Marshall Fenn Communications

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Miami Valley Gaming and Racing is a racino—or combined casino and race track—in Ohio. We are the joint venture of two parent companies.

What challenge were you trying to address with Marshall Fenn Communications?

We needed help with our brand vision for the property. We’re in a competitive district and wanted an image that makes us stand out from the crowd.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were very instrumental in all of our branding. They handle our media buying and assist us with PR, media relations, and strategy. They’re the lead for all our TV and radio commercials and manage all of our digital advertising. Our key social media platforms are Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. They also manage our SEO and PPC campaigns.

They established a major branding effort for us, which builds on an old local tradition. Buckeyes are an iconic tree nut in Ohio and carrying one in your pocket is supposed to bring good luck. We hand out buckeyes to our players, created characters for our advertising, and built a lucky buckeye brand that is immediately identifiable.

What is the team composition?

We work with their principal and an account rep who handles our account on a daily basis. We also work with a few team members for our digital needs and another dedicated person for social media. The team varies from 5–7, depending on the project.

How did you come to work with Marshall Fenn Communications?

We sent out an RFP to various agencies before we opened. Marshall Fenn worked with one of our parent companies and came highly recommended. They’ve been a part of our growth process since our opening.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked with them since June 2013. They’re our agency of record.

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

We get a lot of comments from customers and social media about the lucky buckeye company brand. People identify with the characters we created and are excited by photo opportunities and other mascot appearances. It’s taken on life and differentiates us in our market.

How did Marshall Fenn Communications perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management varies from initiative to initiative. There are several people we’re involved with, and different people take the lead in our advertising, creative, and digital projects. Throughout our relationship, we’ve always had a very strong account rep.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very strong with branding. They can create a brand from scratch and are very good with brand enhancements.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Every relationship has bumps or glitches but they’re always very responsive and engaged. They never let things go unaddressed, which is one reason we’ve worked together for so long.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you stay engaged and don’t be afraid to pick up the phone. It’s important to communicate on a regular basis. We’ve been fortunate to have strong leaders on both sides that collaborate effectively.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a real estate firm that manages rental units and manufactured home communities in Canada, Ireland, and the Netherlands.

What challenge were you trying to address with Marshall Fenn?

We’ve been working with Marshall Fenn, or people from Marshall Fenn, for at least 10 years. We initially retained them for work on our website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve been our go-to agency for website work for our three sites for the last 10 years. They do regular updates and SEO for our main corporate site as well as development for our Irish and Dutch sites. They manage branding, development, content management, and CMS implementation.

More recently, we expanded their work to include branding exercises for one of our companies. We’ve also started our first major campaign for which they’ve done all the digital advertising and monitoring as well as paid and unpaid social media. We’ve used them for independent marketing campaigns for new building launches which have included advertising, video production, social media monitoring, online ad placement—really the full suite of marketing services.

We’ve also used their design services. They’ve done creative design, creative branding, logo development, and brand imagery for us as well as a bit of public relations work.

What is the team composition?

We work with up to five or six people. Two colleagues work consistently on all of our engagements. Depending on the scope, they pull in their specialists.

How did you come to work with Marshall Fenn?

I was working with another agency 12 or 13 years ago. One of the people from that agency left to join a predecessor of Marshall Fenn. Eventually, that predecessor firm merged with Marshall Fenn. We've stayed with the same people as the company has evolved.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with these colleagues probably 10 years ago but with Marshall Fenn maybe five years ago. We have ongoing work with them.

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

There have been significant improvements in our web metrics based on Google Analytics including traffic and conversion rates. Our programs have also seen significant customer acquisition improvements.

How did Marshall Fenn perform from a project management standpoint?

