Bear In The Hall

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Manager, Brand Strategy of ADT

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

ADT is a smart home security company that sells security alarm systems, smart home devices, business security solutions and safety solutions beyond the home.

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Bear In The Hall to accomplish?

• Modernize the ADT brand to move beyond a traditional alarm-based security brand to a innovative safety brand that appeals to next generation consumers.
• Clearly and consistently communicate the consumer benefit of ADT's entire portfolio, delivering unrivaled safety and innovation.
• Drive consideration of ADT and win new customer through compelling advertising that differentiates ADT.

How did you find Bear In The Hall?

Other

Why did you select Bear In The Hall over others?

Great culture fit, Good value for cost, Other

What was your primary form of communication with Bear In The Hall?

Virtual Meeting

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

Bear in the Hall was ADT's agency of record from 2018 to 2023. During this time, the Bear in the Hall team brought to life multiple cross-channel creative advertising campaigns including TV spots, social content, digital video, digital ads, website, email, photography, OOH, brand activations, and more.

The Bear in the Hall team wears many hats, from Market Research and Consumer Insights, Brand Strategy, Account Management, Creative Services and Advertising, Graphic Design, Copywriting, Brand Messaging, and Production.

This team always delivered high quality work, whether it was a transformative brand campaign that required in-depth strategic thinking or the day-to-day, run the business projects.

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

• Increase in Smart Home Leadership
• Increase in Brand Trust
• Increase in Brand Consideration

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

Bear in the Hall is exceptional at project management, and we viewed them as an extension of our internal team. Our Account Lead, Nick, was extremely organized, proactive, positive, accountable and reliable. The entire team was always willing to help and readily jumped into projects without hesitation.

When faced with challenges, they were solutions-oriented, resilient and adaptable to changes. Their communication was always transparent and honest, keeping us informed of project updates and timelines. We established a regular cadence of standups, and they were always responsive to our emails, chats and calls.

Honestly, the Bear in the Hall team was a joy to work with. They hire passionate, smart individuals that truly care about driving positive impact on your business.

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

The passion and creativity. We had such a long and successful relationship together because the Bear in the Hall team puts forth 100%, and it reflects in their work. They truly care to understand the business goals, and they are hardworking to achieve those objectives.

Are there any areas for improvement or something {provider_name} could have done differently?

There is nothing that they could have done differently. I think the agency only has the opportunity to grow and build its team as they continue to product great work.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Senior Manager of advertising and marketing go-to-market functions for a security company.

For what projects/services did your company hire Bear In The Hall?

We hired Bear in the Hall to be our creative agency of record to support all creative execution from sales collateral to TV commercials. We look to them for new creative campaigns and ways to get our target audience to engage with the brand.

How did you select this vendor?

One of our leaders had experience working with this team at a previous company, and initially brought them on to help with smaller projects. Over time we were so pleased with their work, we scaled up their SOW to include all creative executions. We also completed an RFP with 4 other creative agencies and ultimately determined that they were the right fit for our team.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Bear in the Hall has supported us in the creation of new creative campaigns over the last few years, including strategy, copywriting, design and video editing. They have executed across brand and direct response TV, OLV, brand and paid social, radio, OOH, display, email, web design, activations, sales collateral, tradeshow booth design, meeting ppt design and anything in between.

What was the team composition?

I work very closely with the Account Director on a daily basis and also regularly interact with the agency executives. They have also worked closely with our in-house creative team.

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

Bear in the Hall is the creative agency behind some of our highest-scoring ads, including a Super Bowl campaign. Their work has been an important factor in our company's growth during their time on our business.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We have weekly status meetings with the account team to review all open projects and their status. We also have standups for 15 minutes every other day to cover off on quick updates at the start of the day. We communicate regularly via Slack and email. At each phase they review feedback and quickly implement it to ensure full team alignment before finalizing any assets.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The Bear in the Hall team genuinely cares about their clients and their success, both at an individual and a company level. They consistently go above and beyond to make sure deadlines are met and that work meets the objectives. The team is incredibly efficient both in terms of cost and workflow.

