Ignyte

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was on the board of a nonprofit volunteer-based organization of entrepreneurs.

What challenge were you trying to address with Ignyte?

We wanted to try something a little bit different, so we hired Ignyte to help us get our message out to as many members as possible through a book. We also wanted to have a marketing material we could present to our potential members or prospects. Above all, we wanted the book to be a gift to all of our members.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ignyte produced a printed book showing all of our events, training, education, and other things we were doing to promote our organization. The team also helped us promote the sponsors who were helping us pay for our events and other expenses.

Their work involved writing and designing the book. After that, they finalized the book's content and layout before publishing it.

What is the team composition?

We worked with four people, including their project manager, content writer, designer, and owner.

How did you come to work with Ignyte?

We found Ignyte because they were part of our organization’s accelerator program. They also did work for our fellow members and clients in our organization so they were also referred to us. We interviewed four other companies, but we liked Ignyte the best because of their professionalism and portfolio.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $5,000–$30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June 2019–June 2020.

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

We didn’t do a specific case study or survey to evaluate the book, but we received positive feedback from our group members. Overall, stakeholders loved Ignyte’s work.

How did Ignyte perform from a project management standpoint?

From a project management standpoint, the team performed very well. They used Asana as our project management tool, and we communicated through Slack and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were very professional, and they were high-touch. On top of that, they always put their customers first, and they had a very skilled team. Their owner was also driven, ambitious, and creative.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they did everything we asked from them. I wouldn’t be able to share anything negative about Ignyte.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Do a good job on your side, and give Ignyte a very clear scope of work. As with any project, make sure that you mutually agree on the project's goals to manage expectations from the very beginning.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief development officer at Vista Community Clinic, a primary healthcare center that provides general and specialty care services to over 70,000 patients in North San Diego County, Riverside County, and Orange County.

What challenge were you trying to address with Ignyte?

We needed help with rebranding to enhance our center’s visibility and attract more patients.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve initially tasked Ignyte with creating our new website and logo in pursuit of our rebranding efforts back in 2014. Their team has initiated the research and conceptualization phases for our logo creation and presented their final ideas to our executive team for approval. 

Additionally, they’ve handled our online marketing by producing content such as photographs and other ads that we feature on our website. We continue to rely on their site maintenance and branding efforts every time we need updates.

What is the team composition?

The size of the team varies depending on what project requirement they work on, but we work with around five resources from Ignyte on average.

How did you come to work with Ignyte?

We were introduced to Ignyte’s team by a marketing consultant we once worked with. We vetted at least two companies to take on this project for us, and it was Ignyte’s team that impressed us with visions and values aligned with ours.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $100,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We kicked off the engagement in April 2014, and it’s ongoing.

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

Ignyte is an excellent team that never fails to bring our vision to life. They understand our business well, and that helps them create on-point solutions for us. Our long-term partnership is a great metric of their expertise and hard work.

How did Ignyte perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via email and set up regular meetings to check on the progress of the project and have feedback sessions. Ignyte’s team is always receptive to our feedback, and they show up in our meetings with eagerness and productive ideas.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Ignyte is an easy team to work with — their level of engagement on every task they perform is always unmatched.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re professionals who know and understand their field well. I don’t think there’s any area that needs improvement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust Ignyte to deliver the results you need. They’re a great team that understands the nature of their client’s business and implements solutions according to that.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a risk management organization. Our departments include Commercial, Employee Benefits, Surety, Private Client, and Risk Control. As the Growth Advisor, my role focuses on recruitment, development, and leadership.

What challenge were you trying to address with Ignyte?

We’re an independent, locally-owned company that’s been around for about 28 years. Commercial insurance websites tend to look somewhat antiquated and old-school, and ours definitely fit that mold.

Given our growth goals and objectives, as well as our goal to stay independently- and locally-owned, we thought a rebrand would be a smart investment in enhancing our brand. We needed a full brand identity redesign, one aspect of which is a new website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our engagement with Ignyte started with a meeting between our teams so that they could an understanding of our targets and outcomes. From there, they did an in-depth interview and research project. They spoke with people within our company as well as clients. This helped them get an understanding of the current brand.

From there, Ignyte compiled all of the research and presented it to us.

This was followed by the creation of our brand identity and the development of our new site.

What is the team composition?

There was a high level of engagement with Brian (Founder & CEO) at the beginning. He was always available throughout the process as well. Then, we worked with Elina (Project Manager). She was very responsive and kept the project on track. We also worked with a designer, a copywriter, someone who was responsible for the layout and development of the site, and backend developers.

How did you come to work with Ignyte?

We found them through a recommendation from one of our clients. We chose them because of their focus on executing rebrands and we valued their service model.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June 2019. We were originally slated to launch the site in February 2020, but we put the launch off due to COVID-19. We then launched the site in September 2020.

