AND ACTION

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was a project manager for a recruitment project at Ukrainian Leadership Academy. It’s the biggest NGO in Ukraine working with teenagers after school, helping them to have a productive transition between school and university. I was in charge of creative work and promotion for a recruitment campaign.

What challenge were you trying to address with AND ACTION?

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, we weren’t able to conduct any offline recruitment as we’d usually do. In previous years, we’d go to schools around the country and work with students directly, but we had no way of doing that this year. We had to make an online campaign, and we also wanted to target a different audience. We usually worked with more extroverted students, and we wanted to get some smart introverted ones this time.

What was the scope of their involvement?

AND ACTION conducted a brief research with our potential students, based on which they drafted the creative concept of the campaign. They developed the key visuals and adapted those for different online channels. They also made a promotional video to be used on a few platforms, including social media and our website.

What is the team composition?

We worked with their CEO and with the creative director. We weren’t in touch with any other employees.

How did you come to work with AND ACTION?

They were recommended to us by another organization. Given that it was during the lockdown, we were looking for people who could create graphic videos, not just live-action ones. AND ACTION had a strong and modern portfolio, encompassing different styles and approaches. They were willing to experiment, and so were we, so it was a perfect fit.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost was below $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with AND ACTION in March 2020 and the project finished in June, after which we rolled out the campaign.

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

Our team was satisfied with AND ACTION’s work. It was the first time we’d tried to do a whole campaign properly, and we liked this experience a lot. We received the same number of applications as in the previous year, which was important for us given the uncertainty caused by COVID-19. The online campaign worked as well as our previous offline ones, and the students who participated in the program were touched by the key visuals and the promotional video. The quality was very high.

How did AND ACTION perform from a project management standpoint?

They were ahead of the deadline, so we were happy with the time management. AND ACTION always proposed different ways of doing things, and they were proactive in asking for feedback. We felt that they were really interested in the project, and weren’t just working as an external team. They met all our deadlines and expectations. We communicated through Zoom and messengers. The project wasn’t that long, so we didn’t need to use Trello or any other scrum tools.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Creative agencies will usually just listen to the client and won’t be willing to push them to different ideas. AND ACTION brought some ideas that we weren’t ready for at first, but they proved to us that those would work better. They were persuasive in a good way, and they proposed very innovative graphic styles that we hadn’t considered in the beginning. They engaged in a professional discussion and didn’t just do what the client wanted. Their aim was to make us better.

Are there any areas they could improve?

After we had the script and everything else approved, we had 2–3 weeks of quiet time during which they made the video, and we didn’t receive any updates on how things were going. There was no communication, and we were a bit nervous. Communication during the project is something that could maybe be improved.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They should trust AND ACTION, relax, and enjoy the project. They really do everything in order to give the client the results they need.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the vice president of Intellias, a software development company headquartered in Ukraine.

What challenge were you trying to address with AND ACTION?

We were looking for a company that could develop great video content. We operate in the automotive industry, and we always need to communicate to employees and candidates our key value proposition, referral program, and how our company differentiates itself from others.

Ukraine is a quite competitive market, so we always need to communicate the benefits of our company to future employees, as well as explain different processes to current employees, and how they can refer friends to the company. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

AND ACTION provided video content for recruitment purposes, employee engagement, communicating our key value proposition and referral program, and so on.

They’ve produced animated content for most internal use, to explain how different processes work. When it came to external needs, it was mostly filmed content featuring our employees. We’re a global company with 30,000 engineers across the world, and we’ve produced videos at each of our offices, in Japan, China, the US, India, Mexico, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Poland.

What is the team composition?

We’ve done several projects with them, with varying team sizes. The referral program had a team of 20 people, including a producer, operators, copywriters, and editors.

How did you come to work with AND ACTION?

It was through a referral. We ran a tender and considered multiple companies. AND ACTION won based on their references from other companies and pricing. It was important for us to make a global picture, and not a local one.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve had different projects with them, from €5,000 to €100,000 per video (approximately $5,500 – $110,000 USD)

What is the status of this engagement?

We had our first project with them 2–3 years ago. The planning started at the beginning of 2018, and the execution was around February. It was a small project for internal communication, followed by the referral program. Right now, we’re working on a project about the employee value proposition. It’s a big project, and the video will be used both internally and externally.

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

I’ve gotten very good feedback from my colleagues in Ukraine in terms of quality, creativity, and return on investment.

How did AND ACTION perform from a project management standpoint?

They have a dedicated account manager driving the process at all stages. They’re quite agile in changing requirements during the project. I’m satisfied with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

 Their creativity is very impressive. They’re probably not the fastest, and they’re probably more expensive compared to other studios in Ukraine, but what they deliver is much more high-quality.

I’ve had experience with other studios, and I’d say that AND ACTION stands out in terms of quality of work and their understanding of what kind of message we want to deliver. They become part of the team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As I mentioned, they’re probably more expensive than other studios, and they don’t work as fast, but I can understand why. They’re probably not the best for small, fast projects intended for small audiences; they’re very specific and want to understand all the requirements. They talk to the stakeholders in order to define the roadmap.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s important to define the final message or goal you have for the video. If they understand the goal of the video, the result will be great.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Chief Marketing Officer a software product development service company, specialized in Computer Networking, Embedded Development and the Internet of Things.

