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BuzzMasters empowers marketing professionals to bring their brand to life in video.
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Javelin Horse, Hillcrest Cabinets, Cheapskates, Cecil's Brewhouse & Kitchen Best, Western New Ontario Brewing, The Labour Market Group, Caisse Alliance, wigg's Coffee Roasters, The Voyager Inn, The Studio NECO, The Business Centre, Nipissing-Parry Sound, North Bay & District, Chamber of Commerce, Internal Rhythms, Ignite Earth Light, Energies GUS, Degagné Carpentry, GinCor, First Resource Management Group, The Colour Farm, The Capitol Centre, Burger World, Hallmark
Canadore College - Skilled Trades Promo
With years of older material and a desire to create a new series of high-quality promotional pieces, useful for both recruitment and organisational pride, Canadore College wanted a fresh showcase for the core pillars of their organisation: Aviation, Media Arts, Skilled Trades, Village, Sport & Wellness, iCamp, Centre for Career Development, and Genomics Laboratory.
BuzzMasters coordinated with Canadore to identify these core pillars across their several campuses as well as with the different leadership within each program to build a script and shot list, ensuring keywords were carefully chosen for each target audience. As each pillar became solidified for production, the production team delved deeper, coordinating with individual faculty and staff for specific sequences for the promos, such as sports coaches, media course instructors, skilled trades specialists, and more. BuzzMasters coordinated with approximately 50 individuals across organisations to ensure the shoot schedule proceeded smoothly, with over a dozen shoots across multiple campuses, for eight promotional videos.
Meanwhile, voice-over recordings and original music tracks were completed to complement the shots, all assembled in post-production to create eight unique 60-second promos, eight complementary 30-second promos, and 16 complementary 10-second promos (with and without voice over). All this created a new wave of dynamic, exciting, and engaging content with entirely new shots to add to Canadore’s database.
YMCA - Y Stories - Angela's Story
The YMCA is a firm believer in community and supporting the individuals within in a diversity of ways. For some people, it can be a life-changing experience and the YMCA wanted to share those stories.
BuzzMasters worked with the YMCA to develop a series named “Y Stories” to share the personal experience of individuals affected by the YMCA in a meaningful way while also sharing the diverse facilities and programs offered by the Y. The first of which told the story of Angela, who had suffered a great loss and through her determination, worked through a dark time in her life using the Y as a catalyst.
In coordination with the YMCA and Angela, BuzzMasters delved into her story and created a storyboard of shots to use with her interview, ensuring the shots, style, and framing adhered to the narrative and tone of her story. This short emotional piece premiered during the YMCA’s Strong Kinds Breakfast, emotionally moving the audience.
The Game of Things - Mobile App Launch Promo
The Game of Things board game had been out for a while and generated quite the notoriety with its permutations on the game. However, a mobile app of the game had been in development for a couple of years and they wanted to launch the app at a public event. BuzzMasters was tasked with creating an app launch reveal trailer, satirising a well-known scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Working closely with the Game of Things, BuzzMasters created a storyboard and script for voice-over, considering all creative elements, like performers, costumes, props, set, green-screen studio, sound design, and animation for the production.
With the storyboard concretely prepared, shooting, animation, and voice-over/music could be independently started by three separate teams, ensuring the production was completed efficiently. As the components were completed, they were assembled in post-production and fine-tuned for the live reveal to an audience. The final production wowed people when it needed to and garnered laughs in the right places, while informing the audience of the app and launching the new product.
IION Regional Documentary
Innovation Initiatives Ontario North (IION) is a Regional Innovation Centre that assists innovative entrepreneurs, start-ups and existing companies develop and scale. With a number of successful innovative businesses across a variety of industries, from small to large, IION wanted to highlight the success stories of these businesses through their relationships and the programs IION offers.
BuzzMasters coordinated with IION to ensure their client demographic was thoughtfully represented on the screen through a detailed pre-production process. Industry, size, and city were carefully balanced when selecting the ten businesses featured in the final video. Once selected, the production team coordinated with IION and each other organization to ensure speaking points and the shot list were prepared before the upcoming shoot days. At each location, the production team worked with organizations to ensure their best foots were forward both in interviews and b-roll footage to accompany it. During post-production, the production team reviewed the footage and created a greater narrative, weaving IION, iCamp, and all ten organisations into a vibrant, captivating, and informative story.
At just over 20 minutes in length, the IION Regional Documentary presents a strong overview of IION, as an organisation, as well as the hard work they’ve done across the region, showing their success stories through the meaningful relationships they’ve developed with innovative businesses across a variety of industries.
Hands - The Family Journey - Silver's Story
Hands the Family Help Network is an organization dedicated to helping children, youth, adults with a developmental disability and families, achieve the best possible care and help they need when they need it the most.
