Elevate Creative

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the advocacy and communications manager for Ohio Humanities, a nonprofit that shares stories to spark conversations and inspire ideas. We host programs and award grants that support storytellers statewide, from museums to journalists to documentary filmmakers.

For what projects/services did your company hire Elevate Creative, and what were your goals?

We are widely known among our internal partners, but want to expand our name recognition to a wider audience of donors and potential partners across the state. We hired Elevate Creative to produce a video highlighting several recent grantees reflecting our new mission statement and for use in future philanthropy, stakeholder, and development meetings.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We chose Elevate Creative from a list of a few recommended vendors from our strategic communications consultant. We chose them because of their price range, previous contracts, and innovative vision.

Describe the video(s) and the process in detail, including the project steps and all stages of production.

We started with a discovery meeting and brainstorming session to share our goals and vision for the project with Elevate's team. Our staff identified three grantees to interview and a filming location, as well as a tentative schedule in coordination with Elevate.

We filmed four back-to-back interviews in one day. After the filming, we held a debrief meeting with Elevate to identify the storylines we felt were most compelling to highlight and provided collaborative feedback on a long-form edit produced by Elevate using Vimeo comments and email channels.

Following this collaborative process, we held a series of additional meetings as needed to discuss final changes. The end result was a four-minute video that captured our new mission and vision wonderfully as well as a shorter edit to share on social media.

Who did you work with and what was the feedback process like?

We worked with Armand to set up meetings, filming, and communicate feedback to the editor, Katie, with whom we also worked directly on final edits to the project. We utilized Vimeo comments and email channels to communicate our feedback and needs. Elevate did a remarkable job capturing our vision for the project and responding to our feedback, and we could not be happier with the process and outcome.

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

We shared the video with our staff, board, and strategic communications team, and all parties provided overwhelmingly positive feedback on the final draft of the video. We are excited to share the video with donors and partners in the near future.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Elevate's team was incredibly collaborative and responsive to feedback via email, virtual meetings, and Vimeo comments. They provided regular updates to keep the project on track and were extremely responsive to our feedback and concerns.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Elevate's team was just as committed to our company's vision as any of our internal staff. They consistently communicated their passion for the project and were able to translate our organization's vision and mission seamlessly into the production and outcome of the video. Also, they produced extremely high-quality work for a very reasonable price.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

We were nothing but pleased with Elevate Creative's process and product.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

At the time of this project, I was working as the brand manager for Modern & Living, a third-party seller on Amazon. It is a mother company that creates separate brand entities for different consumer goods categories.

What challenge were you trying to address with Elevate Creative?

We were previously launching a brand of products as an Amazon-native third-party seller normally would. That process didn’t have much innovation. Our process now entails taking a high-potential category of products and then merging it with a direct-to-consumer-meets-Amazon approach. It involves investing heavily in branding, being more customer-centric by producing creative assets, and setting up marketing initiatives. 

What we wanted to do with Elevate was to create a new set of stylized videos that not only sells products to consumers but also introduces them to the brand.  

What was the scope of their involvement?

We and Elevate worked collaboratively and met on a weekly basis to discuss in detail what the upcoming milestones were. For this project, we had already created a script, and the Elevate team simply helped us bring our vision to life b doing all of the logistics and execution. They helped us figure out the casting, filming locations and commanded the shoot, video editing, and post-production work. 

What is the team composition?

We had two primary contacts from Elevate: Armand (Director of Communications) and Mitch (Creative Account Director). They sometimes brought in other people into the call to make sure that they understood the vision. 

How did you come to work with Elevate Creative?

I met them while I was living in Columbus and developing my own business. They were helping me figure out if I wanted to do some photography work. I had also worked with them previously to record an interview for their podcast. When the need for a videographer arose during my time at Modern & Living, I remembered Elevate and decided to reach out to them again.

How much have you invested with them?

We paid under $7,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I first met them in November 2019, and this project lasted from September–November 2021.

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

I’ve left the company so there’s no way for me to know if they ever did launch the videos made by Elevate. We did, however, do a preview launch on Instagram to give us a measure of the success of our planned paid ad campaign.

How did Elevate Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

They were really exceptional at communicating and giving everyone visibility about what was happening. They were also very upfront about the project and made sure that our expectations were reasonable and realistic. 

Armand was really great at giving us timely updates and keeping us in the loop, especially if there were changes. He always took the time to listen to our concerns and make sure that the final product was what we wanted. Mitch also kept us all on the same page in terms of the deliverables and how we would get there. 

We mostly communicated via email, but if there was anything urgent or something that we wanted to give our feedback on, we would text them. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Elevate provided exceptional service. Even when they weren’t familiar with something or lacked previous experience on it, they did everything in their power to learn a certain topic to meet our requirements. They have an all-encompassing range in terms of what styles and types of videos they can do, and I think that it was great working with an agency that could do everything.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s none that I can think of. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You’ll get the most out of your engagement if you dedicate time to meet with Elevate on a weekly basis. This is especially important during the early stages of planning the video. The best way for them to work is through collaboration, where you participate in the process, as opposed to being given a hand-off project. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a manager in Training & Development for a retail company that has 5 brands within its umbrella.

For what projects/services did your company hire Elevate Creative, and what were your goals?

We hired Elevate to help us create a video for our Corporate Purpose launch. Our goals were to wrap up our launch with a video highlighting our associate stories and experiences. The timeline was tight, so it was crucial that we were able to get a finished product on by the project due date.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We were recommended by another department within our company.

Describe the video(s) and the process in detail, including the project steps and all stages of production.

We had a meeting to determine if this project was something that could be accomplished within the timeline needed. We went through project milestones and had weekly touch bases to stay on track with email communication throughout to align on how the video was coming along.

Who did you work with and what was the feedback process like?

I worked with:

• Armand, who facilitated and organised all planning
• Patricia, who edited and produced the video

Feedback was given easily with the Vimeo tool provided.

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

We shared the video with our global stores fleet and internally - which we got positive feedback on.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Armand was easy to communicate with and provided updates in a timely manner. He was communicative when the the project was moving quickly and was on top of changes as they occurred.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I really appreciated that they wanted to truly understand what we needed to accomplish with this video.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I can’t think of anything that could be done to improve the process.