Coming of Age

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the associate marketing manager at Home Delivery Incontinence Supply (HDIS). We sell absorbent products for adults to help them deal with bladder leakage. I wear various hats in my role, from managing parts of digital strategies to direct mail and print ads.

For what projects/services did your company hire Coming of Age?

We hired them to create a new direct mail kit for us to test against our existing control kit.

What were your goals for this project?

Our main goal is to increase responses from our marketing efforts by creating a modernized look for our mailer while keeping the HDIS brand intact.

How did you select this vendor?

I searched online for ad agencies, and Coming of Age caught my eye because of their specialization with the senior market. I sent out RFP's to several agencies and was blown away by the Coming of Age’s proposal. They were very thorough and demonstrated their expertise in the senior market with examples of their past work.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

We started with a discovery call where my team and I talked through our business and goals. We really let Coming of Age take the wheel and be creative. We were looking for something new to try and that is exactly what we got.

What was the team composition?

I first spoke with the founder of Coming of Age’s parent company. We were then introduced to our account management team, which did a wonderful job!

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

The kit has gotten great reviews around the office and we’re all excited to test it. The first test will be in early May of 2019, so we will know more soon!

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was excellent. We fell a bit behind schedule, but time wasn’t an issue in this project. It was sometimes difficult communicating the correct product specs for the order form and product guide section, but we got it right in the end.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Coming of Age was very professional and seemed to genuinely have our best interest in mind. When asking for explanations on their methodology, they were always quick to respond and thorough in their explanation.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The only hiccup we had was getting the files ready for print. We were not provided with exact specs as to how the files should be printed/folded, etc. However, we were given the information right away when we asked for it.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the director of marketing at a medical alert business.

What challenge were you trying to address with Coming of Age?

We needed strategic help getting inside the minds of the seniors. We were also looking for an integrated agency so we could take all of our online and offline work and bring it together under one umbrella. We hired Coming of Age because of their expertise in the senior market.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Coming of Age flew out to us several times to have multiple briefing meetings, and they interviewed and met with people within the company. They sat in our call center and listened to incoming calls. We went through different rounds of the strategy. We started with strategy, then creative messaging, and then ultimately to a media plan. We hired Coming of Age to do strategy, creative, and messaging for digital and TV, focusing on how to talk to these seniors, how they consume media and messaging, what motivates them, and the relationships with their caregivers.

How did you come to work with Coming of Age?

I found Coming of Age through a search engine, looking up agencies specializing in the senior market. We went through an RFP [request for proposal] where multiple agencies came in, started off with a capabilities review, and then gave them an assignment. They came in and completed the assignment, and then we gave them a second assignment as we started to narrow down the agencies we were looking at. Ultimately, it was Coming of Age that we chose, based on their approach to the planning and the connections we had with the people who worked there. It was a full process where we fully vetted them against other agencies.

How much have you invested with Coming of Age?

If I consider the media that Coming of Age ran for us, along with their fees, it was between $3,000,000 and $5,000,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Coming of Age at the end of 2015. They are still working with that business.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

When we started working with Coming of Age, we saw a measurable increase in our ROI [return on investment] within our digital campaigns and search, as well as within our TV response rates. We saw big impacts and changes, and they were very influential in getting us to expand our thinking and approach.

How did Coming of Age perform from a project management standpoint?

Coming of Age was great. They were very open and honest. They were communicative and very easy to partner with. Coming of Age took feedback well and, from a timing standpoint, were responsive in getting back to us. I didn’t have any issues with them on a customer service level.

What did you find most impressive about Coming of Age?

It’s their insight into the senior market that impresses me the most. Their strategy and approach, along with their ability to learn and focus, were very strong. Coming of Age knows their business without a doubt. They were very involved and attentive, listening carefully to what we had to say, so they could try to absorb everything that we knew about our business and our market. They also had the ability to listen and be flexible with us. We were going through a lot of changes at the time, and they were able to be nimble and work with us as we flipped and flopped.

Are there any areas Coming of Age could improve?