Is there any area for improvement or anything that could have been done differently?

The team is very organized, but it may be helpful to use a joint project management platform to track projects in one place for easy reference.

This review was published on April 25, 2022.

Shannon Hendrickson

VP of Brand Marketing, ADT

Other Industry

10,000+ Employees

Confidential

Nov 2017 - Ongoing

Project summary

Bear In The Hall provides marketing and advertising services for a smart home security company. They work on TV and digital ads, social media, and any creative project to market the brand.

Feedback summary

Since 2017, Bear In The Hall has delivered amazing work, executing quickly and seamlessly. They go beyond their duty and keep an outstanding focus on their clients’ needs. The team is extremely organized, diligent, and detail-oriented. Moreover, they’re friendly and understanding partners.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I oversee the brand team for my smart home security company. We do market research, brand strategy, creative execution, go-to-market function, and brand media execution.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bear In The Hall?

We needed to bring our creative expression for the brand to market through campaign development and execution.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Bear In The Hall helps us execute creative solutions across all our lines of business. They work on everything relating to advertising, from TV ads to digital video ads, social media campaigns, and more. The team writes the brief for the creative projects and executes them.

What is the team composition?

We work with eight people.

How did you come to work with Bear In The Hall?

I knew Tom (Chief Creative Officer), their co-founder and executive creative director, from a previous brand when he was at a different agency. Tom was an incredible creative talent and business partner. He was one of the best copywriters and creative directors I’d worked with. When he began his new agency, we decided to work with them. It started as a limited engagement, but their work was so fantastic that it evolved, and they became our agency of record.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began our partnership in November 2017, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve been the most fantastic partner. Bear In The Hall is different than most agencies; they seem to try harder. The team is great at listening, and they seek to understand our position. Moreover, they don’t push ideas on us as other agencies do.

Also, our team loves working with them. They make their jobs better, easier, and more fun.

In terms of effort, no one else compares — they’ve done some of the most amazing work and quick turnaround that I’ve seen in my career. One highlight is the 36-hour edit from end-of-shooting to ship for our Super Bowl ad. They executed so quickly and so well.

In general, Bear In The Hall has gone above and beyond their way to be helpful. They never want to let us down.

How did Bear In The Hall perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is fantastic. Their account people are so organized, detailed, diligent, and friendly. We even look forward to our status meetings. We use Asana for project management, Slack for communication, and email when needed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Agencies often push their own agenda instead of something that would benefit the client’s objectives. On the other hand, Bear In The Hall is understanding and great at listening. They focus on our business challenges and work to address them as best as possible. Overall, they’re customer-focused. Their team is full of great partners that bring thought, leadership, and passion to everything they do. They’re just great at their job, and their team is fantastic.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend them. They’re not a well-known agency, but they’ll really help bring change and fantastic work to your brand.

RATINGS

Overall rating: 4.5

Quality: 4.5

Cost: 5

They’re an up-and-coming agency, so they’re affordable. Moreover, their work is on par with the bigger agencies.

Schedule: 5

They’ve never missed a deadline; they’re so good with that.

Willing to refer: 5

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Operations Lead at Playter, a FinTech StartUp providing BNPL for B2B.

For what projects/services did your company hire Bear In The Hall, and what were your goals?

We hired Bear in the Hall to produce an explainer video for our product. The goal was to have something short and succinct that would effectively encapsulate the premise of our product, whilst instilling trust in the audience as provide a financial service.

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

Our biggest deciding factor was quality and budget. We were constrained by budget but still wanted to be able to come away with something of really good quality. Bear in the Hall offered to work with us at bespoke pricing, with no compromise on quality.

Describe the video(s) and the process in detail, including the project steps and all stages of production.

The end result was just fantastic and I couldnt have imagined a better result. The process was smooth from start to finish, we went through a few iterations of storyboard, then made some final tweaks to the video over time, and Bear in the Hall made it simple for us to make those changes, and also with selecting the voice overs we wanted.

Who did you work with and what was the feedback process like?

We originally connected with Tom and Nick , then worked directly with Nick through the process. The process was great, Nick and his team understood the product really well and we're able to make the changes we wanted even when we were being vague!

