Kapowza

Please describe your company and your position there.

The mission of Mothers Against Drunk Driving is to end drunk driving, help fight drugged driving, support the victims of these violent crimes and prevent underage drinking. I am the Manager of Victim Services, Mid-Atlantic region.

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

We were looking to raise awareness about MADD's Victim Services and make connections with victims and survivors in need. We worked with Kapowza to create a digital marketing campaign to encourage individuals to reach out to us for resources and support.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We sent out an RFP (a call for proposals) and Kapowza responded quickly and were the most reasonable with their estimate.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

Ad concepting and ad placement, along with media placement on social media platforms.

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

Dan Schepleng, Creative Director and Partner; Sean Sutherland, Director of Accounts and Partner; Debi Krulak, Project Manager; and Ryan Brown, Developer and Content Manager

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

As the result of the the work with Kapowza, we were able to reach 173,890 Marylanders in 6 days. The click-through rate was a solid 1.11% vs. their 1% benchmark. 3,597 Marylanders clicked on the ad to learn more about MADD Victims Services

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had great workflow between Kapowza and our organization. Kapowza was very clear in what they needed and therefore, lightened the load needed by me and my colleagues.

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

The entire team was agile, prompt and professional.

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

There are not areas for improvement I can think of. They did a great job!

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of development at the Maryland School for the Blind, a statewide school for blind and visually impaired students. We provide services to the entire state of Mayland through outreach services, so we provide all of the Braille materials for 24 jurisdictions and itinerant teachers who will come onsite all throughout the state.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kapowza?

We were looking to rebrand our organization and fix up our outdated website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Kapowza rebranded our organization and redid our website. Their team started by redesigning our logo and all of our marketing collateral. They also helped us create a new tagline, institutional videos, and a virtual tour of the campus. Kapowza ran social media marketing campaigns for us on Facebook and Instagram.

We had an existing WordPress website, but it was outdated and hard to navigate. The Kapowza team provided development services, keeping the original functionality but with updated code. They also redesigned the site to match our new branding.

What is the team composition?

We worked predominantly with three members of the Kapowza team, including Dan (Creative Director, Kapowza), Debi (Project Manager, Kapowza), and Sean (Director of Accounts, Kapowza).

How did you come to work with Kapowza?

Our team put our an RFQ to multiple agencies. I specifically sought out Kapowza as I had been following their work. They were the most impressive and flexible organization we spoke with by far, so we decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested about $80,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with Kapowza began in November 2019. The project will finish up this month but we plan on doing some ad hoc projects with them in the future.

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

We have received incredibly positive feedback from our board, our staff, and community members. Everyone has really liked their work. The institutional video they created for us was absolutely phenomenal from concept to execution.

How did Kapowza perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything was tracked through a Google Spreadsheet and our teams met in person every week prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, at which time we switched over to weekly Zoom calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Kapowza is creative, flexible, and willing to try anything. Even when they knew we were wrong, they would help us along the way and give it a shot.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were times when smaller projects would get dropped, but nothing major. It would have been nice to spend some time every week prioritizing, which we focused on more in the beginning.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Spend a good amount of time planning out a detailed calendar. Trust them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CMO at Temple Capital, a private lender in the real estate investment marketplace.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kapowza?

We needed help in rolling out a rebranding initiative. We had an outdated logo, an inconsistent brand identity, and a website that was outdated and poorly designed. We felt that we had some great messaging internally but lacked the means to convey it to our target audiences.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Kapowza designed a new logo for us as the first component of our brand refresh. They rolled out our new brand identity by way of a brand standards manual, the content of which is reflected in our emails, presentation decks, and marketing collateral.

They then helped us build a new website. They migrated the content from our previous platform to Webflow, which is easier to maintain and manage. The new site boasts a completely new layout and reflects our fresh new look.

They integrated our website with Salesforce and Pardot, which was important to us. They provided us with ways to integrate online applications and to seamlessly connect with our other B2B website.  

What is the team composition?

We worked with around 5 teammates.

How did you come to work with Kapowza?