For what projects/services did your company hire and action?

We have hired And Action for the production of a compelling corporate video.

What were your goals for this project?

The main goal was to create a powerful video story, reflecting the company's new brand positioning and image after the significant re-branding.

How did you select this vendor?

I had a successful experience of collaborating with this agency when working for a previous company. That collaboration resulted in an award winning project, recognized by Ukrainian Design: the Best Of, as the best one in the Video category. My former team and I enjoyed the collaboration, so I decided to select this agency again for the new project.

Describe the video(s) and the process in detail.

Once this agency was selected as our partner, they started learning about our business: our positioning, differentiation, service portfolio and the goals of the video. They drafted the initial script, and we used their structure, but had to rewrite the script significantly at own efforts.

Further on, we collaborated on the storyboard and selected the music. The end product was a 1.5 minute long, creative promotional video that we used for our website and social media.

Their team provided a couple of actors but mostly our company's team was filmed which served as additional internal motivation. We used our brand new, well-equipped office as the main filming location. The filming process was long but exciting for our whole team.

What was your vendors' project management or feedback process?

They provided a full filming crew and an animator for the post-production work. We have worked together on making the changes in the final video, and their turnaround was rather quick. I couldn't say that we always agreed on anything, but the discussion was always productive and pleasant.

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

The launch of the new video resulted in increased traffic to our website and activity on our social media pages. It also allowed us to illustrate our new positioning for our key audiences and we have received a lot of positive feedback on how well it reflects our unique brand, both from our team members internally, from our valued customers, partners and external communities.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The account manager on the agency site was easy to communicate with and always provided a clear and detailed status. We had a project timeline that was followed and all of our questions were answered promptly. The whole crew was very responsive and the collaboration was productive and pleasant. The filming process at our office was carefully planned and scheduled so it did not disturb any work and the order was quickly restored. Our team was satisfied with this collaboration.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

This is a very professional and creative team, easy to communicate with, always open for comments and suggestions. They are always looking for new ways to deliver more value to their customers by trying to understand their business goals and objectives. I'm impressed by their strong focus on continuous improvement of their service.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We have ended up with higher budgets than expected, in both projects I've collaborated with them on. This created some inconvenience as some heavy "internal selling" had to be done on our side to get that extra budget approved. However, we were aware what the additional charges included and were not willing to sacrifice the video quality, so we have agreed to this option prior to starting the project.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a product manager at a digital product design firm. We help startups and enterprises design and market their digital products.

For what projects/services did your company hire and action?

We hired and action to produce a series of three promotional videos for one of our client’s public launch campaigns.

What were your goals for this project?

We set out to create engaging videos that would be consistent with an established brand voice.

How did you select this vendor?

We’d already developed visuals and a strong tone-of-voice, so we needed a partner that understood the product’s specifications, audience, and main value. and action’s team and portfolio looked much better than those of other references we received.

Describe the video(s) and the process in detail.

We provided and action with a general script vision and asked them to validate it. Then, they dove into storyboarding, basing their concepts on the visual guidelines, illustrations, and other brand images we’d already developed. We chose the approach that worked best for us, analyzed proposed animations and illustrations, and started production. Once the videos were done, we gathered feedback from the client and had and action implement it.

What was your vendors' project management or feedback process?

They had a lean team. Khrystyna (CEO, and action) helped us identify the best approach during the discovery process while Vitalii (Co-Founder, and action) handled communication. Despite us being a little bit slow with feedback (there were a lot of stakeholders within our process), and action was responsive and proactive.

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

General feedback from the stakeholders has been really good. After several sessions, we’ve decided to make some minor changes, but and action handled them quickly. We’re about to start the campaign and expect the videos to work well.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It’s been very natural. We use Skype for day-to-day communication and Google Docs to collaborate. They also have internal project management tools I believe.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They’re both responsive to feedback and confident in their own ideas. If we asked them to change something, they would always explain the logic behind their initial choice. After, if we still wanted the change, they would make it. This helped us avoid mistakes multiple times. This process didn’t sacrifice either speed or quality.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can’t think of anything specific at the moment. They did a good job.

Please describe your company and your position there.

The Lviv Film Commission is a municipal organization that provides information and assistance for production companies and independent filmmakers from all around the world.

For what projects/services did your company hire and action?

We needed support to create a promotional video for the Lviv Film Commission.

What were your goals for this project?

Our objective for this engagement was to produce an outstanding video to promote both our services and the city itself as a filming location with developed infrastructure.

How did you select this vendor?

We chose and action based on the balance of services and pricing they offered. 

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

and action worked independently based on our order and proposals. They 
completed every task according to the timeline we set out for the project.

What was the team composition?

The team included less than seven people.  Two people from our company helped adjust the concept and communicate our ideas to and action.

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

Our promo video is said to be one of the best in the field.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Our communication and timing with and action felt very comfortable. 

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Not only is and action the best and most professional team in Lviv, but they also offer an extensive range of competitively priced services. Their passionate team members contribute at every stage of production to meet the priorities of your project. and action’s creative attitude and individualized attention resulted in a unique audio-visual product.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Everything worked fine.