concerns came very fast and on point. We used Zoom or Microsoft Teams for video-calls and I am sure they will have plenty of options to communicate and find the best way possible for each and every client.

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

• Always on time
• Very well structured
• Creative and pro-active

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

Nothing to add here.