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Smashing the mold, one pixel at a time

5.0
4 reviews

Hero exists to smash the mold and create brands with unconstrained creativity. We combine art and science to create effective, smart and impactful brands. We live and breathe passion for our work and we channel that into the companies we work with. We will not accept anything less than creative, visual and digital perfection. 

We are a group of ambitious creatives who assemble brands with purpose. Serving brands is our top priority. We believe in holistic collaboration and that brands can make an impact in society. For us there is no rigid protocol for achieving success. We believe in the importance of knowing your target audience and the limitless possibilities that type of relationship brings.

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$5,000+
 
$100 - $149 / hr
 
10 - 49
 Founded
2012
Show all +
Seattle, WA
headquarters
  • 89 Yesler Way, Suite 302
    Seattle, WA 98104
    United States
    206.489.2623

Portfolio

Key clients: 

Make-A-Wish Foundation, University of Washington, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Northwest Motorsport, Motif Hotel, Greystar, Avenue 5, Pilot Ventures, MyScreeningReport.com, Crescent Down Works, Lease Crutcher Lewis, Mainspring

Reviews

5.0
4 reviews
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Web Dev & Video Commercial for Flooring Company

"They have a small enough team that each of the members can very clearly care about their customers."

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5.0

Quality: 
5.0
Schedule: 
5.0
Cost: 
5.0
Willing to refer: 
5.0
The Project
 
$10,000 to $49,999
 
2014 - Ongoing
Project summary: 

Hero Creative integrated a custom website with inventory management and customer ordering software for an emerging services company. They also shot and edited a 4-minute promotional video for the site.

The Reviewer
 
51-200 Employees
 
Sumner, Washington
Kenneth Baff
Co-owner, 1Up Floors
 
Verified
The Review
Feedback summary: 

The website and video continue to draw praise from customers, who cite the quality and professionalism. Hero Creative’s success has fostered further engagement, including ongoing maintenance and an upcoming second video. The team is trustworthy when managing schedules and finances.

A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a co-owner of 1Up Floors. We describe ourselves as a multi-family floor covering company for the apartment industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hero Creative?

As a startup at the time, we needed outside assistance bringing the culture and brand I conceptualized to the marketplace.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We relied on Hero Creative to build our website and produce a commercial video to play on that site. They were responsible for all design and technical aspects of the website. Our only requirements were to have it interface with inventory management and customer ordering software that we had already purchased. Otherwise, it includes multiple pages and subpages, a blog, and the commercial is embedded. They currently host the website and provide maintenance as necessary when we need to change content.

The commercials that Hero Creative produced in the past were very polished and for large companies, but I relayed my desire for a less-polished version. I wanted to have a small-company feel, a more human feel. We decided that the video would include an interview with me and visuals of our warehouse and our staff. They arranged all aspects of shooting and editing. The video ended at just under 4 minutes long.

What is the team composition?

We have a project manager and different points of contact for website content and commercial production.

How did you come to work with Hero Creative?

I’ve known Mark (Owner, Hero Creative) for several years, and I knew he had started his own media company a year before 1Up Floors started. What I didn’t know was that they were a full-service media company, so I thought they only produced commercials. I didn’t know of their website ability, but once I reached out and began discussing our needs, I knew they could help with the entire project.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $10,000, which I think is a great deal for what we got.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have worked with them on an ongoing basis since 2014. The website and video projects took about a month and a half to complete, but much of that time was a delay on my part because I did not appropriately prepare all materials. We will soon be making a new commercial because our original is three or four years old.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve run other companies in the past, but I’ve never received as much positive feedback from a website or a commercial before. Still to this day, we receive compliments regarding the site’s ease of use and professionalism. We also have people call us and ask who made our commercial, so I refer people to Hero Creative quite regularly.

How did Hero Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

I did a poor job in the beginning of explaining my vision for the commercial, but once that was resolved with a more in-depth discussion with Mark, everything else progressed well. They stick to the timeline and their cost estimate very well. We usually communicate via emails and phone calls. They have a communication system through their website, but we’ve been working with them for so long that we know who we should call or email directly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a small enough team that each of the members can very clearly care about their customers. I've worked with marketing firms in the past where I have to reinvent the wheel every time I call because I’m speaking with a different person every time. Hero Creative’s team members are personally invested in the success of the projects their working on, and I don’t see that anywhere else.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, the whole experience has been virtually flawless.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s quite possible Hero Creative will come up with better ideas than you can, so it’s best to trust their creative process and put stock in their ideas.