With a diversity of programs and services for families in need of support, Hands wanted to share the success story of Silver, a young child who faced challenges with communication and behaviour. BuzzMasters coordinated with Hands and Silver’s mother to help tell her story in a captivating and meaningful way, showing how, while some people face great challenges in life, nothing is impossible to overcome.
The short feature showcased the bond between Silver and her family as well as the care Hands took to ensure Silver was given the tools for success to help express herself.
Airport Management Council of Ontario - Mini-Documentary
As the senior advocate of airport owner and operator organizations in Canada, the Airport Management Council of Ontario (AMCO) has evolved into a strong provincial organization committed to the sustainability of airports nationally. AMCO’s aims are: to represent the interests of the owners and/or operators of airports and aerodromes in the province of Ontario; and, to promote the safe and efficient operation of those airports.
For their advocacy, AMCO wanted a strong, high-quality mini-doc to showcase their mission, partners, and successes across the province. BuzzMasters coordinated with AMCO, the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (CASARA), the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association (COPA), the Town of Laurentian Hills, and independent pilots to create a cohesive and multi-perspective narrative to tell the story of AMCO.
At these aerodrome sites, BuzzMasters interviewed subjects from each group and acquired shots from each location to be weaved in post-production into a nearly 20-minute long advocacy piece and a 5-minute long short cut to be used as an overview for their website.
Reviews
the project
Storytelling Video Production for Nonprofit Organization
“Their quality of work is professional, and they produce great content.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the VP of philanthropy, marketing, and communications for a nonprofit organization. We provide services in the area of childcare, employment and immigration services, camping and overnight camping, as well as health, fitness, and aquatics.
My role encompasses all of our funds development for fundraising, business development, marketing analysis, and strategic work for the organization.
What challenge were you trying to address with BuzzMasters?
We wanted to get into video content because we saw some of our metrics around engagement and how well it was performing. We decided that in our next cycle of campaigns, we wanted to focus on a storytelling campaign. This would be a philanthropic opportunity to tell our story, which in turn helps the margins of the charity if we get more donors coming forward.
What was the scope of their involvement?
They contacted us and offered to do a pro bono video of our signature legacy golf tournament. They took a lot of pictures and produced a promo video. After this, we continued our work and they produced storytelling videos that we use as part of our annual general meetings (AGM).
What is the team composition?
We work with about 4–5 people. I am in direct contact with Thomas (CEO) and Ryen (VP & Studio Head).
How did you come to work with BuzzMasters?
Whenever I can, I like to procure Northern Ontario companies; it’s important to me to support local. We chose BuzzMasters because they really understood our brand and have used our facilities, their quality of work is professional, and they produce great content.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve invested about $10,000–$15,000 CAD (approximately $8,000–$12,000 USD).
What is the status of this engagement?
Our ongoing engagement started in August 2018.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
The video for the golf tournament had 2,600 views, reached 568 people, and engaged 200 people. For our storytelling campaign, the video got 500 views, reached over 1,500 people, and had 145 engagements. For full transparency, these are decent metrics but they’re not exceptional. In comparison, our organic content has outperformed this content by three times.
With that said, to have a professional video of our tournament and another of a story is exactly what we need. This is vital when funders are looking at us and we’re doing corporate presentations.
Thomas is organized, detail-oriented, and professional. It’s clear that he cares about his clients and the quality of work his team produces.
How did BuzzMasters perform from a project management standpoint?
From the production side, there’s room for improvement when it comes to communication and hitting deadlines. As a charity, we understand that some of that is on us for not following up. However, as a client, my expectation is that the agency should be on top of their deadlines.
It was never that they didn’t meet deadlines. We were 24 hours from our AGM and at the 11th hour wondering where the video was. Our team asked to have it a week before the AGM so we could understand what it looked like but we received it at 9 p.m. the night before. We had a really good conversation about that and realized there was some miscommunication.
After that incident, I’ve seen a huge improvement in project management and communication. They’re a young company so I understand that there are going to be some growing pains. They’re at the middle of the road.
What did you find most impressive about them?
BuzzMasters really understood our brand and was very accommodating in helping us line up all our interviews. They expressed that if we were comfortable with them running things, then we didn’t have to be there on-site. It was nice that we could hand it right over to them to manage.