I’ve known them for a number of years, but we got connected through various marketing connections. We’ve been running in the same circles and knew the same people. When this project came up, I reached out to them because I wanted to work with them.

We evaluated them against all sorts of agencies — small creative boutiques to large web development firms. Kapowza seemed to offer the best mix of creativity and technology, along with being the optimal size for us. We also liked how they seemed to understand our needs and what we were looking for.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost around $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in June 2020 and wrapped up in September of that year.

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

Internally, we’ve got nothing but positive feedback. Everybody loves our new logo and brand identity, and we’ve enjoyed an exceptional response externally, as well. People feel like it reflects our company more effectively than ever before.

It’s also been a great way to energize our team, who has been working remotely. We’re a culture-based organization, so it’s been an excellent means of bringing everybody together.

Our site traffic has doubled since we launched the new website, particularly due to how we’ve ramped up the volume of our outgoing communications. We can attribute our newfound confidence to our new designs; since our rebrand, we’ve been bolder in our outbound and social media marketing. Thanks to the blogging functionalities they established, we’ve also been able to drive traffic by way of content generation.

How did Kapowza perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication was excellent. We had weekly meetings and email recaps on a regular basis, so we knew when to expect certain items. As the project neared completion, the level of communication decreased appropriately. When we needed something, we always got a response from them within a couple of hours.

They were very clear about what their scope of work entailed and what it didn’t. This helped us stay focused on what we needed to be doing on our end, as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team showcases the right mix of creativity and business strategy. They’re also accommodating of our requests, even if they’re at odds with what they originally recommended. They pushed back when they needed to, but they also went above and beyond the stated SOW in order to work with us. They acted like a true partner, which is what we were ultimately looking for in a creative agency.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They do a very good job in general, but I would’ve appreciated a stronger sense of communication and structure. It took some time to get a detailed project schedule as well as in establishing the right rhythm of who we interfaced with. Once we got rolling, we got a much better understanding of the appropriate workflow.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Challenge them to think through the statement of work, and make sure that you have a good understanding of what the deliverables are.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an information integrity company that helps brands and organizations contextualize the conversations that surround them online. We help determine the authenticity of activity on social platforms and other locations on the internet.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kapowza?

I'm a marketing team of one, and I wanted help turning pitch decks, white papers, and content into compelling design that was in step with our brand guidelines.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided design resources and layout for our content and collateral. We sent them a general outline of what we wanted, and they provided organizational and visual suggestions. They brought our ideas to life through better graphics. They redid our pitch deck, created animated ads, and built mockups for the prototype of a product feature. We prototyped profile options for different groups and users, they provided designs and layouts that we use today.

What is the team composition?

We worked very closely with a team of three or four, but I primarily worked with one main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Kapowza?

I worked with them at another job, and I initially found them through a network connection who recommended them. I've brought them with me as I go along, and I felt they were the right fit for our needs.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $40,000, more or less.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February or March 2019. I'm about to leave the company, so the contract will cease in October 2019.

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

They brought our brand guidelines to life in ways that we couldn't. They were style experts, and they made everything much cleaner than anything we could have managed internally. We use their templates and iconography on an ongoing basis, and a lot of their deliverables have a life beyond their original uses.

We couldn't have worked as quickly or efficiently without them. The ads they created drove a lot of traffic back to our website, and we get a lot of compliments on the restructuring of our pitch deck. The visuals make more sense, and the content is much clearer. They helped us tell our brand story.

How did Kapowza perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great project managers. I occasionally asked if they could speed up timelines, and they jumped to and executed work that should have taken about a week within 48 hours. I could rely on them for their quick turnaround times, and they were very responsive via email. They kept me on my toes, and they got all the work done.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're scrappy, and they move quickly. Their team never pushed back when I needed something, and I was so grateful for their agility and ability to execute for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They're growing their team and their areas of expertise. It would have helped to have a true content expert, copywriter, or additional marketing resources. They focused purely on design, but anything that might round out their internal expertise would be a beautiful addition to the resources they already have.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would definitely recommend them as a partner for any early-stage company that is trying to get a feel for their design voice and storytelling.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of tenant representation at an international commercial real estate firm.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kapowza?