5.0
Overall Score
  • 5.0 Scheduling
    ON TIME / DEADLINES
  • 5.0 Cost
    Value / within estimates
  • 5.0 Quality
    Service & deliverables
  • 5.0 NPS
    Willing to refer

Web Dev & Marketing Services for Boutique Investment Firm

"The process was one of the most positive experiences I’ve had working with another business, especially a new partner."

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5.0

Quality: 
5.0
Schedule: 
4.0
Cost: 
5.0
Willing to refer: 
5.0
The Project
 
Confidential
 
May 2016 - Ongoing
Project summary: 

Hero Creative helped develop a brand from scratch, including a name, logo, and story. The team also provided strategy and produced tangibles such as a custom website, leave-behinds, and headshots.

The Reviewer
 
11-50 Employees
 
Seattle, Washington
Co-founder, Pilot Ventures
 
Verified
The Review
Feedback summary: 

The brand garnered positive feedback from clients and competitors alike. Hero Creative remains on retainer for strategic insights, web maintenance, and headshots. The team made the collaboration effortless and responded well to feedback. They produced high-quality deliverables at great value.

A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder and co-owner of Pilot Ventures, a boutique real estate firm in Seattle. We specialize in brokering and managing apartment buildings under $50 million.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hero Creative?

After working at another company for ten years, my partner and I decided to launch our own firm. However, we didn’t have a name, brand, color scheme, or logo. Hero Creative helped us figure out our brand, image, and story. They also created branded deliverables such as a website built from scratch.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Hero Creative helped create our brand from the ground up. We went through 4–5 exploratory meetings with them to figure out who our client would be. Next, we figured out a name, which involved a group brainstorming session where we narrowed 200 words down to five words and further refined it in later meetings. We then went through 100 logo designs together and developed the story behind our brand.

The Hero Creative team also handled the tangibles of our brand. They built our website, writing code in the backend and developing a custom template for us. The team has also held different types of strategy sessions for us, discussing what specific marketing pieces should look like depending on whether they’re for prospecting business or for the general public. They’ve created our leave-behinds, letterheads, and business cards, and they even handled our headshots. I still have lunches with Mark (President and CEO, Hero Creative) to brainstorm advertising ideas, such as promo t-shirts, and to seek strategic insights.

What is the team composition?

Jacob (Director of Web Development, Hero Creative) handles our website-related work and most of our recurring projects. For headshots, advertising ideas, and strategic advice, I go to Mark and Lauren (Vice President, Hero Creative). For the initial brand creation, especially the initial logo design, we dealt with their entire team.

How did you come to work with Hero Creative?

My business partner met Mark at a real estate conference in early 2016, which was around the time when we knew we’d be starting our own company. We had phone calls with two other companies to complete our project, but something just clicked in that initial interview with Mark and Lauren. We decided to meet face-to-face, and we ultimately felt that they understood the message we wanted to convey and they offered the services we were looking for. They were a great match for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $25,000–$30,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2016 and our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Hero Creative helped us create a brand we could get behind. Despite being a new firm in the Seattle real estate world, we’ve heard a lot of positive feedback, both from national companies and larger local ones, and haven’t struggled to get clients. We seem like a familiar business to them. We’ve enjoyed their work approach so much that we’re still a recurring client of theirs. They oversee and update our web content and we revisit them twice a year for strategic guidance.

How did Hero Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve delivered impeccable service. We had very few hiccups, the biggest of which came from our end. Hero Creative patiently held our hand through the entire process. They helped us understand how to create a website, and they kept coming back to us with more logo iterations until we finally landed on a scheme that resonated with both of our teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Every person on the team cared about our project and took pride in their work in getting a brand off the ground. In the first 4-5 meetings, every member had input, demonstrating an interest and an opinion. The dialogue was open and positive, which made the collaboration effortless and fast. I almost want to go through the process again. Second, they follow up superbly well, in a way that shows they want to help and not to upsell us. I never felt like they were pushing us to invest in more of their marketing services.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Early on, it took them longer than we wanted to make site updates—whether we had caught an error, sold a property, or listing a new one. The real estate market moves fast, so we needed to bring updated information to our clients as quickly as possible, but it took up to three days to update our site. They’ve since built a data input system in the backend that allows us to enter the appropriate information and they’ll push it live in under 36 hours. We’re very happy with that.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Hero Creative knows what they’re doing. We were pushing them to include color in the logo, but they insisted on showing us drafts in greyscale. When we decided on a final version of a logo, fonts, and brand materials, we realized we could’ve saved everyone some trouble if we trusted the process from the get-go. The process was one of the most positive experiences I’ve had working with another business, especially a new partner.