We had some struggles with the creative and getting it into a place where we thought we excelled. Part of that was that Coming of Age presented a great campaign idea, but I think we might have fallen flat in being able to execute it the way they envisioned it. They were going to do our creative, but we then ended up not moving forward with the creative piece of it.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Foundation Partners Group is an Orlando-based company that owns 69 locations that are comprised of funeral homes and cemeteries all around the country. I am the senior VP and CCO [chief customer officer].

What challenge were you trying to address with Coming of Age?

We’re a national company but also a local company. We don’t have any nationwide brands. Every brand that we own is very local and we were trying to appeal to the local market to attract people to our companies.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Coming of Age helped us with all of our marketing in print and digital. They developed our local collateral in the form of messages and talking points to use in our locations, on marketing calls, and marketing events. They did a lot of work on our digital side as well. They developed marketing plans in local markets that they then used to develop the other materials.

How did you come to work with Coming of Age?

I wasn’t with the company when they were vetted but I know there was a call to action put out to a number of similar firms. It was a competition in which people could present what they would do and how they would do it. Coming of Age won the competition and won the account.

How much have you invested with Coming of Age?

We spent between $200,000 and $1 million per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

I don’t know when we started working with them but I know we were with them for a couple of years. The partnership ended December 2015.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We measure results by market share. During the year of 2015, we grew our market share in a lot of markets. We attribute some of that growth to what Coming of Age did. The quality, responsiveness, and professionalism of Coming of Age were something we always received positive feedback on. Carla was our lead person and everybody had good things to say about her. They are terrifically responsive and professional, and they know what they’re doing.

How did Coming of Age perform from a project management standpoint?

Excellent. They always delivered on time or before, and delivered within the scope of the project. At times, they helped us understand what that scope should be. They were a true business partner.

What did you find most impressive about Coming of Age?

They’re very sophisticated in their approach. They’re very connected in the media, digital, and print worlds. We had confidence that they knew what they were doing and were aligned with what we thought we needed.

Are there any areas Coming of Age could improve?

In terms of the people we were dealing with, they were excellent. I don’t know all of the people in their company, though.

Please provide a description of your company. 

I work in the senior practice for a large national health insurance company.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m a vice president of sales.

What was your goal for working with Coming of Age?

At first, we approached them to help us research and segment the market, and find out the best way to approach each group. They helped guide us into a marketing campaign that was very successful. We eventually expanded our internal capabilities, but we still often consult with Coming of Age.

Please describe the scope of their work.

They’ve worked with us on brand ideation, brand messaging, strategy, and marketing plans.

What was your process for selecting Coming of Age with which to work?

I was referred to Coming of Age by a mutual contact. We went through the RFP [request for proposal] process with three different companies. Coming of Age was clearly the best.

What was the timeline of the project?

The relationship began in 2007 and is ongoing.

Do you have any statistics, metrics, or general feedback from the project?

In the beginning, they did several storyboard mockups. We selected one, then they built it out, and it was spot on. I was very happy with their work, and so was the president of the firm and the other leadership. It was clear and easy to understand. They didn’t embellish, they stayed with the basic issues that we were trying to put out there. The text and the graphics were both more than appropriate.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

They excel at listening. They don’t come in with a preset idea, and you have to fit into it. They did a lot of listening first, learning what we were all about, asking us about the challenges, and the competitive landscape that we were up against.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

No. They were responsive, and they were timely. We were quite happy with them.

Please provide a description of your company. 

I used to work for a large, for-profit health insurance company with more than 13 million customers in the U.S. The division that worked with Coming of Age is the Medicare distribution arm. It's probably 80 percent of all of the revenue and profit flows through the Medicare business.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I'm recently retired. However, I was vice president of sales.

What was your goal for working with Coming of Age?

I was looking for people who could help us develop marketing programs that would make us unique in the marketplace and differentiate us from our competitors.

What was the business challenge you were addressing when you approached Coming of Age?

I wanted to develop a multichannel distribution system quickly because there was a change coming in the marketplace that would allow us to have the ability to enroll several million people in a very short period of time. 

Please describe the scope of their work.

I asked them to help me develop a marketing campaign that would differentiate us not only in distribution, but also by highlighting the unique aspects of our business. The campaign we coordinated with Coming of Age helped us enroll about 1.3 million people that year.

