Cumberland Creative

Please describe your company and your position there.

Nashville Zoo is the largest family attraction in Middle Tennessee welcoming more than 1.6 million visitors annually. I am the marketing and public relations director responsible for all branding and external communication.

For what projects/services did your company hire Cumberland Creative?

We initially hired Cumberland Creative to create two videos highlighting our conservation and animal care initiatives. Shortly after hiring, we made a decision to launch an ambitious event (Zoolumination) to attract 150,000 guests between November and February. Cumberland Creative was hired to shoot a :30 and :15 TV commercial as well as a longer mini-documentary highlighting the creation of the new event.

What were your goals for this project?

The goals of the documentary were: - to attract an audience to the event for the current year and following years - to encourage sponsorship of the event - to gain media coverage for the event - to provide promotion material to use in future events

How did you select this vendor?

Cumberland Creative was chosen because of the quality of their video content. Their ability to tell a story stood out from the other proposals.

Describe the video(s) and the process in detail.

The 10 minute documentary highlights the Zoo's inaugural year for Zoolumination and includes interviews with the Zoo President and Chief Operations Officer. The video addresses why the event was formed, why a Chinese lantern theme was chosen, how the lantern were created, as well as the size and scope of the event.

What was your vendors' project management or feedback process?

Cumberland did a great job outlining what their plans were and what they needed from the Zoo. They were able to work largely independently and not get in the way of the progress of the event build.

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

The finished video exceeded any expectation we had. It was a bit longer than we had anticipated but did a fantastic job telling the story of Zoolumination.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Cumberland's team was very knowledgeable of what they needed to accomplish and did a great job working around our day-to-day process to get their job done.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They were very professional and did their job efficiently and effectively.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The timeline for completion took longer than expect but the outcome was worth the wait.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the senior director of brand activation at DrinkWorks, a joint venture between Anheuser Busch and Keurig. I handle all outward-facing consumer marketing.

What challenge were you trying to address with Cumberland Creative?

On multiple occasions, we were looking to develop video content directed at target consumers.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Cumberland Creative has produced multiple videos for us. In a previous position, I worked as a marketing director for a restaurant group. We hired Cumberland Creative to produce a three-minute video detailing the story of the restaurant group. Their team also produced promotional videos for Chef Week. They created about a dozen employment branding videos.

Their team also created videos for a female-focused health and fitness franchise, where I also worked as a marketing director. They supplemented our quarterly marketing plan by producing video content aimed at whatever messaging was our focus that quarter. They created two long-form videos per month, which then formed 4–8 15 second cut-downs.

As a creative person myself, I would bring them pretty complete briefs that detailed the target audience and the look I wanted. Their team would then go over the brief, shoot, and edit the videos.

What is the team composition?

I typically work with two people at the briefing stage, usually Kyle (CEO, Cumberland Creative) and Michael (Chief Production Officer, Cumberland Creative). For shooting, we would work with another two members of their team, sometimes one of which was Michael. Michael was also our go-to resource for editing videos if he wasn’t on another shoot.

How did you come to work with Cumberland Creative?

I first met Kyle and Michael when they worked for another video production house who we had a contract with. When they eventually decided to start their own company, I took my business to them because we had a good working relationship. I always end up going back to Cumberland Creative because everything we’ve produced together has been great.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our longterm relationship with Cumberland Creative began in 2014.

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

When I was working for the gym, we used their two videos as our primary source of advertising. That business went from $27 million to $57 million in a year, which is over 100% growth. Those videos also drove our biggest promotions of the year. The first drove over $2 million in revenue and the second drove $2.5 million.

How did Cumberland Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

I wouldn’t keep coming back to them if it wasn’t enjoyable to work with, they really do a great job. They’re young and eager to learn. Cumberland Creative is happy to please their clients, it feels almost like I’m hanging out with friends when I’m working with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Cumberland Creative really truly cares about their clients. They look to partner with people that they care about. Their team prefers to personally card about the product they’re making a video for so they can endorse them well. They really look to make partners for life.

Cumberland Creative also has the ability to remove themselves from the project and deliver on the objectives. If the client wants something, they will do it to the best of their ability while removing their own opinions. They place a lot of importance on what the client wants. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

During our most recent project, I noticed that they’re kind of stretched a little thin. I think it’s growing pains after they’ve picked up a few big clients. It’s more about having reasonable expectations of themselves in terms of what they can deliver and when. It’s one thing to be stretched really thin and be upfront of it and it’s another to promise a deadline that you can’t make. If it’s going to take an extra week, tell the client it's going to. They’re doing the best they can.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Understand what you want the outcome of the project to be from the beginning. It’s important to know your audience and what you want the video to accomplish, whether it’s to drive sales or gain brand awareness. It’s also helpful to provide samples of work you like the style of. Be explicit in your creative briefs to agencies.