The Weinstein Organization Inc.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a franchise of a health and fitness company in Arizona. We are independently owned and operated, and I am the general manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Weinstein Organization?

We have used The Weinstein Organization for more than 15 years. Overall, the goal of our work together has been to increase enrollment in our programs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We've worked with The Weinstein Organization on at least 8 or 10 projects. They've done all sorts of things, including direct mail, emails, newsletters, social media, and even some television advertising for us. These are usually separate campaigns, but they are companion pieces. The Weinstein Organization will provide a direct mail piece and then follow it up with e-mails or vice versa.

They do a really good job with direct mail. The visuals that The Weinstein Organization is able to create for us, not just on this direct mail piece but on social media, our newsletters, and our e-mail campaigns have been really great.

Additionally, they have built our website and continue to upgrade it. In fact, we're adding several pages right now. That includes e-commerce for members or prospective members to sign up right on the website, as well as a secure website. For that website, they have provided both design and development. You know what technologies they use them.

he Weinstein Organization has their own IT team in-house who are very easy to communicate with. They are able to tell us what they needs from us. They're also able to take our suggestions and run with it.

In terms of social media marketing, we use Facebook right now, although we have explored Instagram.

Currently, we're also doing a ValPak with them, which we've never done before.

How did you come to work with The Weinstein Organization ?

We met them through the Franchise Association and they had done work for other franchises, and they ended up doing some work with us. We've even used other companies since then, and sometimes we have stayed with the other company for that particular line of work, but most of the time we went back to Weinstein.

How much have you invested with them?

For this year, we've probably spent $100,000 with. However, I don't believe we spent that much in the past. Last year may have been near that amount, and the years before we're probably $30,000 to $40,000 at the most. The total has been between $200,000 and $1,000,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June, 2000, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our newsletter has been a huge success. We've had the best open rate of any email or digital campaign we've ever done. We continue to get even more subscription requests for the newsletter, which is great. A lot of people who click on the newsletter end up going to the pricing page on our site, which is also great because that means they might be interested in joining. So, we have seen really good numbers with the newsletter we've been pretty excited about that.

There has also been some success on the social media, but it has been a slow growth. We've only been on social media for a couple of years, but we have several thousand followers. They participate and engage with us on a regular basis.

The work on the website has also been good. If something doesn't have the right look or feel or if it looks too much like somebody else's website I push them a different direction. I want our pages to be as unique as possible.

How did The Weinstein Organization perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is also good. They are good listeners. When I give feedback, they're able to take my suggestion and cook it a little more.

There have been a few times when I had to give them a short deadline. We needed an ad for print for a business journal, which is widely read.W e needed of almost a half a kind of a journal sized newspaper, and we needed a half-page ad for it when we had a tight deadline. They were able to get it together and help me with that.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're really good at communicating with me, and it's easy for me to communicate with them. I can call, text, or email and get a response very quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes I wish they would think out of the box is a little more instead of sticking with what they've done with other franchises.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work as a project manager in the marketing department at Office Depot’s headquarters focusing on store and market-specific needs. We work on many interesting projects, testing different markets which aren’t necessarily at a national level. We're based in Boca Raton, Florida.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Weinstein Organization?

We had a need for automating marketing. Stores were requesting specific marketing pieces on a daily basis and it was impossible for us to keep up with all the requests and still meet deadlines.

This was a new endeavor for the team. When we started getting these requests, we would go to our internal creative teams to develop materials like fliers for events. We asked for them to be delivered the next day but had at least a 2-3-week turnaround. When all these last-minute requests from the field started building up, we realized we needed something to automate the process.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Weinstein Organization developed some tools for us, called The Local Marketing Playbook. It’s a preapproved marketing-on-demand platform which all our stores have access to so that they can log on and create what we call marketing plays, with different specific audiences, in order to canvas, attend events, and get the word out. They have done everything, from soup to nuts, including designing the entire platform, coding it and making integrations with our internal store portal, working with our internal team.

We continue to ask for their help, not only on programming new plays but also for creative and copywriting work.

The tool is designed specifically for marketing fliers directed at specific audiences. If we want to create a new flier, Weinstein will sometimes actually design the creative for that flier, or write the copy for it. At the moment, we have 10-12 initiatives on which Weinstein is providing help, including rebranding and refreshing for our creative.

Every one of our stores has a specific landing page. Weinstein helped program store-specific messages which the store managers can change with preapproved copy.

Weinstein has helped with direct marketing strategy, to an extent. If we get tasked with an internal program, we can go to their team for strategic inputs. They will sometimes come back with a better alternative, which we will end up going with, most of the time. It’s very much a partnership, rather than contracting for specific fliers.

Sometimes, Weinstein will also help us with one-off direct mailers. They run a full-service direct-mail program as well, so we will assign different customer files from store managers, and have Weinstein execute the letters on our behalf.

How did you come to work with The Weinstein Organization?

They were already working with Office Depot when I joined the team. I am guessing that there was an RFP in place, and Weinstein was one of the picks.

How much have you invested with The Weinstein Organization?

The cost of their work has been in the hundreds of thousands of dollars across the years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with The Weinstein Organization 4–5 years ago in May 2013. The relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The results have been amazing, and we have great success with the tool. Weinstein has added millions of dollars of incremental sales to our company. Our store managers absolutely love the work, and we've seen an increase in the usage of our fliers and tools. 

How did The Weinstein Organization perform from a project management standpoint?

Tracy, our account executive, is extremely meticulous and organized. She is on top of everything, and the team is always available at the drop of a hat. She is on vacation right now, but I’ve still received instant replies to my emails and texts to her. Weinstein is deadline and goal-driven, and they help keep everyone on track.

What did you find most impressive about The Weinstein Organization?

I like the fact that they’re a small company. I feel that I’ve come to know and trust them, and they are overall great partners. It never felt like a client-agency relationship; Weinstein is a part of the team, and they care about the goals of Office Depot and our growth. They’re constantly coming up with new ideas to help grow the playbook and evolve the business. I really like the fact that I can reach out at any time, with any questions or concerns, and have Weinstein respond quickly with a plan.

Are there any areas The Weinstein Organization could improve?

They could move closer to us so that we could have more in-person meetings rather than over the phone. Otherwise, they’re great.