Familiar Creatures

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Hardywood Park Craft Brewery is the largest independently owned craft brewery in the commonwealth of Virginia. I am the Marketing Director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Familiar Creatures, and what were your goals?

We hired Familiar Creatures to provide us with a brand update and refresh on the eve of our 10th anniversary. We wanted a more user friendly logo that told more of our origin story and lent itself to a more neighborly, friendly approach.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We sent out an RFP to a select number of agencies in Virginia that had experience in the craft beverage space. We did initial interviews with three firms, and while all firms do amazing work, we really felt like Familiar Creatures understood our mission and vision for the rebrand.

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

We started with an off-site branding discussion with key stakeholders from our team to dig into who we are as a company, and as an employer. We talked about our audiences and what we wanted people to take away from the Hardywood brand.

With those things in mind, the team at Familiar Creatures did several rounds of designs which really resonated with us as a team. We finally chose the winner and they provided a full brand guide, several different logo options, and a new fresh color palate. They also helped with some brand launch initiatives, including our launch event at the brewery.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked directly with Dustin and Justin, the two owners of Familiar Creatures, along with several additional team members including a project manager and designers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have loved the reception from our new logo. It’s so much easier and cleaner to work with and better represents our story. It’s allowed us to lean into our narrative and who we are, where our old logo didn’t really represent much. We’ve made strides at implementing the brand in all areas from labels to signage to merchandise, and it has been really successful so far.

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

The team at Familiar Creatures is very communicative and easy to work with. They kept to all their established timelines and were transparent throughout the process.

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

The general vibe of their team was so fun. It didn’t feel like work. We really loved everything they presented. They made it difficult to choose, which was a great problem to have.

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

We continue to work with Familiar Creatures, and hopefully will for years to come, so … nope!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the marketing director for a Crunch Fitness franchise in southeast called JF Fitness of North America. We currently have 13 locations and are expanding rapidly, opening new locations of Crunch Fitness up and down the southeast. I oversee and guide the development of marketing campaigns for our franchise.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Familiar Creatures?

Typically our corporate marketing team creates video content each year for franchisees to use in their advertising strategies. With COVID, the brand marketing fund was depleted and I knew that the corporate office likely would not be able to fund the usual high quality and funny commercials that normally get produced.

We do not have any video capabilities in-house and I knew if we were going to do this, we needed to hire an agency who could capture the humor and honesty of our brand in a witty commercial.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to raise brand awareness in January to drive more traffic to our locations during the busy season. We intended to serve the commercial on OTT, YouTube, and other social media channels.

SOLUTION

How did you select Familiar Creatures?

The only agency we considered was Familiar Creatures because I had seen the amazing work they had done on another campaign "Keep Calm and Nom Nom", an effort to support local Richmond restaurants throughout COVID closures. It was such an effective organic campaign with great aesthetics, I knew Familiar Creatures could do produce a video similarly great and unique for Crunch.

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

Through our initial discussion, Justin and Dustin had a great feel for the brand and the type of brand awareness we wanted to create through a witty and humorous video. They got to work on scripting ideas to communicate those core components while balancing the "no contracts" aspect that sets us apart from competitors. We had the added challenge of navigating COVID impacts on filming and Familiar Creature had to adjust our scripts, locations, and crew to accommodate those limitations without sacrificing the quality of the video spot.

This is the first video production project I had ever done and I was really impressed and privileged to learn the process start to finish with Familiar Creatures and their teams. From scripting, to casting, to location selection, filming the day of, and editing, we felt a fantastic creative synergy with them every step of the way.

What was your vendors' project management or feedback process?

We had both Justin and Dustin from Familiar Creatures working with us from start to finish, coordinating between our feedback and the rest of the vendors and crew involved. Spang shot and edited the spot with a small crew of 6 the day of shoot. (not counting the actor on set) We had one video editor and a sound producer who handled post-production. We received several round of drafts that we provided feedback on before receiving our :30 and :15 second final cuts for distribution.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

To date, this is our best performing video creative we have ever run with some of the highest click thru rates and the lowest cost per clicks. Viewers love the relatable humor of the video spot and the professional visual quality and editing.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Justin and Dustin were excellent at managing expectations and educating us along the process as we had never produced a video before. The communications were precise and clear with frequent updates and clear timelines. Even though our initial shoot was delayed due to COVID restrictions, Familiar Creatures was able to pivot quickly to find ways to get the project done in a safe way without compromising quality of the end product. Working with Familiar Creatures was a simple and easy process even with the challenges we faced in production.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Familiar Creatures offered a wealth of knowledge on the ins and outs of video production and were fantastic and patient in educating us through each step. Their creativity and that of their subcontracted production company was a breath of fresh air. I felt fully confident in their ability to interpret our goal and realize it throughout the process and shoot.

Familiar Creatures has many established relationships with other companies and creatives in the industry and they leverage those relationships very effectively in their projects.

I was really impressed by their level of creativity and abilities in house balanced with their cognizance to outsource components to the benefit of the final product. They are truly a full service fractional creative advertising AOR. I look forward to our next project together as we will return for future video productions.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Absolutely none. The only issues in this project were delays due to COVID. That was beyond the control of Familiar Creatures who handled those delays artfully and transparently. In the end, quality was more important than speed and we took our time to regroup and get it right. We could not be more pleased with the high quality and beautifully on brand video spot they produced for us.