Heraldist

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of mobile payment and marketing Company. WayPay is a commerce solution that empowers communities, by fostering what we call the community prosperity triangle. We offer consumers contactless payment and loyalty features that reward them for buying local. We offer local businesses a lower-cost payment alternative and marketing features to increase sales thru customer engagement. While the whole community benefits from innovation, more jobs, and more taxes.

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

Our Company just graduated from acceleration program (https://www.startupbootcamp.org/accelerator/fintech-cybersecurity-amste…) and needed a completely new branding to match its new market focus. Our target customer segment changed to be the Community and this meant to revisit our product and sales and marketing plan. The goal was to get a completely new branding guide (logo, name, value proposition, slogan ...).

How did you select this vendor?

The Startupbootcamp team introduced us to four alternatives that we carefully evaluated before deciding to retain the services of Heraldist.

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

The work started filling out extensive and very detailed questionnaires, that were later reviewed and commented on video-calls. Then for each deliverable they proposed several options, three minimum, and in some cases up to 12, we provided feedback and then they presented new versions based on our feedback. We could do 3 or up to 6 iterations to get to the final result.

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

Several:

• a) Georgia was the project manager and our main contact
• b) Teodora helped with value proposition and slogan
• c) Elena helped with strategy and keeping every deliverable in synch with the initial goal
• d) Adriana helped with names
• e) Ainhoa helped with logo design and colors

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

As the result of the work we have:

• Logo
• Value proposition
• Slogan
• Website
• Complete brand-guideline

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

We had at least weekly calls with the project manager and the corresponding segment expert from their team. First proposals on each deliverable were always in time, and never took 10 days to get the first one. Each iteration, based on our feedback, was very fast, never more than 3 days

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

They were a pleasure to work with and provided an outstanding result. There were iterations were we felt we were not "in-synch" and with patience and respect we were always able to get on the same page. We always felt we were talking to true experts in each of the fields (copy, design, strategy...)

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

Not that I could think of. We did Google Meets or Zoom meetings, always using video and sharing the screen. Very efficient, very productive.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of Risk Priorities. We’re a software company that developed a solution that addresses a problem in financial institutions, specifically with regulatory engagements.

What challenge were you trying to address with Heraldist & Wondermarks?

Our engagement with them was dual purpose. We brought them on to hone and define our value proposition. We were having a difficult time coming up with a succinct one. Additionally, we needed an industry pitch deck. We felt that we weren’t accurately or effectively communicating that value proposition.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Key deliverables included coming up with our value proposition and then creating an investor deck that we can present to potential investors as we seek funding for the company. Their team also provided some feedback about rebranding our company as far as logos, font types, and color palettes go. They gave us concepts to refresh the UI/UX design of our software solution.

What is the team composition?

We primarily worked with two individuals, and I’m sure there were others behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Heraldist & Wondermarks?

We participated in a startup accelerator program and were referred to Heraldist & Wondermarks through this program. Through the initial meetings and engagements, we felt comfortable with them and didn’t seek to compare them to competitors. We just went with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $12,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was from September–November 2020.

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

We’ve been in the process of disseminating our pitch deck to potential investors but haven’t received any feedback yet. That’s how we’re going to measure the success of the engagement. However, in terms of internal feedback, everyone has been receptive to it and responded positively.

How did Heraldist & Wondermarks perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was outstanding. They clearly communicated when they’d have information for us whether it was responses to our questions or deliverables. Their team always provided specific timeframes and met every single one of them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our industry and the product we’re developing are difficult to understand. We were very impressed with how quickly Heraldist & Wondermarks captured and were able to understand the problem we were trying to solve. They picked it up immediately and ran with it.

Their team came back with a nearly complete deliverable in the first draft. They were quick to digest all the information we gave them and then produce a product that was usable to us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust the team at Heraldist & Wondermarks. Layout the problem you’re trying to solve, and they’ll have enough experience to come up with something that is of value. Just trust the process.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive director of a humanitarian foundation created by Her Majesty Margaret of Romania, the daughter of King Michael, the last king of Romania. We do social projects and work with children, the elderly, and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

What challenge were you trying to address with Heraldist & Wondermarks?