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

One of the most rewarding aspects of completing the project was peoples’ comments of what they felt when they came to the site. They said it made them happy, and that they could feel the warmth of the culture.

How did Ignyte perform from a project management standpoint?

They were exceptional. Elina, Brian, and the rest of the team were very responsive and always delivered.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were most impressed by their rebrand process and approach. The way Ignyte presented their process was not only clear, but it also made sense. Many of the other companies we interviewed didn’t seem to put much thought behind their approach, whereas Ignyte had a purposeful and proven model.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Overall, they did a great job. In terms of anything they could've done better, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You get out what you put into it. Ignyte is the type of partner that’s going to make sure they position your company in the right way. So the more you invest in the process the better the outcome.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director of a boutique accounting firm. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Ignyte?

We needed a website for recruiting purposes and to attract clients. We also decided to do some rebranding. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ignyte designed and developed our entire website from scratch. They also managed our rebranding campaign from designing a new logo to select a color scheme for our website.

For the rebranding project, they sent us a questionnaire with prompts about who we are, who our audience is, and who our competitors are. It was a powerful exercise that led to productive rebranding. This included creating stationery, business cards, letterhead, and other print materials with the new brand. 

What is the team composition?

I believe the team was compromised of about six or seven people. My main points of contact were Brian (Founder & CEO, Ignyte), Jouliette (Project Manager, Ignyte), and Sarah (Senior Graphic Designer, Ignyte). Jouliette went on maternity leave halfway through our project so we were assigned another project manager, Elina (Project Manager, Ignyte). 

How did you come to work with Ignyte?

I found them through a friend who had a website created by Ignyte. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $30,000 on this project. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took place from August 2018-March 2019. 

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

I couldn’t be happier with their work. I was hesitant to make this change, but I’m so happy that Ignyte helped me make the decision that was right for my business. The feedback from my colleagues and clients has been wonderful. 

How did Ignyte perform from a project management standpoint?

Jouliette organized most of the project management at the outset and she made sure to keep the project moving forward. We mostly communicated via email and with regularly scheduled conference calls. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were always on top of it. There wasn’t any stagnation in the project, I felt like we were always making progress. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they did everything I could’ve asked of them. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Listen to what they say and pay attention because they know what they’re talking about.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for Neighborhood Healthcare Organization, a non-profit community health center that focuses primarily on underinsured and uninsured patients. At the time of our partnership with Ignyte, I was an operations management assistant.

What challenge were you trying to address with Ignyte?

Following a change in leadership, we began focusing on increasing our visibility and patient volume. To do so, we needed a complete brand overhaul.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ignyte began by conducting market research on how patients, staff, board members, and community stakeholders viewed our brand, both in positive and negative terms. 

With that information, they presented us with a brand brief. From there we worked together to create a new logo design, color scheme, and slogan, as well as updated statements of mission and values.

The team also reconstructed our website on Wordpress to match the rebrand. 

What is the team composition?

Our primary contact was Elina (Project Manager, Ignyte), though we worked with Brian (CEO, Ignyte) and Doug (Senior Creative Writer, Ignyte) as well.

There was also another team member who supported us throughout the website development project. 

How did you come to work with Ignyte?

We reached out to a few companies and ultimately decided to partner with Ignyte.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent at least $150,000 on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

The rebrand lasted from September 2018-September 2019.

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

We’ve received really positive feedback from both patients and staff about the rebrand. We hadn’t changed any of our material in years, and everyone was excited to see how well the final product turned out.

Both the design and functionality of our website have increased exponentially, and our patients are able to find providers and locations with much more ease. On the backend, it’s now much less complicated for us to do any updates or edits.

How did Ignyte perform from a project management standpoint?

Ignyte was excellent. There were times when they kept better tabs on the project than we did, and the team had a lot of patience with us throughout any issues in the timeline. They did an excellent job of holding themselves accountable and meeting deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Ignyte’s work is extremely thorough. They were able to look at our company through fresh eyes and come up with aspects of our brand we’d never considered. 

The team had a great ability to understand and emphasize features that hold value to our patients and stakeholders.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were times when they were probably too patient with us, but that’s more of a positive than a negative.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Set your expectations for what you want at the beginning of your engagement. If we ran into any conflicts during our project, it was mostly due to different understandings of our vision for the project.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing partner at an investment advisory firm.

What challenge were you trying to address with Ignyte?

Our existing website was created 10 years prior and needed to be updated.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ignyte refreshed our website using WordPress. We provided them with materials and visuals. Then, they completed the upgrade. This included a rebrand of our logo. The product itself transformed into a single-page website. Their team also updated all of our materials, fact sheets, and brochures.