What was your process for selecting Coming of Age with which to work?

My team and I interviewed a lot of different companies and tried to figure out exactly what each one of them could offer. We work with different consulting groups, some on the distribution side and others on the marketing side. Coming of Age ended up being the group we went with, and they helped us develop our marketing, advertising, and messaging that we were trying to communicate to the seniors.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

It was several hundred thousand dollars a year.

What was the timeline of the project?

We worked on a number of projects with Coming of Age between 2002 and 2008.

Do you have any statistics, metrics, or general feedback from the project?

We broke every sales record in the Medicare business, we blew them away. Our growth was off the charts as we took advantage of this shift in the Medicare business. I had a consultant tell me that they weren’t aware of any entity that had ever produced at that level of revenue and pretax income in the first year of a new program in this industry. I don’t think this would have been possible if it wasn’t for Coming of Age. Their marketing, graphic design, and brand strategy knowledge were essential in this massive distribution campaign we implemented.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

They have decades of experience. Their principles in particular, literally had decades of experience in the senior market. They brought a unique understanding of who our target audience was and how we were going to appeal to them. Our marketing campaign absolutely set us apart from our competitors.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

There's nothing.

Please provide a description of your company. 

I am a sales and marketing consultant to the senior living industry. I also worked with Jim [Gilmartin, CEO at Coming of Age] and Coming of Age when I was the sales and marketing director for a continuing care retirement community. 

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m the owner.

What was your goal for working with Coming of Age?

Through the years, it’s typically been a need for updated collateral materials, updated websites, direct mail advertising for event marketing that we would do, those sorts of things.

Please describe the scope of their work.

I have worked with Jim and Coming of Age, through the years, on a wide variety of projects. They’ve done everything from brand ideation sessions to the development of corporate ID packages; to the complete development, maintenance, and growth of a website; and complete branded collateral materials for an updated look. I've also worked on large advertising campaigns, media buys and those sorts of things with them. So, they’ve done pretty much the full gamut of what you would engage an agency to do. 

What was your process for selecting Coming of Age with which to work?

We had several agencies come in and pitch their services to us. I ended up choosing another firm initially, but after a year of working with them, I realized I’d really made a mistake. I wasn’t getting the quality creative work, professionalism, and follow up that I needed. So, I went back to Jim and chose to work with his firm.

When I spun off and started my own business, we were more like strategic alliance partners. Sometimes, I would go to his clients as the sales expert and, sometimes, he would come to my clients as the agency of record expert.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

When I contracted them for the retirement community, our largest project, the overall spend represented at least several hundred thousand dollars. I’ve had smaller things that were maybe $50,000 or $60,000.

What was the timeline of your relationship?

I’ve worked with Coming of Age for more than 10 years now, on a number of projects. 

Do you have any statistics, metrics, or general feedback to show the success of the project?

I found their quality to be extraordinary. The senior living market is saturated with cliches, and they brought a brand new, fresh, updated look that really set us apart from the competition and got us noticed.

One of the things I’ve always looked for in an agency of record is how they manage their business, how they handle the editing process, how they handle the turnaround times, staying on top of the minutia, the details, and account management. All those things really play into my experience, and I’ve always had the highest level of success with Coming of Age. I found them to be very detail oriented. They stay on top of it, and still give me good quality creative, something that really sets us apart in the market. 

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

I think that Coming of Age has such a good handle on the psychology of the sale. They really understand the customer's mindset. Jim has phenomenal marketing expertise, and a real pulse on the psychology and emotion that goes into a purchasing decision. I found that to be unique in terms of the quality they offer on the creative side as well as the business side.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

I will say that he’s not going to be the cheapest. One of the things I like about Jim is that he doesn’t only do senior living, which allows his work to stay a little fresher. I’ve worked with some heavy-hitter agencies that just gouge the client when it comes to their creative costs. So, I felt like Jim gave a good price for his services, but it’s not going to be the lowest bid.

My last advice to a potential customer of Coming of Age would be to make sure you have a good handle on the scope of the project to make sure you can fully use his skill set.