When the COVID-19 crisis started in Romania, we were in an emergency state. People were advised to stay in the house, and the elderly were allowed to exit their homes for only two hours a day. They had to have a very good reason to exit their homes and to have a written declaration stating their reason for going out.

We realized the elderly would be very impacted. Their demographic has a very poor IT education in Romania, so they wouldn’t know how to shop and make payments online. We figure out that there’d be a lot of elderly in need of help, and we wanted to launch a special fund to support them throughout Romania.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We sent Heraldist & Wondermarks a brief of what we wanted to do. We wanted to launch a fundraising campaign through text messages. Whenever someone sent out an SMS, they’d donate a small amount, and there was also an option for making monthly donations.

After we got in touch with them, we had our first TV spot. We had talks back and forward, and it was quite a lot of work.

They helped us create the whole ad campaign, but the main product for us was the TV and radio ads. They came up with the entire concept, namely that we owe the elderly our love and support because they raised us. The first meeting was about that, and then we went into production. In the end, Heraldist & Wondermarks came up with the idea of stock images to go along with the message.

What is the team composition?

We had an account manager, who was the main person meeting with us. There were around five people from their side present at the first meeting, which included the director and owner of the agency.

Later on, we worked with an account manager and people from the creative side. There was a creative director involved, but I’m not aware of his exact title.

How did you come to work with Heraldist & Wondermarks?

We’d known about them for a long time, and someone from our board of directors had worked with them. Because of the cost, we hadn’t talked to them before this project. However, this was a crisis period, and they wanted to do something good, so we came together well.

I’d been told that they had previous experiences with smaller NGOs, which weren’t that great. NGOs and companies are in completely different worlds, and fundraising and selling products are again very different. There were some fundraising rules, and we had to learn and compromise somehow.

How much have you invested with them?

The budget for our collaboration was €12,600 (approximately $14,800 USD). Heraldist & Wondermarks agreed to help us pro bono, which was very important because we didn’t have the right resources.

In our past experiences, we knew agencies were expensive, and we had a limited budget. I talked to them about the possibility of making a pro bono services contract, which they could use legally, and I told them to put all the expenses there.

What is the status of this engagement?

We got in contact with Heraldist & Wondermarks in late-March 2020. We wrote them just yesterday, asking if they could help us with some other visuals.

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

We received the first TV ad within two weeks, which was extremely fast, especially in a period when everybody was working from home. In the end, we had three TV spots and adjoining visual materials.

Our campaign was successful, but not through the roof. We ended up with 2,000 monthly donors, which is pretty good. We have around €4,000 (approximately $4,700 USD) entering the account each month. That was a period when everyone was doing intensive fundraising, especially for medical support. Donors in Romania received requests for hospitals.

It was our most successful SMS donation campaign, and it’s something that we want to continue. We evaluated our success after two weeks of broadcasting the TV spot, and we determined that it wasn’t working well enough.

We went back to Heraldist & Wondermarks and told them that we had a problem, and they had another meeting with us, where we each came with inputs on how to make it successful. We had another version of the spot in less than ten days, which was a bit more dramatic. It was definitely more successful than the first TV campaign.

We also managed to get spots on TV and radio pro bono. By the end of the campaign, our spot had been broadcasted around 5,000 times on media channels throughout the country.

How did Heraldist & Wondermarks perform from a project management standpoint?

The team at Heraldist & Wondermarks is exceptionally efficient. It was a crazy period when everybody was working from home, and Heraldist & Wondermarks was present from morning until evening.

We had email exchanges and calls, and we really had the sensation that people were working for us. They were in contact with us often, and they had something new for us every few days, or even every couple of hours sometimes. We mainly communicated through email, Zoom, or other videoconferencing tools.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s the fact that we felt like an important client. In a world where service providers tend to be less qualitative every day somehow, Heraldist & Wondermarks proved to be a very professional agency. They made us feel like a big client. There was never a feeling in my mind that we weren’t important because it was pro bono work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have no idea how their work is done, so I couldn’t say what they could do better. If we had a problem, we could discuss it at a higher level, and it wasn’t an issue.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

For Heraldist & Wondermarks to do their work, clients need to move and agree fast to keep the project going. The client has to be willing to go into this process. We received great results because we came with answers quickly, and they came up with the products fast.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief marketing officer of Appnomic. We’re a software company targeting the IT operations market.