5.0
Overall Score
  • 4.0 Scheduling
    ON TIME / DEADLINES
  • 5.0 Cost
    Value / within estimates
    Their original quote was generous for the products they delivered.
  • 5.0 Quality
    Service & deliverables
  • 5.0 NPS
    Willing to refer

Print & Web Collateral for Independent Hotel

"Their work elevates the brand of our hotel and restaurant."

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5.0

Quality: 
5.0
Schedule: 
4.5
Cost: 
5.0
Willing to refer: 
5.0
The Project
 
Confidential
 
2016 - Ongoing
Project summary: 

Hero Creative develops marketing collateral (e.g., social media graphics, promotional materials, brochures) to build brand awareness in a crowded market.

The Reviewer
 
201-500 Employees
 
Seattle, Washington
Marketing Director, Independent Hotel
 
Verified
The Review
Feedback summary: 

During an extensive engagement, Hero Creative’s deliverables continue to stand out from marketing efforts by competitors. The team brings a unique design sense to each product, making them a strong candidate for creative needs. Their organization and individuality are strengths.

A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of marketing at a large independent hotel in downtown Seattle.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hero Creative?

The downtown area is saturated with prominent hotel brands. As an independent hotel, we wanted to bring in a partner to provide creative collateral and material that would make us stand out from those other brands.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Hero Creative develops promotional material for our hotel and our rooftop restaurant. This includes social media graphics, meeting and event trifold posters, brochures, and the like. Our most recent project involves an infographic highlighting our close proximity to a local convention center. We provide some art direction, but we give them a lot of creative freedom to make those pieces for us. They present an initial concept of each piece, and we provide feedback and further guidance.

What is the team composition?

I interact with one project manager and one account manager.

How did you come to work with Hero Creative?

Hero Creative was on board prior to my arrival at the property, but from my understanding, our team conducted an RFP process to find a local agency. I believe they were originally tapped to do some photography for us, but we found that graphic design was a more pressing need, and they were able to fulfill that. We appreciate that they are a boutique agency that allows us to have more one-on-one time with the design team.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement began in 2016 and remains ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

From a design standpoint, our collateral and our marketing materials stand out in comparison to our competitors'. Their work elevates the brand of our hotel and restaurant.

How did Hero Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

Our working partnership has lasted about two years, and in that time, they’ve done a phenomenal job of communicating day-to-day happenings of the projects and who is on staff on certain days. We are kept well-informed at all times.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their creativity is a tremendous asset. Their outside-the-box designs have taken our in-house designs from good to great. Not a lot of independent hotels get this opportunity to work with a creative agency. I feel very fortunate to have Hero Creative as a partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We usually have two or three projects in their hands at any given time, but it would be nice to receive some sort of weekly or monthly status report on each project.

Any advice for potential customers?

If you see the need for year-round creative, work with Hero Creative to allow a creative retainer. We were initially project-to-project, which proved to be more work for both sides. Once we implemented the retainer, the engagement ran much smoother for both sides.

5.0
Overall Score
  • 4.5 Scheduling
    ON TIME / DEADLINES
  • 5.0 Cost
    Value / within estimates
  • 5.0 Quality
    Service & deliverables
  • 5.0 NPS
    Willing to refer

Creative Services for Large Nonprofit

"Their commitment to and passion for us and our mission allows them to step outside a traditional third-party role." 

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5.0

Quality: 
5.0
Schedule: 
4.5
Cost: 
5.0
Willing to refer: 
5.0
The Project
 
Confidential
 
2013 - Ongoing
Project summary: 

As an ongoing partner, Hero Creative provides a diverse set of digital and video services. They’ve shot and produced video, developed landing pages with data collection capabilities, and digitized a newsletter.