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

We've only had great feedback from those who have watched the video! Getting people to understand our product in under two minutes is no mean feat, but the team have done exactly that in this video.

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

Everything was smooth and simple, everything was done via email, video call, or G-Suite.

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

They really understood our product which made the whole process much easier for us.

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

Not that I can think of!

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director of Scholastic, a children’s publishing company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bear In The Hall?

We were experiencing internal bandwidth issues, so we looked for an outside vendor that can provide us with video content production services.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We collaborate with Bear In The Hall to produce video content for our digital channels. We started the project with a discovery phase where we determined our expectations, goals, and schedules, and to give them some understanding of what our products were to help craft the initial script.

More often than not, we’d provide a script and rework it with them and once that’s done, they’ll adapt the final version of the script into a storyboard. After that, we’d review the storyboard and move to the animation, voiceover recording, and the delivery of the first draft.

What is the team composition?

We typically interact with a creative director and project manager.

How did you come to work with Bear In The Hall?

Bear In The Hall was recommended to me by a colleague who worked with them in the past.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent somewhere between $20,000–$30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in March 2021.

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

We typically use the video content as part of our email campaigns and social channels, and our team, customers, and colleagues have all responded positively to what the team has produced so far.

They’re consistently professional and responsive as a whole — it’s been a respectful and collaborative experience.

How did Bear In The Hall perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform well from a project management perspective and we typically communicate through email and Google Meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed with their attention to detail and how they serve as more of our partner rather than a vendor. They’re really friendly, respectful, and attentive to our schedule, which I appreciate.

Moreover, they find ways to deliver their tasks more efficiently and do everything in their power to make sure we meet our deadlines.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they need to improve on because I really enjoy working with Bear In The Hall.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would say just trust their expertise and professionalism, and be transparent about your goals.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the CMO for a telecommunications company. We’re a communications company in both the consumer and B2B sectors. On the consumer side, we serve as a long-distance and home phone provider, and on the B2B side, we serve as an integrated SaaS communication company. We’re one of the leading cloud communications providers to businesses of all sizes.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bear In The Hall?

I first hired them to act as a combination of advertiser and video producer as we scaled as a B2B provider. In essence, we were trying to build credibility as a B2B provider and needed some outside resources.

I saw Bear In The Hall to develop content that would live on both our website and social media platforms. Once we created content we liked, they turned it into advertising for both our website and television.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Originally, the content was all going to be posted on YouTube. Additionally, as a B2B company, we have content applications that go beyond public-facing outlets, like trade shows and prospective client presentations.

In essence, we were trying to come up with compelling content to showcase what differentiated our products and why a customer should buy them. We were trying to drive rapid growth. A lot of B2B technology companies create very dry product content that talks about its functional benefits. We were trying to elevate the benefits we describe to a more emotional level and define the benefits to our business that are human and relatable.

The first videos we created together ranged from 2–3 minutes in length, and we cut those down to around 30–60 seconds for different media applications. These acted as the chapters to a story, and we created different use cases and applications for how businesses can use our products.

We gave them a brief initially, and after that, it was a collaborative process. The videos were a combination of animation and live-action. They were originally animated, as it was the cost-effective choice.

We then decided to bring our CEO in to do a portion of the voiceover at the beginning and end of the animated videos.

What is the team composition?

We worked with their executive creative director, their president, and a creative team underneath them, which included both an art director and a copywriter.

How did you come to work with Bear In The Hall?

I knew the executive creative director from a past life; we worked together about 20 years ago and have collaborated on a number of clients together.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $200,000–$300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since July 2017.

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

I don’t have metrics to talk about off the top of my head, but the concept they developed and put into the videos has been very important to the development of our company.

One of the products they worked on had geolocation services embedded within business communications and phone systems. This was incredibly complex, and talking about it required using many technology-oriented terms. It was received very well.

We’ve used every video that they’ve created on our website, at tradeshows, and in sales presentations. They were very important to our effort to pivot from being a consumer company to a B2B company. Bear In The Hall’s content allowed us to gain a competitive advantage over our much more technically oriented competitors.