What challenge were you trying to address with Heraldist & Wondermarks San Francisco?

We needed help with rebranding and design services. Our team has a high-end product but our branding didn’t reflect that. Essentially, we needed an agency to get us on the map. We’re a small company with big ambitions and a product that’s highly differentiated.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Heraldist & Wondermarks handled our branding efforts. First, I provided the positioning and value proposition. From that moment onward, we did a workshop and exercise with their team of writers, designers, and strategists. They revamped our entire brand including the brand name, field name, and value proposition.

In addition to that, they completely revamped our website, its design, the visuals, communication material, videos, and more. Heraldist & Wondermarks did the whole package of assets. They came up with five brand options encompassing name, logo, and tagline combinations for the brand story.

The five options were on a spectrum ranging from a highly conceptual B2C type of brand to more conservative ones. We had those five options to test within the market and ultimately selected one. Heraldist & Wondermarks also created customer-facing decks for us. I had multiple levels of decks. They reworked and simplified them because the messaging was off.

I’m continuing to work with them for the second phase of the project. Right now, we’re in the planning stage of turning this engagement into a continuation. Next, we’ll be doing demand generation.

What is the team composition?

There were 10–12 people working on our project. Some of them were on-and-off but we always had a project manager.

How did you come to work with Heraldist & Wondermarks San Francisco?

I explored multiple agencies. However, Heraldist & Wondermarks impressed me from our first discussion. A thirty-minute meeting turned into a two-hour discussion. They had a very unique approach to the branding exercise, called perception engineering.

Their methodology is that at the end of the day, people are people; whether they’re engineers or whatever. People have emotions as well as logic and everything combines together when they approach a brand.

Heraldist & Wondermarks said they’re highly human-centric and that a brand should reflect that and also be appealing. Brand identity has to be very personable and create emotions as well. Perception Engineering is a very different approach, but I realized it was an opportunity to differentiate our product.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from December 2019–January 2020.

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

The outcome was phenomenal. The time it took Heraldist & Wondermarks to complete everything was extremely impressive; it only took one-and-a-half months. I’ve never seen such speed.

I created a feedback group of 20 individuals encompassing a customer advisory board, company board of advisors, and our executives. This is where the five branding options played a very key role. I took the five options to the group of 20 people and asked for their first and second choices. The brand that was ultimately selected was one of everybody’s two choices about 80% of the time. Overall, everyone was very impressed with the work. The feedback from the group was exceptional.

We receive amazing feedback from customers. The new brand is incomparable. People understand what we do and the message resonates very well. Our brand now properly reflects our product’s core value proposition. People like it a lot because it connects very well with the overall story.

How did Heraldist & Wondermarks San Francisco perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management was impeccable, and I was happy with the speed of the project. Heraldist & Wondermarks is very effective and accommodating. They were thorough in providing multiple iterations. For the video, I asked them to do something and then changed my mind in the process. This was because we eliminated multiple things and reworded the text. Heraldist & Wondermarks accommodated all the extra stuff and delivered a very nice video.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a lot of specialists and that’s something that’s really unique. Heraldist & Wondermarks has quite a few people who used to work for the B2C, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), and publishing industries.

On the customer side, their specialists have really been working in a professional capacity. They have a great understanding of selling to consumers; that’s reflected in what they’ve been doing. Heraldist & Wondermarks brought me from a B2B-tech-thinking mindset and created a brand that’s very consumer-like but not too consumer-focused.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t highlight any needs for improvement. If they had someone in our time zone, that could be helpful, but it hasn’t made much of an impact.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Leave a little room to listen to what they offer and put on the table. It may look unorthodox or unusual but don’t resist their creative juices. Be ready to work with a company where the majority of the team is in Europe.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am one of the co-founders of SOLO, the first one stop shop accounting app for Romanian self employed people.

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

We were looking to pinpoint and articulate our value proposition to customers as well as build a modern and friendly brand to wrap it all up in.

How did you select this vendor?

We talked with several agencies or freelancers that have been successful in building strong start-up brands. We went with Heraldist because we resonated with their perception engineering framework.

