Interactive Strategies

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

While we have seen an increase in social media followers, a better indicator Interactive Strategies’ success is the response from our members. We've had stakeholders come to our team and ask to work with IS, which speaks to the quality of work they do and the guidance they provide. In 2013 we gave stakeholders the option to work with IS, and as a result, we brought them onto projects that our team wasn't overseeing. That they've had organic brand growth within our organization speaks highly of them.

How did Interactive Strategies perform from a project management standpoint?

The team is very responsive, and our account manager keeps us updated on planned work or a project’s status. The bulk of our communication happens over email and we use Box to share documents.

What did you find most impressive about them?

A lot of the information we work on is confidential, so we require multiple iterations of an infographic, for example, before we release it to the public. Interactive Strategies has always been patient with us, despite our atypical process.

They also understand that educating their clients can be part of managing projects, particularly when they explain their strategy to stakeholders, who don't always have the knowledge my team has.

Overall, IS’s honesty distinguishes it from other providers. I've worked with of agencies that have their own underlying incentives, so even if they ultimately help us achieve a goal, their work is still motivated by their own self-interest. IS, meanwhile, strategizes and conducts research that aims to benefit ASCO. They don't guide us in a direction that's going to benefit them unless there's a clear benefit for us. Their transparency allows us to trust them to provide solutions that consider our best interests.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had one incident of miscommunication as a result of staffing changes, but that was addressed quickly. That was over a year ago, and since then we haven’t had any problems. The only upset in two years was a slight miscommunication, and I'd be lying if I started listing things I didn't think they were doing well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Bring your own ideas to the table. IS knows how to strategize, think big picture, and utilize the digital space, but it's unrealistic for any agency to be an expert in their client's entire business. If the potential client can provide a basic idea or simple vision, it gives IS more creative freedom because they don’t need to worry whether their idea fits the client’s needs.

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

It's still early to tell the complete impact since we launched two months ago, however, we've already noticed the number of users has increased 25% and bounce rates decreased nearly 3%. Per our business model, customer calls and forms counted as goal completion; that metric rose over 25%. We couldn’t be more pleased; our team expects additional A/B testing to generate even better results. They kept us on track and taught us to make changes in-house. We were never stressed about results or timelines.

How did Interactive Strategies perform from a project management standpoint?

They were extremely organized and never wasted our time during meetings. Interactive Strategies truly led the process; we never had to push them. Deliveries were on-time and on-budget. When they created the visuals, we didn’t know what we wanted but we liked what we saw.

The team was very responsive on both platforms, particularly the senior project manager. We had weekly status meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They did exactly as they promised. We didn’t have surprises with deliveries or budget. Interactive Strategies was always clear about the scope and any changes. The team warned us when alterations would affect the budget, but the costs were never prohibitive. They were a joy to work with; I’d recommend them to anybody.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. The launch didn’t have any big misses. We consolidated some minor feature adjustments into the phase two update.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The more details the client provides, the better their output will be.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Our SEO [search engine optimization] has certainly improved. We're in the midst of an SEO improvement plan for one of our sites in the United Kingdom. We have seen steady improvement in time.

Anecdotally, just to give you a background of some of the things that they've done for us, in some ways it's more intangible than anything. During a period of time in 2015, we were potentially about to get awarded the most controversial contract in the United Kingdom. We had been planning on redoing the U.K. corporate site, but the timeline was too far out if we were to get this contract. We approached Interactive Strategies and asked if they could accelerate the process to meet the new deadline. I'm not kidding – they dropped everything. They put huge resources on it. We had people in Chicago and California working nearly around the clock to get this thing done. They kept it on time, on budget, and they made a huge difference for us.

I think that that just speaks volumes to the type of vendor that they are, and how great of a partner they have been for us. From our perspective, Interactive Strategies has gone way above and beyond the call of duty to support our needs.

How did Interactive Strategies perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is a huge strength of theirs. If we miss a deliverable, you have an instant read of how that's going to impact the project schedule. There was always a project manager when we were working on those large sites. When you are going through the process of a launch, you are on the phone or on email and going through the schedule very regularly with your project manager.

What distinguishes Interactive Strategies from other providers?

I think from my perspective what distinguishes them is they have excellent project management skills. They had a good ability to support us and meet our business needs. I feel as though they fill a gap from a supplier perspective because we've not seen that from other suppliers.

Is there anything Interactive Strategies could have improved or done differently?

Everyone could always improve. Sometimes, they tend to have a lot of work, but I think they have to balance their resources. That said, we have been nothing short of very happy with them.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The campaign was hugely influential on the redesign of Washington.org, which is our primary website. “DC Cool” was our foray into more modern content marketing, and we ultimately wound up folding that style into the primary site because people liked it so much.

In 2015, the page did just a hair over one million page views and just a hair under 500,000 unique views, so it was a big success. It performed especially well on our social channels as well. It was a small-scale version of what we would ultimately become with the latest version of our website, which just launched about three weeks ago.

How did Interactive Strategies perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a dedicated project manager who was the primary point of contact, which was great. Initially, we met with the president of the company and their larger team of strategists and designers. As we got more into the project, we worked more directly with the project manager. They were succinct in their project management and really filtered out the noise.

What distinguishes Interactive Strategies from other providers?

What I really like about Interactive Strategies is that they are one of the most personable and approachable agencies around. I’ve been doing web work for a long time and am a pretty good judge of what’s being presented to me. It starts with their president, Bruce, and goes down through the entire company. Everyone that I’ve brought in, that has interacted with them, has walked away saying how much they liked them and how friendly they were.

Another area to highlight are their fantastic presentation skills. They’re definitely one of the first agencies that I’ve worked with in this area that uses web-based wireframing tools rather than a deck. They actually pull up a wireframe site, sometimes with its own functionality, which is impressive.

Is there anything Interactive Strategies could have improved or done differently?

I really don't have any improvements for the project we worked on. They executed it in an extremely tight timeframe and on budget, with little hassle.