We were trying to reach office space real estate users.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Kapowza put together a website for us. We initially met with them about the general concept that we wanted for the website. They came up with the layout, messaging, photographs, and the overall flow of the site. My team provided the content, which Kapowza trimmed down and made more attractive to look at.

What is the team composition?

I don’t know the size of the team, but we regularly met with Sean (Director of Accounts, Kapowza) and Dan (President and Creative Director, Kapowza). They were our main points of contact.

How did you come to work with Kapowza?

We met Kapowza through a previous business transaction, and we really liked them and their messaging. When we interviewed different firms to help us with our site, they rose to the top.

How much have you invested with them?

My company spent close to $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from October 2018–July 2019.

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

Kapowza kept our website simple and clean. They also conveyed what they felt the user wanted to see or hear, bringing the user’s perspective to the table.

How did Kapowza perform from a project management standpoint?

My team was very slow-moving, and Kapowza always followed up with us in a friendly manner. They brought us back on track when we got distracted or didn’t respond for a while. They were patient with our slow response times.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed by their enthusiasm. This was a relatively small project, but Kapowza remained professional and enthusiastic. We were also impressed by their personalities and communication skills. They quickly understood what we were asking for and recommended what we should do to deliver our message.

The quality of their work was great, and the team’s attitude was consistently positive and helpful. They brought a unique perspective and insights that hadn’t occurred to my team. They were super patient with us as we went through a period of rapid growth, and they couldn’t have been kinder to work with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they were great. I can’t think of one area for them to improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Listen to them. They know what they're talking about.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of CK Commercial, a general construction company.

For what projects/services did your company hire Kapowza?

We hired Kapowza for separate video shoots that highlight two of our completed construction projects. 

What were your goals for this project?

We hoped that the videos would showcase our work and demonstrate how future tenants will use the spaces.

How did you select this vendor?

We selected Kapowza following a personal recommendation and an interview with their team.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Each project was similar in duration and approach. We recently completed two construction projects that we wanted to capture more dynamically. We turned to Kapowza for some creative input, and they took an in-depth look at our needs. As a result, they devised a creative direction for our videos and created a shooting schedule to capture the areas that they felt would demonstrate our work the best. Their team came on-site at each location and spent 6–8 hours filming.

What was the team composition?

The team included Dan (President/Creative Director, Kapowza), Sean (Director of Accounts, Kapowza), and a six-person film crew.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We are beyond satisfied with how the videos turned out. They are present on the landing page for our website and shared on our various social media platforms. Everybody who has seen the videos comments about their quality and how cool of an idea it is. Our ultimate goal was to capture the spaces we built and the essence of what our company is about, and I think both were presented exceptionally well.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The workflow was seamless. They were immensely helpful in refining our ideas and collaborating until we had an excellent product.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The final videos are simply incredible.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of Yet Analytics, a staff learning analytics technology provider in Baltimore, MD. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Kapowza?

We started this engagement to augment our marketing efforts significantly. Our three target markets are corporate learning and development (L&D), the defense community, and education. At the point we had reached in our company's growth, we needed to supplement our marketing with professional services. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Kapowza provides a full-service solution for all of our organization’s marketing, design, and branding elements. They've also created excellent content and guidelines for our copy. As a web consultant, they offered useful guidance to ensure all of those elements are cohesive in our website as well via a review.

The social media marketing support was consulting-based at our request. Kapowza had offered other services for campaign design and related assets, but we prioritized the conference at the time. We sat down to walk them through our current approach, and they gave us helpful tips we could immediately implement on our own. 

Kapowza worked hands-on to rebrand the way we present at conferences fully. Specifically, they've revamped some of the booth assets we use. Back in October 2018, they revamped our presentation for the largest conference we attend annually. We collaborated in depth to redevelop physical brand elements. They made sure everything like our booth backdrop and business cards matched and looked great together. Print materials we hand out to visitors include slick and professional looking packets of information, postcards, and stickers. 

What is the team composition? 