The videos were received incredibly well. So well, in fact, that the videos were used in television advertising, which wasn’t our initial intention, but our sales officer just loved it so much that it became the face of the company.

How did Bear In The Hall perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team has delivered everything, and I would describe them as nimble and agile. Working with Bear In The Hall still gives you the experience of working with a large agency. They have maybe 10 full-time staff members, and then they outsource the rest of their talent on a freelance basis.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of their storytelling stands out; it’s on par with that of world-class agencies. The quality of their talent is also impressive, both from an operational and project management standpoint.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be really clear with the scope, as Bear In The Hall doesn’t have hundreds of resources at their disposal.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company is a cannabis-focused asset manager founded in 2018. We started as a venture capital firm; now, we have a hedge fund arm and a venture capital arm. I work on the hedge fund side, managing public portfolios of public equities. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Bear In The Hall?

We were a relatively new fund in the cannabis industry, which was a niche sector. When it comes to the broader financial markets and institutions, cannabis wasn’t on the radar as a valid sector; people thought it wasn’t a valid sector where they could invest. As a result, we hired Bear In The Hall to help us get our name out there and give us a fresh and professional look in the eyes of the broader financial institutions. 

For context, our previous marketer worked on our website, and we didn’t like the output because it didn’t reflect what did as a firm — the old design made us look like we were growing cannabis instead of being a financial institution investing in the cannabis sector. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Bear In The Hall did everything from rebranding our logo to giving us new marketing materials in the form of decks that we provided to prospective and existing investors. They also created templates for internal research, which they communicated to third parties. The team also did some website design tasks for us. 

Moreover, we worked with the Bear In The Hall team to formulate an idea of what our branding should be. They delivered a range of options and routes that we could take. We then chose from those options, and they expanded upon our choice and made our brand synchronous across the products we were providing. 

To do all of these, Bear In The Hall did some research in terms of what other hedge funds and venture capital decks and websites looked like. They also checked what kind of content was included in their materials. They then tailored their outputs to the cannabis sector. From there, they completely rebranded our website. 

At present, we’re continuing our engagement. Our marketing needs are only going to increase as we grow as a firm, and we’ve chosen Bear In The Hall as our go-to firm.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with an account manager, who serves as the liaison between my firm and Bear In The Hall. We also work with one of their co-founders and a designer, along with 1–2 copywriters. In total, we work with 4–6 people. 

How did you come to work with Bear In The Hall?

Bear In The Hall was referred to me by a roommate. We had been kicking the tires in terms of searching for traditional hedge fund marketing decks. We felt that those decks would be plain vanilla. In other words, we didn’t have to stand out, so it made sense for us to think outside the box and go with a company that was more of a traditional ad agency outside of the financial sector. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the engagement in April 2019, and the engagement is ongoing. 

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

We’ve been satisfied with their work on our marketing materials. From there, our engagement has grown. Moreover, while they do marketing materials for the financial sector, it isn’t their bread and butter. Despite that, they’ve done a great job of providing us with fresh and good-looking marketing materials for the financial sector. The fact that we continue to use them is a great stamp of approval. 

How did Bear In The Hall perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is their strong point. Their account manager’s attention to detail and level of communication with us as a client are great. They make sure that all the i’s are dotted are t’s are crossed in terms of getting to the finish line. Their ability to get everything in line with what we want has been exceptional. 

In terms of tools, we’ve used Google Meet. When we’re on a project, we communicate multiple times a week. In between projects, we talk once every 2–3 months to touch base or get an update on what they’re doing for us. Moreover, even though a project is technically done, they still go out of their way to provide us with the other things we need, such as ensuring that the branding is the same in terms of the fonts we’re using. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their attention to detail is impressive. I’ve used and vetted some other teams that specialize in the financial services industry, and we feel like we’re just another number to them. By contrast, Bear In The Hall seems to be truly invested in helping us grow as a company. They’re also passionate about doing that. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was miscommunication mostly on our part in terms of what we wanted out of the decks. They delivered a first draft that was mostly in line with what we had asked for, but we didn’t realize that someone from our firm asked for something that the rest of our team didn’t want. As a result, we had to go back to the drawing board. 

