Apologue

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the general manager of a medical device company. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Apologue?

We were trying to get input for our patient engagement strategy after launching a new patient app for mobile devices. As we were taking it to market, we wanted to open up a broad opportunity to engage customers across multiple effective channels.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They came into our B2B organization and helped us think as if we were a B2C organization from a marketing and engagement standpoint. The founder of their company first gave us an overview of how B2C companies engage with end-users that would be analogous to how we could engage with our patients. It was a broad market overview, but they provided additional detail around how companies in the med-tech space were engaging with patients. 

From there, we created a potential strategy for the business and conducted a risk assessment. That really became the jumping-off point for patient engagement strategy. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with the founder of the team.

How did you come to work with Apologue?

The owner of their company was in my network, so I’d been exposed to his work through his social media presence and direct conversations. He’d given me great insights and perspectives on the categories my business covers. Because he was able to make that link between industries and my work, we had a great starting point for conversation. We brought him in for a meeting with a broader set of our leaders, and the conversations went very well. 

Because we typically supply hospitals and clinicians, there was some internal trepidation around persuing this. There was also a history of projects like this being unsuccessful. They addressed these hesitations by closely examining what we’d hone in the past, helping us understand what would be most helpful for us today. That included identifying positive things we’d done in the past concerning patients that would still be very relevant today.   

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from October–December 2019.

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

They helped the team develop a confident position on how to activate a patient engagement strategy. The effort was so successful, that they were brought back for a second project addressing a broader cross-section of the organization and get buy-in for the approach going forward.

Their work generated an important ongoing conversation that’s allowed us to determine best practices. We just deployed our approach across a marketing organization, so our conversations quickly went from theoretical and small to a much broader discussion within the marketing community.    

How did Apologue perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything was delivered as scheduled. Because they were working with a team that wasn’t an expert at social media best practices within this field, there were a lot of requests for more case studies and examples. They were willing to help us through this, and any commitments they made were met.

We communicated mostly through email. Because deliverables mostly culminated in workshops, it was fairly easy to keep track of tasks and to-dos.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their depth of expertise and ability to apply it to various sectors stood out. Even though there wasn’t necessarily a natural link between their work and our business, we were very impressed with the rich insights they provided. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’d love it if they had an office in our region. We were always craving more interaction.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open and honest with both your efforts and past mistakes. They were able to bring a different perspective to what we were experiencing. There were plenty of positives associated with that.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the marketing director at Trellis Health, a women’s healthcare startup focusing on fertility and specifically egg freezing. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Apologue?

We hired Apologue to create, run, and manage our social media accounts, including Instagram and Facebook, and any influencer work we have was also under them as well. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Apologue created our monthly content calendars which showed the content that we share on both our entertainment channels. They were able to digest content that we already had, along with creating new content and videos. Furthermore, they also managed all of our community engagement. They also crafted a growth plan. 

When we started working with them, we didn’t have any followers. Then, when we started our new business, they helped us launch our plan and ultimately grow our followers. The team also spearheaded the influencer deals we had.

Apologue also did a bit of Facebook and Instagram advertising such as boosting posts that were working. We really had a separate digital agency for that, but they worked with them closely on developing content that was working really well and helping them choose which content to boost. 

What is the team composition?

We mainly worked with Wei (Founder) and he did most of the heavy lifting. He also had two girls under him that we worked closely with, and they helped with the copy and creative needs. 

How did you come to work with Apologue?

Wei was recommended to our CMO. I think it was just through a connection that we heard about them.

How much have you invested with them?

Our monthly retainer was around $55,000. Then, any additional creative work and influencer work was a different pocket fee.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement ran from June 2018–November 2019. The only reason that it ended was that our company closed. 

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

When we started working with them, they didn’t have any healthcare facility experience, but they were able to dove well into our industry. They committed to finding out what other competitor brands were doing, what other people were talking about, and what the community chatter was. Our niche was fertility and it was a hard topic to necessarily break into, but they just did a great job. 

We started with literally zero followers and they helped us grow to a few thousand within a matter of months. We saw success there and then we looked at each individual influencer program and they were able to drive actual attendees to our events.

Then, our engagement posts were also averaging with high engagement rates. The engagement was something they did really strongly, and it wasn’t just quantity, but the quality of the followers that impressed us. The quality of our audience was really great because they were really engaged with our brand. 

I recommend them highly. I’ve also been trying to get them to work with other projects that I’ve been working on. 

How did Apologue perform from a project management standpoint?

They recommended that we got some social tracking tools. Then, they also assigned us to do our social calendar which we managed through Google Drive, and that was really helpful to know what was upcoming, as well as for checking our copies and hashtags. We also had interactive workspaces where we would go in and comment on things. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their flexibility, passion, and commitment were impressive. As a startup, we were working super quickly, and we were getting some messages from investors that we’d have to do it at a moment’s notice. Despite that, they were always flexible with us and able to work on our timeline and adjust when needed. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They didn’t have a lot of video in-house capabilities such as graphics interchange format (GIFs) and moving stuff, and we had to bring in a creative to do the real videos. However, I’m not sure if that’s technically under their scope, but that’s the only thing that I could think of. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Try to give them more time than we did, but that’s just in general because we moved so quickly. Being able to do that can allow you to think through big picture plans and the results can be better. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a managing partner at Logic Product Group. We’re a manufacturer and distributor of natural products for families and pets. We have a fast-growing line of natural grooming products.

What challenge were you trying to address with Apologue?

Our customers spend a lot of time with their dogs and on social media. We were looking to reach our target audience through social media.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Apologue provided social media marketing services for us. They helped us position ourselves to target potential customers. We began by having a few strategy sessions to explain our objectives to them. About five days later, they came back with a proposal on how to reach our goals.

Their team was responsible for creating a strategy and posting to Instagram and Facebook for us. After going back and forth on some of their ideas we started posting content. They handled all of the creative and copywriting elements. 

Apologue is also responsible for communicating with our consumers. We had a number of contests where customers would put up pictures of their dogs after using our products. They handled registration for contests as well as promotion.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Alexa (Freelance Social Media) and Wei (Founder). 

How did you come to work with Apologue?

We had been looking around for some time and, after speaking to various people in our network, we received a recommendation for Apologue. Everyone spoke very highly of them so we gave them a call.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement ran from October–December 2020.

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

We saw a nice spike in sales from our e-commerce website as a result of their efforts. Apologue is extremely proactive. They were always there whenever we needed them and continued to bring us new ideas. Their team also learned about our brand very quickly.

How did Apologue perform from a project management standpoint?

Apologue is highly responsive and reactive. They met or surpassed every deadline. They were often the ones that had to remind us of things.

Our teams used Google Docs to collaborate and also had a content calendar, making it easy for us to interact with them. We also used email and text to communicate and held weekly calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Apologue keeps their promises. They actually deliver what they say they will. Their team understood our consumers and knew how to get them engaged.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, everything was great. We will rehire them again when we have another project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I don’t think you’ll be disappointed, it was a really good experience.