Sean (Director of Accounts, Kapowza) is our primary account manager and point of contact. Their CEO has been on all of the meetings we've had. He's been a fantastic part of the team and has provided excellent consultative feedback and guidance around some of the trickier things we were trying to solve. 

How did you come to work with Kapowza?

Both of our companies started at an incubator in the Baltimore technology area. We knew Kapowza from crossing paths in the community. When we decided to hire a marketing agency, we talked to a couple of people who provided positive referrals for Kapowza. We set up some time to chat and decided to start working with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We have Kapowza on a retainer of $2,500 a month. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working together since July 2018. 

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

As the least digitized way to engage prospects and customers, metrics from conference work are hard to track. That said, we did see an uptick of about 15–20 percent in the quality of leads from people we met at conferences. 

Along with that quantifiable data, we had fantastic anecdotal feedback from conference attendees on our presentation, materials, and the look and feel of our brand, booth, and space relative to our competitors. We also saw a significant increase in engagement from our social media marketing efforts. 

How did Kapowza perform from a project management standpoint?

He's extremely responsive, knowledgeable, and friendly. Kapowza has delivered everything on time, despite last-minute requests. They always quickly accommodate us and turn work around very fast at a high level of quality. We've been very pleased with the account management, delivery and productivity aspects of our relationship. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

This is the first marketing agreement we’ve entered into before. We've always done everything in-house, so I don't have much for comparison. We've been really pleased with the quality of Kapowza’s output and all the ways that they've helped us rapidly improve as an organization. The relationship management they have in place is excellent.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, nothing comes to mind. I think Kapowza has been a great partner to us. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

This advice is likely true of any similar engagement. We've found that upfront preparation and having specific requirements, parameters, and boundaries on a campaign shortens the turnaround time and makes Kapowza’s job easier. My recommendation is to do your homework upfront. Providing as clear guidelines and ideas as possible will help them perform faster and better.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of Development and Communications for Chimes International, a service provider for people with developmental disabilities, behavioral health, substance abuse, and mental health issues. We provide day programs, supported employment, vocational training, and residential options in the mid-Atlantic region.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kapowza?

We hosted a continuing education workshop for people with a board-certified behavioral analyst designation who need to accrue continuing education units every year. We wanted to record that workshop and repurpose those recordings for various types of media outreach.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Two videographers recorded the entire six-hour workshop. They used various camera angles to capture different views of the instructors delivering information and the participants absorbing it. They edited those recordings to develop it into bite-sized viewing formats.

What is the team composition?

We worked with the two videographers on the project.

How did you come to work with Kapowza?

My Director of Communications at the time met a Kapowza account executive at an event. He was a personable guy. When we had the need, we decided to give them a try. We’ve been delighted with the service.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent less than $10,000. They were very reasonable.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from October to December 2017.

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

We’ve received good feedback. People thought the video did a good job of tempting people to engage. For example, they created a short video reel that we were particularly thrilled with. They took six hours of video and created one-minute highlight reels to tease people with content, get them interested in watching more and engaging with us in different ways. It was very creative of them.

How did Kapowza perform from a project management standpoint?

It was a pretty simple project. There weren’t a lot of moving parts.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re really easy to work with. The account executive is delightful. There was no drama.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t know them well enough to say. But we’ve hired them to film another upcoming workshop that we’re hosting.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work for Northrop Realty, which has evolved from the Creig Northrop Team of Long & Foster Real Estate. We represent buyers and sellers of residential real estate in the Baltimore and Washington metropolitan regions. Creig Northrop has more than 25 years of experience in real estate and leads a team of more than 100 licensed real estate professionals.

For what projects/services did your company hire Kapowza?

Northrop Realty hired Kapowza under Creig Northrop Team to help develop, direct, and produce two commercials.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to develop commercials that elevated the Creig Northrop Team brand by telling an evocative story.

How did you select this vendor?

Kapowza was referred by one of our vendors.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

The creative team at Kapowza developed the content of our commercials. During the scriptwriting process, they came up with funny and emotional scenarios that highlighted the brand in fresh ways. After two scripts were selected, Kapowza selected the cast and crew, searched for locations, and managed call sheets and set details. The commercials were titled Club Bed and Blue Box internally. Since then, Kapowza has continued to partner with our team.

