Camp Creative

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing partner at FORBVENTURES, LLC, a venture capital incubator. I only invest where I can take control as the CEO and build the operating team, Board, and strategic partners before launching the company. I have three companies today in various stages of development. The first company is BetterGIS, in the underground utility mapping business. The second is Bow Wow Labs, in the pet industry. The third is UVIVA, a medical device advertising platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with Camp Creative?

The original contract was 5 years ago for another of my companies to produce a video for the launch of a crowdfunding platform on Kickstarter. We partnered with United Airlines to give people airline miles in exchange for funds. Richard and Camp Creative delivered a video that resulted in the 87th most successful campaign in Kickstarter history at the time.

In 2018, we charged Camp Creative to create a video for the launch of Bow Wow Labs. Again, they delivered when we wound up with the 10th most successful pet industry campaign in Kickstarter history in terms of number of backers and 14th in dollars raised (out of almost 600).

What was the scope of their involvement?

With both companies, Richard (President, Camp Creative) and his team at Camp Creative were required to understand our long-term objectives and utilize tools outside the traditional videography and documentary filmmaking toolbox. I was very impressed and started to give them more responsibilities including brand development, video production, design, web development, marketing campaign management, SEO, and PPC. They offer an array of services critical to transforming an idea into a business, so they’re now involved with two of my three current businesses. Richard is, in effect, our CMO, and Camp Creative handles virtually 100% of the company’s marketing and advertising needs.

We always start with kick-off meetings, talking about what the product, market, and needs are; who the competition is, and what their weak spots are; and how we’re going to be different and better. Afterward, we figure out how to build our brand and position it in the market. In two cases, Camp Creative also came up with the logo, imagery, and name.

Bow Wow is a perfect example. Pets are taken to the vet hundreds of thousands of times a year because they swallow the last inch of a bully stick. Our product, the Bully Buddy, stops that from happening. The website went live on November 2, 2018, and our PR team released it to over 1,000 different sites. From an ad buy perspective, our plan is for Camp Creative to begin spending $1,000 a week. Once we achieve our target metrics, I’ll up that to $2,000 per week, and then $3,000. We'll keep increasing the ad buy as long as we’re reaching our goals. We are anticipating spending over $100,000 a month within 18–24 months.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with at least seven people including coders, photographers, copywriters, and SEO specialists. They add team members as we need expertise.

How did you come to work with Camp Creative?

I was in the early stages of building a team for a crowdfunding business when I saw a video Richard made for a local carwash. One of the key ingredients I needed was a killer video that sold our story to potential investors, so I called him.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars with them, and all well spent.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since 2013, and they will always get the opportunity to be a part of my companies going forward. It may not always be a fit, for the company or Camp Creative, but it's worth the effort to explore the opportunity to explore having them involved.

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

Richard and Camp Creative have been absolutely critical to the early stages of my businesses. Their Wall + Main video and marketing campaigns made the launch wildly successful, raising $400,000 in three weeks.

Bow Wow’s Kickstarter had a similar outcome. We achieved 240% of our initial backer goal, nearly 200% of our average sale goal, and around 140% of our total backer goal. Most importantly, our cost per customer acquisition was a fraction of what we expected.

Once we fine-tune the marketing for Bow Wow Labs, we’ll be ramping up our marketing and advertising. I fully expect us to achieve and exceed our objectives.

How did Camp Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

Our management team normally has a weekly conference call with their team, but that usually moves to twice a week as we get closer to launch or major events. Our people are on the phone and emailing with them all the time. They are literally an extension of our team. I would give them an A+ from a project management perspective in terms of being able to work alongside our team toward an agreed upon set of goals.

What did you find most impressive about them?

While some people can come up with brilliant marketing ideas, they often can't execute them. Thankfully, Camp Creative combines conceptual design with extraordinarily professional execution. Richard is incredibly talented and gives us fabulous attention. He’s great with people and can attract ones that are good at what they do.

My companies are always challenging to marketing people like Richard because of how our capital flows in. The operating companies are never $100 million companies on day one that’s setting aside $5 million for the launch; we’re always fighting to get a proof of concept that’s sufficient to raise some money. I wouldn’t start a company today without giving Richard the first shot at being the marketing team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not that I’ve seen.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust Richard’s judgment. He’s proven to me over and over that he has an uncanny marketing sense of what’s practical and what works. He’s single-handedly changed the way we think about some of our marketing, advertising, and public relations efforts.