What is the team composition?

I initially worked and discussed the project with Brian (Founder, Ignyte). Our project manager was Jouliette (Project Manager, Ignyte). She was excellent and thorough in moving the project along. We also worked with Elina (Project Manager, Ignyte).

How did you come to work with Ignyte?

They were highly regarded, referred to us by other individuals in the industry.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project ran from October 2017–May 2018. We’ve since given them the responsibility to create an additional website and email marketing templates.

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

The new website allows us to convey our services better. It’s more helpful for clients and has an all-around enhanced UX. Ignyte did a great job with the visual aesthetic of the site, especially with colors and photography. Our brand is refreshed, and we’ve improved as a business because of it.

How did Ignyte perform from a project management standpoint?

From the beginning of the project, everything was communicated well and put in writing. Throughout the process, the tasks were successfully completed according to our schedule.

We corresponded by phone and email. I found that they were very efficient at emailing, knowing the right reasons to reach out that way. We only got calls as needed, and that method was effective.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their creative work is excellent. They were also very organized. As a financial service, we are happy when things continue moving forward. Ignyte did exactly that. It’s rare to see both creativity and organization, but their team exceeded at both. We were very lucky.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There isn’t anything that I can think of.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would highly recommend them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Vector Media is an outdoor and experiential marketing company based out of New York City, and I’m the director of marketing.

What challenge were you trying to address with Ignyte?

We hired Ignyte to help us with a rebrand, which included everything other than changing the name of our company.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ignyte helped us develop a new mission statement, a new purpose statement, a new logo, and a whole look for our company. Essentially, we needed to update all of our marketing material, including our website, both aesthetically and functionally. That meant designing and developing a new WordPress website with custom plugins that Ignyte developed for us.

They walked us through a whole brand identity discovery process so that we could establish a much clearer sense of identity in all of the places where a client or a business partner could potentially interact with our brand.

What is the team composition?

I communicated directly with about 5–6 members of their staff, but there were definitely additional team members working on the project on their end as well.

How did you come to work with Ignyte?

We came into contact with them through their social media advertising and decided after reaching out to them that they would be a good fit for our company.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in May 2017 and we work with them on an ongoing basis.

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

Our company has doubled its revenue in the last two years, and while it’s obviously difficult to attribute that entirely, a good amount of that success is definitely thanks to the improvements made by the Ignyte team. We receive a lot more interest from other companies reaching out to work with us because they perceive our brand as modern.

How did Ignyte perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team is incredibly efficient and organized. They communicate about everything and were always meticulous in recording those conversations in notes and making sure that we were set up to make the most out of all of those interactions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Throughout our work, it always felt like we were an important client to them. They gave us a lot of attention and cared deeply about the success of our partnership, which I think is rare with a lot of larger marketing agencies.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could probably make suggestions a little bit earlier on regarding elements of the scope that we encounter as we go that end up being additional costs. There was never anything that we found to be way outside what we expected, but occasionally we had to tack on expenses that we hadn’t factored in initially that would have been helpful to know about earlier.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You have to be very open to their process. There is extra work involved in the creative process of research and ideation, and the more you participate in that stage, the more you will get out of the project in the end.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a vertically integrated commercial brokerage company headquartered in San Diego with offices around the west coast. My role at the time was as a marketing coordinator for the project with Ignyte.

What challenge were you trying to address with Ignyte?

We knew that our brand, formerly called the Heritage Group, needed to be updated in a lot of ways. We needed a name change, but beyond that, we needed to define our values and present a more cohesive story behind our founding and who we are as a company.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started the project with a lot of internal and external research between our employees and clients in order to develop a stronger sense of our current brand position. They analyzed our competition and then led us through some workshops that really helped us think about our challenges as a brand and where we wanted to go.

From there, we distilled that research down into specific vision, mission, and value deliverables, and Ignyte turned that into a new logo and name for the company. They walked us through the process of launching that to the public and on our website.

What is the team composition?

They have a psychologist on their staff who worked with us on research interviews and a writer who provided more messaging work. We also worked with a project manager, a couple of designers and programmers, and their CEO.

How did you come to work with Ignyte?

I actually joined the company just after we selected them, but I do know that we interviewed a couple of branding companies, and I think we liked the organization and methodical approach that they demonstrated in the interview process.

How much have you invested with them?

In terms of hard costs for their services, we spent around $120,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

From the beginning of the project to when we launched the brand was about 9 months, from November 2017–July 2018.

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

Anytime you make changes to an established brand, you’re going to have some negative blowback, but the response has been very positive overall. Just having the ability to tell a story behind our brand is a huge improvement from where we were before.

One of the main reasons we embarked on the project in the first place was to help us attract a more institutional type of client, and the improvement in our messaging has allowed us to do that in a way that we were not able to with our former brand.