To be fair, that was a frustrating process for Bear In The Hall, but they did a good job of regrouping and understanding exactly what we wanted. At the end of the day, they delivered that perfectly.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communicate better with your own team to make sure that you’re on the same page in terms of what you want. That makes the engagement more seamless in terms of communicating with Bear In The Hall.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and CEO of a mobile ad-tech company. We used geofencing technology built alongside a digital mobile ad tech system to provide high ROI campaigns for clients in the OOH space.

For what projects/services did your company hire Bear in the Hall?

We worked with Bear in the Hall on a variety of projects. Ranging from UI/UX design of mobile applications and websites to the creation of general marketing material used for our internal marketing.

How did you select Bear in the Hall?

I had spoken to a variety of NY-based marketing firms (the market we released in thus wanted to be local) and felt that Bear in the Hall was competitive on pricing while also providing high levels of quality. Similarly, their team understood our firm and was a joy to work with.

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

The team worked alongside my partners and me in order to understand the objectives of the project and from there began the building and development of it. We were able to provide notes and thoughts throughout the process and to work hand-in-hand with their team to fully execute the goals of the project.

How many resources from the Bear in the Hall team worked with you, and what were their positions?

My team worked with a variety of members of Bear in the Hall, ranging from designers to creatives, to executives.

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

I was incredibly pleased with the work done. The project was a success as it was released and working on it with Bear in the Hall was quite enjoyable as it was being done. We continued our work with Bear in the Hall on multiple projects based on the value we felt we received from them.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective. They were responsive, open to notes, and did a great job of working with our team.

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

They worked fast and had a high ability to shift focus and approach when appropriate.

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

No, I was very pleased.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the vice president of Marketing and Sales Training at a private pharma company specializing in women's health. I am responsible for all of our marketing to healthcare providers, direct-to-consumer advertising and sales training for our 120 person sales team.

For what projects/services did your company hire Bear in the Hall, and what were your goals?

We launched a new birth control product 2 and 1/2 years ago. We have been gaining traction among our health care providers and started to dabble in direct to consumer digital and social ads. The time was right to enhance these efforts with video ads that could be leveraged across connected tv and linear tv.

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

Our digital media company had done a great deal of work with Bear in the Hall. We tend to do well with companies that have similar cultures and values. Those that are passionate about what they do, are nimble, are willing to stretch themselves to financially during the proof of concept phase and then reap the rewards when things go well. Bear in the Hall was happy to embrace this.

Describe the video(s) and the process in detail, including the project steps and all stages of production.

We started with a discovery meeting and I worked to educate the team on our product. They developed concept ideas and we went back and forth to optimize these for a presentation to our owner. Once a direction was selected, they developed scripts which we optimized using our legal, regulatory and marketing teams.

Then we prepared for focus groups to gain further insights. Finally, we were ready for the production phase and we developed a :60 ad as well as 3 :30 ads.

Who did you work with and what was the feedback process like?

We worked most closely with Nicole but also had interactions with her extended team. Nicole has always been an amazing partner...she "gets it!" She understands the feedback, understands how to manage all types, knows the business and is not afraid to offer her opinions even if they may be unpopular. But, regardless, she has a really nice way of doing so!

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

We put the videos into quantitative testing among 600 respondents. The research company was wowed by the reaction we got from consumers. Our ads delivered statistically above their category norms...they were above norm on creative, engagement factors as well as intentions to act. Very exciting results! We are also seeing a lift in prescriptions being written on the brand.

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

They hustle but that doesn't compromise their quality. We pushed to move fast and they were always responsive to aggressive timelines. Heavy communication through email, zoom meetings, texts...whatever it takes to make sure that we are moving in the right direction. I always make myself available and so does Nicole!

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

They are scrappy! They are nimble. They deliver high quality and a fraction of the cost without the big agency drama.

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

Not really. I am so pleased with my relationship with them as well as what we have accomplished together.