Unlike many marketing people I’ve met, Richard isn’t a puffer; he doesn’t tell you what you want to hear. Instead, he tells you what he thinks, even if you don’t like it, for example, if you were expecting better results from a certain technique. If Richard doesn’t believe in it, he’s not going to spend your money on it.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a digital marketing manager at HeartFlow, a medical technology company specializing in cardiovascular disease diagnostics and treatment.

What challenge were you trying to address with Camp Creative?

To support our company’s growth, we needed help building out our digital marketing strategy and infrastructure content. In particular, we wanted to create higher-quality videos. We needed a vendor who could adapt to the marketing obstacles and lengthier review processes we face as a medical company.

What was the scope of their involvement?

My company initially wanted to create videos of physician testimonials, and Camp Creative proposed ways of leveraging these testimonials into a bigger piece. Their team met with us to review the scope of the project.

Camp Creative created a production schedule and did scouting while my team worked on the storyboard and script. Camp Creative was present at each of our filming locations and completed sound check and general setup. Over the course of several dates, we filmed testimonials of physicians, internal stakeholders, customers, and patients. We are in the final editing and approval stages for all of the videos.

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with Richard (President, Camp Creative). Their team size fluctuated depending on what phase we were in.

How did you come to work with Camp Creative?

I found Camp Creative on Google. I was interested in their powerful and compelling videography and their broad range of digital marketing development services. They met with my team in-person, which was indicative of their commitment.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June 2018 and the video project ended in January 2019.

We have since re-engaged Camp Creative to do e-mail and social development as part of a larger creative campaign.

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

We launched several videos at our national sales meeting in February 2019. Customer feedback touched on the high quality of the videos and the important messages they relay. These videos are now great assets to share with current and potential customers. My company’s brand team was so impressed with Camp Creative’s video design that they incorporated it into the brand guide and used it as the basis of a new PowerPoint template.

How did Camp Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

Camp Creative’s collaborative team structure allowed them to properly manage projects and meet deadlines. We touched base at least once a week and communicated via email as needed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Camp Creative was committed to success and delivered high-caliber work that exceeded our expectations. Throughout the video development process, they maintained professional relationships with our key opinion leaders, physicians, partners, and customers. They understood our business and product as well as the message we wanted to convey.  

Filming always went smoothly because the team was prepared and organized. They captured the best moments and soundbites, using them to create great stories within the specified video duration.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I cannot think of any.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open to working with Camp Creative on projects beyond the original scope. They have a versatile skillset.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the Director of Marketing at Bay Alarm Company, a security and fire alarm systems company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Camp Creative?

We needed a complete website redesign, with focus on SEO to drive sales. We had never worked with a web design agency before.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first phase of the project focused on getting things up and running with the completely redesigned WordPress website. The second phase has involved generating engaging content and bolstering our SEO across all of our client focuses. Specifically, we sell to both to businesses and direct to consumers, so the website needed to cover a lot of ground while still providing a good user experience allowing people to learn about us and our services. Camp Creative always came to the table with suggestions and we would strategize together on how to best reach different market segments. One feature they built out was a video library, where users can learn about our range of products and services. They also implemented HubSpot and Lucky Orange to make sure we were tracking visitors and measuring our marketing campaigns the right way.

What is the team composition?

My main points of contact were Jackie Richmond [SEO Strategist, Camp Creative] and Richard Camp [President & Executive Creative Director, Camp Creative], but I knew four or five people working on each project and there were several more working behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Camp Creative?

Through a bid process. Camp came in with a great pitch and excellent references.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend around $200,000 each year.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began mid-2015 and they continue working with us today.

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

Sales are up, which is really the ultimate measure and sign of success. We're increasing the conversion rate and the revenue generated by the site. The SEO ranking has generally improved, but since it fluctuates so much it is a process of constant improvement. The new website is more professional, easy to navigate, and focused on the right audiences.

How did Camp Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

They've performed great. Jackie and the team are quick to respond to any issues and always come to the table with great ideas. We email daily and have a weekly conference call to discuss major topics.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The way they balance creativity and data management is pretty impressive. It's rare to find a company with that balance.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing I can think of.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just do it - Camp Creative is great, they do a good job, and they take care of you.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of sales and marketing for a B2B satellite network operator and services provider. We don’t provide any residential or commercial work, but collaborate with large-scale enterprises in the oil and gas industry, providing Internet of things (IoT) communication solutions, particularly in rural areas.

We also service areas like healthcare, acting less as a primary communication service, but more in terms of business continuity and disaster recovery. In the event of a hurricane or earthquake, we provide Internet services to hospitals and other businesses with critical applications through satellite connectivity.

What challenge were you trying to address with Camp Creative?

