Capitol Interactive

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My organization is called the James River Association, and I am the James Riverkeeper and Senior Advocacy Manager at the organization.

What challenge were you trying to address with Capitol Interactive?

They worked with us on a very unique pilot project to develop a 360-degree virtual reality video.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our organization is dedicated to cleaning up Virginia's James River, and connecting people to the river through outreach, education and advocacy. The purpose of the video is to develop a stronger understanding in the general public of what a healthy river looks like. The video was quite in-depth and took some time to develop and storyboard.

There were three distinct periods that Capitol Interactive animated. The first was a pristine, healthy river, hundreds of years prior to Europeans arriving in North America. At this time, you’re underwater in the river seeing the fish, plants, and oysters. Then a narrator walks you through time and talks about pollution's effects on the landscape. The viewer sees the water turn brown, dark, and murky, to visualize a polluted river. Then, the narrator walks you through some of the water quality improvements that occurred in recent years, as the viewer sees the river return to a healthier state, but not quite to the pristine state where it started. 

The purpose of the video is to inspire people to do more to help protect the river, and the fish and wildlife in it. It’s only a few minutes long, but it’s packed with information and visualizations to help the viewer understand what a healthy river means. It’s really a great experience. We plan to offer this video free of charge to people at festivals, events, and other places we can share it with people directly.

Initially, we had a discovery phase where we identified what we wanted to see, including the different types of fish and plants, and how all those things fit into our overall theme. A lot of thought was put into what species best symbolized a healthy river and how they could be shown as accurately as possible.

What is the team composition?

Our main contact is Joey (CEO). He’s very strong with communication. Early on in the process, he developed a scope of work that laid out the whole timeline and how Capitol Interactive approached developments like ours. It included a sense of the timeline, as well as how much time they needed from our staff.

How did you come to work with Capitol Interactive?

It was through word of mouth. This was a completely new realm for us; we saw it as a launchpad for us to adopt a new educational outreach method. I had a few friends who worked in the field, however, and they connected me with Capitol Interactive immediately. Because we’re a nonprofit without the resources of a large corporation, Capitol Interactive made it work. They understood our limited budget and timing and made them work. The hours they put in far exceeded what we paid them for, and that shows their work ethic.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June until December 2019. We continue to consult with them on this project, however. The pandemic has made it hard to share the video with people, so we’ve been talking to Capitol over the last year about how to get this out to people: webinars, online dissemination, a static web experience.

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

We’re very happy. Fortunately, the video will hold up for quite a while, so whenever the pandemic allows for gatherings again, we’ll offer it at festivals and events. We have done several webinars where we’ve shared the video. Even though it isn’t the same through a computer screen, we’ve received a very positive response. We’re excited about future opportunities.

How did Capitol Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

They were good communicators. There are always going to be some roadblocks with a project where you’re figuring it out for the first time, but they weren’t a problem. They were very forthcoming with any challenges or questions they had during the four months of video development.

What did you find most impressive about them?

For starters, I think they’re just good people. They understood our subject matter and, in fact, went above and beyond to understand the James River’s ecosystem and the complexity of what we were trying to show in the video. They took the time to look at real-life images and videos to study how fish swam in the water, how grass moved around in the current, and more. They were good with their attention to detail. They made sure we got an experience that we really liked and were happy with. It wasn’t just me and my staff that put a lot of time and care into this product; Capitol Interactive understood our mission and the values we were trying to portray in the video. The video was done with such care that it motivates people to want to do something to clean up the river.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing specific comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

When they first reached out to us, the CEO took the time to drive from Washington DC to Richmond to meet with us. It was a long meeting and allowed us to get to know him and his company, and vice versa. That was a really good thing to offer customers. I would recommend that clients take advantage of that time to sit down face-to-face with Joey and his team so both sides can fully understand one another.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We started as a content development group in both print and mobile and now do more marketing and educational work. I'm VP and Technical Director.

For what projects/services did your company hire Capitol Interactive?

The US Postal Service tasked us with creating interactive experiences that could be used in the marketing of new stamp issues. We ran the experiences at venues from large STEM conferences to regional stamp-collector events.

What were your goals for this project?

Entertain and educate.

How did you select this vendor?

Joey and his team have a stellar reputation in the DC area.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Joey and his team had multiple projects for us with the USP. He built us a virtual stamp gallery that we could use to launch individual experience around new stamps but also we could showcase other projects we had created fro the USPS. The Capital Interactive team created custom animation/models, created them in Unity, and took it all the way to deployment.

What was the team composition?

I can't remember how many people he had on our job but capacity wasn't an issue.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

When we brought the experiences created by Capital Interactive to the US Science and Engineering Fest we had 3k students view their work over 3 days.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Joey managed his team and was very respectful of our challenges in dealing with our clients. We worked very well with his style.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They're incredibly talented and incredibly easy to work with. Joey was always available and made sure that we got through the pressure moments.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nope. Great vendor and a pleasure to work with.