The Reviewer
 
50-100 Employees
 
Seattle, Washington
Jeannette Tarcha
VP Communications, Make-A-Wish Alaska & Washington
 
Verified
The Review
Feedback summary: 

Donor tracking is quicker and more accurate with the new system, which can handle a large number of campaigns at once. Hero Creative instituted an effortless collaboration and helps foster holistic growth by facilitating new partnerships. Customers can expect a personable and generous team.

A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of communications for the Alaska & Washington chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. We’re a nonprofit that creates wish experiences for children that have critical illnesses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hero Creative?

We initially needed someone to document our wish experiences—a visual storytelling partner that could offer professional photography and filming services. From there, we expanded our relationship to include professional services such as web development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve contributed many digital and web services over the years, starting with helping us create a visual story of our recipients’ wish experiences. We’ve used their materials at special events and in email communications and pushed them out via our website and social media platforms. We recently asked them to take some modern-looking headshots of our new CEO that we could use in our official statements. 

They also built a WordPress blog to host our newsletter, which they converted into a multi-media experience. Before they came on, we would print out a physical newsletter and post a PDF of it to our website. Now, we can tell our stories in one way through the print newsletter (which we still run) and in another way through the website. Moreover, it's much less expensive to email a digital version to a large audience than it would have been to mail out physical copies. 

Currently, they’re developing a landing page system that allows us to track airplane mile donations. More than 80% of our wishes involve air travel, so we often run campaigns with corporations and groups to have their employees donate their unused air miles. Our original system was linked to the national Make-A-Wish infrastructure and we had precious little communication with the donors. This made it extremely difficult to track what organization certain donations came from—we wouldn’t receive information from the national organization until many months after the fact.

They provided us with a branded donation form and did work on our system’s backend that will help us better track their information. Their interface takes the national organization out of the process so we can interact directly with the donors.

What is the team composition?

While we’ve interacted with various people, and our projects have probably touched everyone at Hero Creative, we primarily work with Mark (CEO, Hero Creative) and Jacob (Director of Web Development, Hero Creative).

How did you come to work with Hero Creative?

They contacted us first, saying that they liked our work, were located close by, and wanted to sit down and get to know us better.

What is the status of this engagement?

They’ve been an ongoing partner since 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re a nonprofit and often don’t have the bodies, finances, or technical skills necessary to implement all of our great ideas. Hero augments and supplements us in the areas where we’re deficient and brings our ideas to fruition.

Regarding tangible results, their airline miles landing page system has empowered us to run more than a single campaign at a time. We weren’t able to delineate where miles donations were coming from under the old system so we could only partner with one organization at a time. That problem no longer exists, so we’ve not only been able to grow the program and be a better steward of those relationships but gain a better understanding of what techniques increase donations and which don’t. Additionally, the new system provides a much better experience for the donors themselves.

How did Hero Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve become an extension of our marketing and communications team. We present them with an issue, and they do a great job of hearing us out, thinking through the problem, and delivering a scope of work and timeline. There’s a free flow of ideas between us, which helps make it a true partnership. We’ve been with them for five years and haven’t had any issues.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their commitment to and passion for us and our mission allows them to step outside a traditional third-party role. They take ownership of projects and growth, which is most evident in the work they do to expand our network, introducing us to their clients and helping us set up campaigns with them. I also have to reiterate how great their technical skills are; we couldn’t execute our projects without them.

Mark and Jacob have been excellent partners as well. They’re fun, creative, and down to earth—and they love devising innovative solutions to our challenges. Mark even participated in one of our wishes himself. He role-played in a series of mystery videos that a child could watch and solve on their iPad. He dressed up and played a villain that the child eventually convinced to become good. Hero's generous with their time and resources, and I’m extremely grateful to them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so. I wish we could partner with them more, but they have other clients and only so much time to give. We’ve had a great experience with them.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Help them understand your business and provide them with as much information as possible. This will help them dive deep and develop solutions for you.

5.0
Overall Score
  • 4.5 Scheduling
    ON TIME / DEADLINES
  • 5.0 Cost
    Value / within estimates
  • 5.0 Quality
    Service & deliverables
  • 5.0 NPS
    Willing to refer