We needed a complete overhaul of our marketing website. It was done a few years ago by some of the tech people on our team, and it had too much technical jargon. We wanted a more customer-facing approach. Aesthetically, we wanted to convey the image of a larger company. We do a lot of work internationally and have overarching coverage. We needed professional design services in order to take it to the next level.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Camp Creative not only helped us design our website, but did much of the upfront research for AdWords key terms and SEO.

They went through an upfront mind-mapping process, figuring out who our user personas were — what types of people visited our website, from what industries, and what their buying process was. We considered how the site would be structured — by industry or service — and took a long time organizing content. From there, it was a matter of creating wireframes and looking at different designs. We handled content-gathering, and they took on development.

The previous website was made in Drupal, and the new one would be WordPress. Camp Creative did a good job of bringing me up to speed in terms of what I could do on the backend. I was given barebones pages and taught how to add and change content. Once the design and development heavy-lifting was done, it was a group effort to get all the content to where we wanted it. We use Google AdWords and had our tags transferred from the old site.

Camp Creative made sure to put web forms at the bottom of every page, customizing them based on the type of page, from consultation requests to general questions and contact pages. We were set up to be notified via email when anything came through, which made it a lot easier to measure how many inquiries we were getting through the website. They also put a spam-blocking feature in place, since we had been getting a lot of robot-type form submissions. The new feature made it easier to sift through those and see how many contacts from actual people we were getting.

What is the team composition?

Richard Camp [President, Camp Creative] was heavily involved in the beginning. Our project manager was Jackie Richmond, who handled everything from start to finish. We also had a content writer, and Mike Hatfield [Director of Technology, Camp Creative] was our main developer. After the wireframing was done, he worked on most of it. He was my main contact going forward for small features we wanted to add or questions about the backend and updates. Other people were involved from time to time for content writing and wireframing.

How did you come to work with Camp Creative?

They were pre-vetted before I was hired. Previously, marketing was done by a contracted person who researched the redesign and found Camp Creative. The agency was recommended to us. They had a conversation 6 months before I was hired. Camp Creative was already a viable option, so I started the process with them again.

They already had an understanding about us and seemed like the right fit. The upfront research they offered made them stand out. Many people won’t understand what we do when we say “point-of-sale connectivity for research solutions”. The fact that Camp Creative did a lot in terms of user-persona research, mapping things out, and looking at SEO and keywords beforehand made me feel like, for the time and financial investment, we would get more from them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $70,000 for an 8-month project. We pay a nominal amount for the monthly hosting and upkeep.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Camp Creative in April or May 2016. The website went live in mid-January 2017. They continue to host our website and have made some updates to the Drupal platform as needed. They recently added a feature to our homepage, a red alert across the screen for national disasters.

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

We noticed that numbers were up considerably, especially web form submissions.

Given the nature of our business, we have a long sales cycle. Oil and gas pipeline people reach out to us because their current contracts will be ending within the next year, and they need to start thinking about updating their technology or transitioning to a new satellite network operator. It’s a slow-moving process, but we have received some viable opportunities through the website, which we are pursuing. We are pleased with the results we’ve seen.

We have seen an increase in our keyword rankings, and the new site looks much better aesthetically than it did before. It conveys that we are a company capable of doing large-scale business.

We sell hardware as well as solutions, which made structuring the website trickier. We did it in multiple ways, including by industry (dividing solutions into resale or healthcare) and service type (IoT, machine to machine, voice networks, broadband data, network backups for business continuity, emergency response, mobile or rural internet, and consultation). Given the ambiguity of what we provide, we did a good job of covering our bases.

How did Camp Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

Jackie, their project manager, did a great job of helping. There were things that only I could do in terms of content. She did a good job of persisting without bugging me, making sure that we stayed on track.

She posted threads for different topics on Basecamp, and I received email notifications. We had check-in calls with Jackie and Mike at least every other week.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed by the speed of the development process. With Camp Creative, it was interactive. Mike gave me clear instructions on how I could edit and update content. I was able to see the site not long after they started it, and QA was seamless.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They got bogged down at the beginning of the process. Our business is unique, and we tailor ourselves to many different industries, each with different key players in the buying process and the sales cycle. Camp Creative kept trying to map out the different personas, from more technical to research people. Depending on the industry or company, it could be both, and they had a hard time making a one size fits all map, but they eventually realized that we had to do it from scratch and be the best we could. There wasn’t really an existing approach in place for us.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Respect the team and be collaborative in the initial search phase, before design and development, since those inputs will be used later on. The more information that can be provided about a business and its sales cycle, the better off the client will be in the long run.