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

To start, we filled out a long questionnaire and then had a workshop in order for them to understand better our company and our customers. There were even talks with actual potential clients. The work included product positioning, many naming rounds, identifying the tone of voice and our look and feel.

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

We worked with Teo, Brand Strategist, Zoran for design and Alice (Business Development Partner) for everything in between. We met with several other people in the team.

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

The main takeaway for us was going through the process with the team. We were able to articulate better our value proposition with Teo's help and to identify our tag line - Solo. Your digital accountant. We did struggle with the naming, which we came up with on our own in the end. Design -wise Zoran's work was excellent and we ended up with two very valid visual proposals. Today we get a lot of attention for our bold look and friendly approach.

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

Heraldist was very professional in their approach, they provided a timeline, they were always very friendly and very quick and on point in their communication.

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

I believe they were able to extract and articulate brilliantly the value proposition. Alice was great too :)

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

As this was a first time for the most of our team we would have appreciated some time spent in understanding the outcome of the exercise. It was not always easy to wrap our heads around positioning vs value proposition, vs brand characteristics. So maybe a little more support there.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Founder and CEO of a Virtual Reality development studio.

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

Our business is a startup in a new category (content and app development for AR/VR). We were good on the tech side, but fuzzy in our go to market approach. Our goal was to clearly define our brand strategy and area of focus. Additionally we wanted a new brand identity and possibly a new company name.

How did you select Heraldist?

We knew Heraldist and were impressed with the work they'd done with other brands in the past. We felt they have the strategic expertise and the hand-on skills to guide us down this path and help us reinvent our brand. They were the only company we seriously considered for this project as we felt they were the best suited.

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

The services provided were: Brand Strategy development, Brand Identity (logo, marketing materials), Website development and Marketing for one of our key products. The Heraldist process involved in detail interviews with the company founder and key members of the team.

They wanted to know about our values and our vision. They were very interested in understanding the industry as a whole and did substantial amounts of research before drawing conclusions.

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

I worked directly with a project manager, a brand strategist, a creative director and graphic designers. Others were involved behind the scenes in copyright and web development

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

We've been able to clearly understand what we do and how it helps the world, beyond just the tech. We've picked a new name that we are very happy with and a great visual identity that creates a memorable brand experience. We've launched a new website, new social media and it's all looking good and very cohesive.

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

The PM was always on top of things and always very responsive. The team is talented and professional but also relaxed and kind.

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

They really care about their clients and they love what they do.

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

Can't think of anything at the moment.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and Head of Research at Alphablock Technologies.

For what projects/services did your company hire Heraldist & Wondermarks?

Alphablock Technologies is a General AI company. We started as a fintech company before expanding to blockchain validation and General AI. Our fintech business was foundational and needed visibility. We brought in Heraldist & Wondermarks (H&W) to assist us.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed global visibility, identity, and digital strategy to relate to our clients and investors.

How did you select this vendor?

The selection process was easy. Their team had impressive credentials and an engagement strategy with startups.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

H&W spend significant time understanding my vision as a founder and assisting me in re-articulating who I was and where I saw the business a few years ahead in the future. Once they could feel and measure the depth of our domain and aspirations, they went about creating a brand strategy, our place in the ecosystem.

This was followed by a sequence of patient iterations, leading to a fulfilling set of outcomes, be it a brand, UI-UX, digital gameplan.

What was the team composition?

I worked with both Adrian, Elena, their top-notch art-director Zoran, and other members of the H&W team.

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

The re-branding, design, digital strategy assisted us significantly in achieving our goal, which was to relate to our clients and investors.

We were successful in onboarding institutional clients to use our technology, get an award from MIT for a top fintech idea, and also bring in investors who could resonate with the product and brand.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

After the initial background work with H&W, the execution was seamless. Fast turnaround times, fast iterations, clockwork. H&W has a top work ethic and knew how to put themselves in the shoes of the founders.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

H&W thrives on creativity, knows how to flex the creative muscle, genetically thinks out of the box, and dares to build on new-age strategic thinking.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Building an innovation organization is about staying nimble. H&W's biggest future challenge is how to scale but still stay artistically sharp.