BuzzMasters is very willing to work within a client’s budget and is great at making sure the client is getting what they like within their budget. They really understand that we’re a charity and need content created so they do a great job of making sure that it fits within our means.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I think it’d benefit them to provide their clients with a tactical plan. It should lay out everything they’re going to do prior to the client receiving their content as well as what BuzzMasters is responsible for and what the client needs to do. This would help avoid things getting lost in back-and-forth email communication.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Spend the time on discovery to make sure it’s thorough. Ask BuzzMasters for a tactical plan of timelines and work production to see what that’d look like.
the project
Video Production Services for Innovation Center
“Everything they do is beyond our expectations.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the executive director of Innovation Initiatives Ontario North. We are one of 17 regional innovation centers in the province of Ontario, Canada.
What challenge were you trying to address with BuzzMasters?
We had a variety of needs in digital and social media promotion.
What was the scope of their involvement?
We’ve done multiple projects with BuzzMasters. The most significant project we did was producing a regional client documentary. This in-depth documentary film featured 10 regional client companies and how we supported their projects. The documentary also provided an in-depth review of each company’s individual business.
The documentary not only profiled the regional companies but also showcased the significant amount of diversity and innovation within our region. It also served to illustrate to our stakeholders the kind of work that we do. They also worked on creating an entrepreneurship development program campaign for us. That included producing a video featuring one of our program’s activities.
In August of 2020, we developed a new program as part of our Step Forward Entrepreneurs Program. The program provided specific funding for COVID-19-related issues. BuzzMasters created a marketing video for us, which we used on social media.
What is the team composition?
We worked with Thomas (CEO), and he had different members of his team working on the project at various times, from scripting to filming and staging. We work within a large region, so they had to do a fair bit of traveling to get all of the filming done. It was a team effort. Thomas had a really talented and gifted young group of people around him. I believe there are five people on his team now.
How did you come to work with BuzzMasters?
BuzzMasters was actually our client that we helped to fund at an early stage for equipment purchases. From day one, they gave us that feeling that they were young people who were going places. We could tell that they were extremely competent and intelligent.
How much have you invested with them?
I think it was in the range of $20,000 CAD (approximately $15,700 USD).
What is the status of this engagement?
The project started in June 2019, but we didn’t get running until June 2020. Then, we completed it that December. We’ve been working with them on other projects.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We were really happy with their work, as were our funders and clients. The documentary was very helpful to us. They did an amazing job producing a 24-minute film that was widely lauded by our stakeholders, including people in the provincial cabinet who were able to see the film.
Such positive feedback really helped our reputation. The documentary allowed us to illustrate what we do but also reflect the depth of clients that we have in the region.
With their help producing the video for our entrepreneurship development program campaign, we were able to sell out the program. In fact, we had oversubscription on the program. The video for our COVID-19 funding program was also very well done. We were able to let our companies know about this program, and it had extremely rapid uptake — in fact, we were supposed to have six months of funding, and we went through it in two months. BuzzMasters assisted us in promoting the program in a very appropriate and aggressive manner; they got the message out there.
How did BuzzMasters perform from a project management standpoint?
BuzzMasters took a team approach. When we start a new project, we meet to have a general discussion about what we want to do, and then we progress to how we want to accomplish that in terms of execution.
Thomas has a team in place that interacts with my team. They’re always open to communication on a personal basis. They have an open and effective communication style, because they listen, understand, and get it done.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Everything they do is beyond our expectations. They’re a delight to work with.
They also care about the community and aren’t just there to make money — they want to make a difference. They’re capitalistic as well as social entrepreneurs, and we have a lot of respect for them. Everything they do is done well.
Are there any areas they could improve?
The team could use newer technologies and equipment, but they are just starting out. They produced a movie-quality documentary without movie-quality equipment. By increasing the sophistication of the technology and the equipment that they are using, they will be even better. They could also grow their staff and provide even better strategies.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
I wholeheartedly recommend that they talk to BuzzMasters. They’ve done extremely well on all of our projects and exceeded our expectations.
the project
Video Production for Business Support Center
‘‘They’re very in tune with the needs of the project.’’
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the manager of The Business Centre Nipissing Parry Sound, one of 54 business centers in Ontario. We provide business support services to startups in their 2–5 years.
What challenge were you trying to address with BuzzMasters?
As part of our mandate, we host many events throughout the year, and one of our big events is International Women’s Day.
Due to COVID-19, we were looking for an alternative way to celebrate women in the workplace. However, we didn’t want to do a virtual event because there were a lot of those going on. We came up with the idea of a women-in-business mini-documentary, and we needed someone to produce it for us.
What was the scope of their involvement?
They produced the mini-documentary for us. The project highlighted the supportive business network for women in the north, so it featured a key speaker who was the base of the documentary. We also featured a couple of business support organizations such as ourselves and seven northern female-owned businesses of several industries in the documentary.
BuzzMasters did a few teasers before the actual event for marketing purposes. Once we had the launch event, they released the video.
What is the team composition?