How did Ignyte perform from a project management standpoint?

The Ignyte team was fantastic at intuitively and concisely integrating the research that they collected with messaging for our website and marketing pieces. We communicated back and forth constantly, so the collaboration was virtually seamless. I had a lot of questions, but they did a great job of keeping us on the same page and making sure we were always making progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I think the best aspect of working with them is just the culmination of everything about the personality and process that they apply to their work. We worked really well with them as people, and the way they led us through such a big change for us was incredibly helpful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think as someone doing a rebranding project for the first time, I could have benefited from a little more preparation on the costs and pitfalls to be aware of, but that’s not necessarily something I would blame on their team.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of Baker Mountain Guides. We provide mountain adventures and courses in the North Cascades, backcountry skiing adventures and courses, as well as rock climbing and avalanche education.

What challenge were you trying to address with Ignyte?

We’d been fairly successful in our first few years of business, but found that we were falling behind regarding our web presence and brand quality. We’d built a nice website when we started, but we needed a brand refresh.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Brian (Founder & CEO, Ignyte) offered me what I needed and not what I thought I wanted. His approach to branding and web design really distinguished Ignyte from others. Brian came to us with a really well thought-out process for how they approach branding. They also informed me about different aspects and steps involved: discovery phases, learning about your business, customer research (i.e., creating customer segments, detailed profiles), brand strategy, and brand identity.

From there, we were able to build a website with a good information architecture and targeted messaging for certain customer segments in a concise and effective way. We got what we wanted (i.e., the website), but also received something we really needed, which was the rebrand.

What is the team composition?

Brian was our first point of contact. We also worked with a copy editor who produced a lot of great content. I went back and forth with him a lot regarding which words to use and in what order. He put a lot of time and effort into thinking about what phrasing would be correct for certain things and was also very detail-oriented.

We also worked with one of their team members on customer research. She helped us come up with targeted customer segments that she could call, as well as helped identify questions we wanted to ask. She provided feedback and the results from that. We also worked with another team member on design who was very detail-oriented as well.

How did you come to work with Ignyte?

I called around, but most people just wanted to make our existing website look nicer. I knew I wanted more than just a new web template.

Brian was a client of ours who came up a few years ago and did a climb with us. I talked with him about branding while we were climbing. I contacted him when we started considering this project to see if he knew anyone who did websites, not knowing he did them himself. I talked to him a lot and decided to move forward with him on the brand refresh as well as the custom website.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent $70,000 for the brand refresh and web redesign.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September 2016 and completed the project in March 2017.

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

In order for any other business aspects, elements, or marketing plans to be effective, they must be rooted in a solid foundation of who you are, what you do, and why you do it. This is what Brian referred to as “authenticity,” which is something customers also identify with as well.

I can’t say exactly what the ROI for the rebrand and website redesign is. I do know that we’d reached our saturation point for our current business structure and identity when we approached Ignyte. We were still growing, but we weren’t expanding into new markets. I was having a hard time seeing how to take the brand to the next level, whether it be international or statewide expansion. We’d reached this peak in terms of qualitative interaction around customer interaction.

Since the brand refresh and new web design, we’re now in a position where we can start over. There’s enormous potential to create something new in order to grow and expand our business for another five years. Our business has continued to grow and we’ve continued to either meet or exceed targets. More importantly, everyone here feels that the business has more potential than it used to. That alone is empowering and contributes to our continued growth because everyone is excited to be on board.

How did Ignyte perform from a project management standpoint?

This process is difficult because the people in charge of the business are asked a lot of tough questions. Getting that information out of people can be hard and sometimes requires a more openly confrontational environment. I became frustrated at times, as did Brian, but he was honest from the very start. He’s good at provoking people to make them better at what they do. He challenges people who are often in authoritative roles (e.g., business owners, managers) over their own business model and tries to get them to do things they aren’t familiar with.

All of these things could’ve led to potential confrontation and frustration during the process, but ultimately, everyone was mature and realized that there was a bigger end goal at play. We knew that the final outcome would be better than what we started with.

There were both pain points and times when things flowed really well. In terms of project management, these challenges were necessary to the overall process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

All of the steps in the process put us through a self-discovery phase and helped us better understand why we’re in business, what we’re selling, how we’re selling it, and who our customers are. The brand strategy was a really beautiful outcome that I didn’t expect. Brian created a concise definition of what a brand is, what it stands for, and how it interacts with the world. We thought we knew what we wanted, but they helped us see what we actually needed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’ve mentioned this to Brian and he’s aware of it, but he can sometimes be a little too hands-on with a project. He wants to be involved with all different aspects of what is happening and what his team members are doing for clients. He means well, but they could benefit from him being a bit more hands-off.