What was the team composition?

Northrop Realty’s executives and the marketing team worked directly with Dan, (President and Creative Director, Kapowza) and Sean (Director of Accounts, Kapowza).

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

It was a true pleasure working with Kapowza. They looked at each detail to ensure they exceeded our overall goal. As a result, both commercials were recognized in an article by Adweek.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The process was easy and quite effective, as their team was attentive to the project at hand.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Dan and Sean were innovative and constantly looked after our best interests. They found ways to get the unthinkable done.

Are there any areas for improvement?

So far, we’ve liked all of their work.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing coordinator of Reliance Fire Protection. We’ve been in business for 30 years. We take care of all things fire protection, including installations for sprinkler systems, inspections, and we just recently added a SHAD department [special hazard, alarm, and detection] so we can take care of alarm and monitoring as well. We cover the entire mid-Atlantic region and have customers north of Baltimore all the way to Northern Virginia.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kapowza?

I’ve been here for two years; there was no marketing before me. It was a lot of word of mouth. The website was not a focus, it was just maintained at a basic level, and they were using several different logos. We didn’t have a real plan, so I focused my attention first on the website and getting everyone to use the same logo, then on making sure that all of our services were on there, that everything was up to date, and that the design was appealing to our customers.

I just felt like we didn’t really have a brand. We had the company and our customers know who we are, but we wanted to reach a wider market. Before we went out and tried to get all of those new customers, I wanted to make sure that, when we reached out to people, they would be able to understand and recognize us and our brand.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They have provided us with many things and are still working on a few things for us. They helped start our new logo but our in-house graphic designer actually came up with it ultimately. Kapowza has done everything as far as implementing the logo. They’ve designed and created our style guide, our new letterhead, and our presentation template. We did a customer onboarding packet and a handout to explain our services to our new customers. I’m working with Yellow Pages to send out mailers for potential new customers and businesses. Kapowza designed all of those.

Reliance is owned by a large parent company based out of Minneapolis. It’s called API Group and they are largely construction-based. It’s about 70% fire protection and the rest is specialized construction. We have a third party that we use for SEO and she handled all of our banner ads. Kapowza has helped us with everything offline. They’re working on our business cards right now.

The style guide includes logo colors, fonts we should use, when to use which logo, email signatures, business cards, and many other things. It will continue to grow as we develop more marketing material.

How did you come to work with Kapowza?

I have no graphic design background. I met Sean [account manager] about a year ago and wasn’t ready to work on it yet, but for our 30th year, it just made sense. We had new services that we didn’t previously offer. We needed to make sure that our current and future customers knew that we weren’t only working on sprinkler systems; we could do other things now. The idea to rebrand and drop our sprinkler logo and focus on a new, consistent brand was something I didn’t think I could do myself.

I talked with Sean and it just seemed like a very good fit; I didn’t consider other companies.

How much have you invested with Kapowza?

We have spent more than $10,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2017, and the work is ongoing.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

They have been great so far, and I’ve had a lot of good feedback from everyone. They’re very understanding of our concerns and what we were looking for.

The brand and some of the collateral has launched. I’ve been working with our web development team, and we’ve got the new logo up. We’ve sent out a bunch of our customer onboarding packets, and we’re almost done with our business cards. Several customers have mentioned that they didn’t know we did alarms. They had associated us with sprinklers before because it would be right next to our name in our logo.

How did Kapowza perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything is timely and efficient. They always send multiple options for me to choose from. I’m not the easiest customer, but they’ve been great so far. They always provide me with options and work with the changes I request. They do things in order of importance. Sometimes I need something the next day and they always get it done. They’re happy to answer any calls. They’re great.

What did you find most impressive about Kapowza?

I think just the fact that they understand what I want. I’m not always the best at explaining things and they will ask questions to figure out what I want. They somehow make it happen.

Are there any areas Kapowza could improve?

I don’t think so.