We worked with Thomas (CEO), and we dealt with him to start the project. We also worked with Ryen (VP & Studio Head), and he became the key person I communicated with. He set everything up. Additionally, their production team included Aaron and Lauren (Production).
How did you come to work with BuzzMasters?
I’ve known BuzzMasters and their owners since they started their business; Thomas was one of my first clients when I started working at the small business center. They’ve done some other smaller projects in the past, and we bring them on as guest speakers when we do workshops, training for businesses, and special events. In addition to that, they’ve also done mentorship work for our youth entrepreneurship programs.
How much have you invested with them?
We invested around $10,000 with them.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started the project in October 2020, and we launched the video at the beginning of March 2021.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
The project met our goals. The video they produced has been viewed about 6,000 times on Facebook, but I’m not sure about the other platforms.
The most important metric for us as a nonprofit is that the video will serve as support for future applications to get funding from our ministries. We just did two reports last week and the video was included; it’s a key piece and will help us with our center’s ongoing operations.
How did BuzzMasters perform from a project management standpoint?
They were excellent. We used Monday.com, which was a new platform for me; however, it was cool to learn something from my end as well. The communication was open and transparent; it was easy to pick up the phone or send an email because they were always responsive.
Also, we gave them the list of the businesses we wanted them to interview, and they contacted them and set up the shoots; we didn’t have to do anything, and that was a great part as well. They had to do most of their filming following the COVID-19 regulations, which was tricky, but they had no problems.
What did you find most impressive about them?
The most impressive thing is that they’re a young crew, but they’re very in tune with the needs of the project. Everything they put out is very professional.
Also, I had a definite vision for this project, and Ryan was able to understand what I was getting at and made sure that he was in tune with that vision as well. That was a great aspect of working together.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I don’t think there is anything that they could improve. Their branding is excellent and consistent. They’re trying to get their name out there and take on bigger projects, so they’ve invested in new, high-tech equipment.
Any advice for potential customers?
Be open to the process they’re willing to share. They taught me a lot, and the process was very open. I learned about producing a higher-end video that could also translate into other productions.
the project
Campaign Videos Created for Educational Institute
"You just know that the leaders and principals are highly-engaged in the work."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m an executive at an educational institute.
What challenge were you trying to address with BuzzMasters?
We were looking to address the brand development, profile raising, and strategic positioning for some of our programs, services, and products.
What was the scope of their involvement?
BuzzMasters helps us with a number of things. They boost the profile of our fundraising events, as well as the ones in the community. They collaborate with us on the development of our campaign videos. They then repurpose these videos on a number of platforms including Youtube, and our homegrown social media accounts like Snapchat and Instagram.
What is the team composition?
We mainly work with the three principals of the team, as well as their crew of three. Initially, we worked with nearly all of their employees, but we only have one-on-ones with the principals.
How did you come to work with BuzzMasters?
We’ve known about them for quite some time. We’ve had the opportunity to work with Thomas (CEO), Ryen (Vice President & Studio Head), and Brandon (Director of Channel Services) on different projects in the past. Each of them had their own company before creating the BuzzMasters Collaborative. When they came together, it made sense to work with them because of the unique talents and attributes they bring to the project.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working with them in January 2017. Our partnership is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We track everything relative to our SEO and we saw an increase in traffic for our videos and pages. The video for our biggest fundraiser gained thousands of views. There’s obviously an awareness that’s built in the direct amount of traction that they tend to have, based on the approach they take and the work they’re doing.
How did BuzzMasters perform from a project management standpoint?
They perform well. We communicated through phone calls, texts, and our project management software. We used to do face to face meetings before the pandemic happened as well. What I saw from them is the ability to reach the people they need to engage with and identify which platform works best for their clients.
What did you find most impressive about them?
One thing is they’re really grassroots and relationship-driven—you just know that the leaders and principals are highly-engaged in the work. You can’t always get that from other firms. They really focus on the needs of their clients.
I believe their most distinguishing factor is you can get a hold of them whenever you need them—they’re not just getting the work and shoving it off to somebody in the wings.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, I don’t think so. They were responsive and worked with us to refocus. Our partnership is always a learning opportunity which I think is a positive.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
I’ve provided this feedback directly to them before and that is to keep the focus on their partners and project outcome, as opposed to the deadline. You can turn yourself inside out trying to hit a deadline but it could undermine your ability to engage along the process.
It’s all about communication and perspective, but that’s always going to come with time as they continue their entrepreneurial journey.
The partner is happy with the professional quality of the videos. BuzzMasters understood the partner's brand and was accommodating in executing the video shoots. They work within a client's budget to ensure they meet expectations. Organization and detail-orientation are hallmarks of their work.