Yes&

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CIO for the Air Force Association based in Arlington, Virginia. We support the United States Air Force, family members, and retirees. We have 100,000 members and about 5,000 corporate members. We provide events and have programs such as the Mitchell Institute, think tanks, CYBERPATRIOT, a STEM program, the Wounded Airmen Program, and a lot of other programs that we integrate for our airmen.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bates Creative?

There were 3 business challenges. Frist, the membership was dropping and the new members—a young group of individuals—were not marketed to very well nor provided the outreach that we’d like to give. There was a big push on the design of the website for connecting with this newer generation through different digital platforms or creating the necessary transformations to attract them.

The second challenge was to increase our revenue through online advertisement. Since our print material is declining, we’re more focused on ways to connect with our constituents and provide different benefits to them.

The third challenge was to get people to connect with the organization from a branding perspective. We have about 250 chapters all over the United States and each one of those chapters needs to be centralized in order to provide just one source of content and communication.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They started from the ground up, working with us in coming up with the requirements, bringing up the business case, and figuring out what we were looking for. Then, they worked with our team to provide a design framework and to rethink the branding. We didn’t quite change our brand, but rather the way we reach out to our audience while providing the best practices to our executives on how we can achieve those goals. They were also part of bringing in the Adobe platform and working with us as a partner rather than as a vendor.

The magazine mobile app we are working on right now is also on Adobe.

What is the team dynamic?

There are about 10 people working with us.

How did you come to work with Bates Creative?

I first worked with them about 5 years ago when I was the CIO at another company. We adopted Adobe at the time and they managed the mobile part of it. We wanted to deliver in 3 months, which they did. It was a successful project, so based on that we hired them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2016 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The feedback has been positive. We are very happy with them.

How did Bates Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

They have a really strong team. They have really good architects and designers, and a really strong project manager that is assigned to our project. We communicate through phone, email, and in-person.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a local firm, so that’s very positive for us. They understand the nonprofit and association lingo very well and know the audience in the domain as well. We mainly focus on the Adobe aspect of the work, and they’re very good at it. It’s also easy to connect and talk to them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a restaurant in downtown Washington, D.C.

What is your position?

I am the owner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Yes&?

We were building a website for our restaurant and were looking for people who had experience and could give us an aesthetic. We wanted a small, hands-on boutique firm.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Yes& did all the web development and are currently doing maintenance for us. They have also taken on social media and are keeping us up to date and fresh. For us, it all ties in together. They are helping us liaison with our social media and analytics, and they are guiding us in the right direction. They have been consulting on what things we need to add and avoid, which was totally out of my knowledge and comfort zone. Social media has become much more important through the years and Yes& has helped facilitate a need for our business.

How did you come to work with Yes&?

My wife works with them.

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

The initial engagement was between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We're now on a monthly retainer with Yes& for our social media and website maintenance because we have many things that need to stay current. They continue to design our web advertisements, quarterly newsletters, and email blasts.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We're only nine months old. Since we turned to Yes& for guidance, our following on social media has grown three to four times from what it originally was. We've also gotten many comments from people who have noticed the quality of our site and the other work that we've been doing.

How did Yes& perform from a project management standpoint?

The quality of work has been stellar. Yes& is extremely on top of things, sometimes they know about things before we do. It's harder to measure success from a restaurant standpoint because we're looking for reservations and engagements rather than conversions and sales, but Yes&'s analytics and reporting have been super helpful for that. The website platform and social media campaigning has done a lot to keep our guests informed of what we are doing. It's been a fun and interesting process. We've been able to learn a thing or two from them.

What distinguishes Yes& from other providers?

We're probably one of the smaller companies that they've worked with. My biggest thing was not feeling like you got lost, which is why we wanted to go with a boutique firm that could also handle growth. You feel like you're getting one-on-one service from Yes&, which is great. They have a very nice touch from a customer service standpoint.

Is there anything Yes& could have improved or done differently?

Honestly, no. Yes& has exceeded 100 percent of our expectations and have brought a lot to the table for us. It's been nice to have that guidance from them, and it's been a phenomenal working relationship.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are The International Franchise Association, which is a trade association that protects, promotes, and enhances the franchise format business model.

What is your position?

My role is in business development, and I oversee our advertising department.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Yes&?

We have a team of representatives that sell advertising. Our main driver is our website, which generates nearly a million dollars annually in advertising revenue. We were on an outdated and dying CMS [content management system] and needed to upgrade.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Yes& started with a discovery phase, then moved into architecture, followed by developing and building out the site. We realized the best structure for us was an open source CMS. Our site works with and needs to communicate with our database, so Yes& handled that functionality. We have two unique membership databases and needed all of those parts to communicate with each other. They ended up migrating about 9,000 web pages to the new platform. Part of the reason that we chose Yes& was because they understood how our systems worked and what needed to get done in order for them to integrate successfully.

How did you come to work with Yes&?

We put out an RFP [request for proposal] and about 25 companies responded. Yes& had the most detailed submission by far – it was about 85 pages long. You could tell they had done their homework and took the time to understand how our company works and what the best solution would be.

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

The total cost was more than $200,000

What is the status of this engagement?

We started talking with them in early 2014 and the project lasted a good nine to 10 months. We launched the website in February 2015, but our relationship with Yes& is still very active. I talk to them on an almost daily basis, and we've recently been in conversations that are more geared toward revenue generation.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Our bounce rate has improved and our stickiness – the time spent on our site – has definitely improved. Obviously, when you launch a site, it takes a little bit of time, but we're slowly getting back to where we want to be. I'm confident that these upgrades will get us past where we were.

How did Yes& perform from a project management standpoint?

They use a centralized system called Basecamp. They are very thorough, everything is documented and tracked, and there is lots of clear communication between the project manager and the developers. We were assigned a project manager and head developer and they are extremely responsive. We've actually had the same project manager for the past two years and she's fantastic. She does a great job converting our wish list into actionable items.

What distinguishes Yes& from other providers?

The biggest thing for us is to have freedom, flexibility, and ownership of the site. The goal of our engagement with Yes& was to be able to pick up and switch to another Drupal developer at any point, which they are very cognizant of. What I like about Yes& is that they know how to bring my visions to fruition, and I feel comfortable working with them. Their founder [CEO Greg Kihlstrom] is a very bright guy, and he's been a sounding board for me to bounce my ideas off of and provide feedback. He opened my eyes to many things I wasn't seeing before, and he has a background in advertising, which lends a helpful perspective.

Every web developer has their own approach, and I like the demeanor of Yes&. They're very good at what they do, but they don't make you feel like they're better than you. I appreciate their approach, dedication, and responsiveness. It's because of them that we've been able to increase our revenue on the website. I plan to keep them around for as long as possible.

Is there anything Yes& could have improved or done differently?

They certainly had many problems to solve for us, especially since we're not a technology-savvy company. It's helpful to have some flexibility for the unknown when working on a project like ours, but I've experienced problems in that area with every web developer that I've worked with. Sometimes, we've needed them to work on something outside the scope of the original project that causes slight issues, but nothing major.