Quite well. We work with two or three project managers. They have certain management tools and templates that they use. There’s a ticketing system to log and track projects. Budget control and timing are well managed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I find that they partner with you. They're always available. They’re willing to go the extra mile. They definitely have the client's best interest in mind. They integrate as a part of the team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be a little more proactively strategic on some projects. Otherwise, we're very satisfied.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I worked with Marshall Fenn Communications most directly when I was the Chief Marketing Officer of Shop.CA. As Canada's largest online shopping destination at the time, this startup hoped to buffet Amazon’s entrance into the country.

What challenge were you trying to address with Marshall Fenn Communications?

After attempting several different branding approaches since the launch of our company, we decided to get serious and engage a professional agency. Both online and in brick-and-mortar stores, retail is competitive industry. In order to stand out in a sea of retailers, we needed to become a memorable national company truly loved by Canadians. We hoped that unique branding would help our business expand on the market.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Marshall Fenn Communications supported all facets of our business. Our brand was fairly established, but their revised strategy made it feel fresh and contemporary. During creative briefings, they offered insight based on their market research findings. After they evaluated our site’s UX, I implemented most of their suggestions. By adding dimension to our existing digital materials, the team tailored our offerings to the current retail environment. We collaboratively generated creative new content to showcase online, on TV, and in our e-commerce stores.

Although we already had an effective digital marketing strategy in place, they advised me on other levels of branding, design, and effort. I directly handle placement deals with the support of a media company. They developed innovative ways to present, place, and employ both digital and traditional media.

What is the team composition?

I’d previously worked with our main point of contact, David Zbar, who I think highly of as a professional. He and his team were always very helpful. I’ve also known one of Marshall Fenn Communication’s principals for a long time.

How did you come to work with Marshall Fenn Communications?

When I sent out a Request For Proposals, I offered Marshall Fenn Communications the chance to bid. Since I’d contacted several agencies, they had to compete against many talented players. Their proposal was the best we received, and offered a terrific comprehensive package.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our formal, paid engagement lasted from January 2015 to December 2016, but we’d been in contact slightly before that time.

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

While I can't directly attribute sales conversions to their work, we saw markedly increased web traffic against comparative media. Our new creative content extended average visit lengths by over 8%. In a sense, they increased our "likability." One specific campaign effort saw a 20% lift in site traffic. Having experimented with several TV efforts, their endeavor showed the decidedly strongest results. Ultimately, they helped us gain traction and exposure.

How did Marshall Fenn Communications perform from a project management standpoint?

Their execution was flawless, from budget approvals to contact reports and production schedules. They arranged timelines and meetings, and always followed up. Regularly checking in to make sure nothing had changed ensured our satisfaction. Since they kept up with our schedule, they never booked excessive meetings. Everything about the project was planned extremely well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Even though I outlined a very clear objective, they were never afraid to express their own ideas. They’d pinpoint my exact needs, and offer three excellent new methods to achieve them. The best agencies in the world are ones that care about insight. Marshall Fenn Communications did a terrific job, and pushed their creative team to go places outside my comfort zone. That’s how I knew we were in the right place.

The team showed dogged determination, and I felt like we were in it together. Using all their resources and capabilities, they performed the best work possible. They delivered exactly what I asked for, if not an even better result.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As with any creative agency, there was an element of difficulty accessing the critical insights faster. While this always requires a fair amount of work upfront, as a client, I’d prefer faster results. Getting impatient has been a problem I've encountered with every agency I've worked with. I had to work through that learning curve; I'd never gone through their process before.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Bayshore HealthCare is an organization that provides homecare services – both in-home and in community hospitals. We work through government contracts as well as through private pay. Our services range from non-medical services, such as companionship, light housekeeping, and meal prep to medical services – nursing, wound care, etc. Our primary audience are seniors, but we do work with children who have serious injury or chronic disease that requires some extra care at home. I'm the director of marketing, so I'm in charge of everything from traditional print to digital and social media advertising, as well as the website and various events we host or attend.

What challenge were you trying to address with Marshall Fenn?

We're known as a homecare provider serving government clients, but less known as a business serving private clients. We wanted to concentrate our efforts on growing the private pay side of our business and build the awareness about who we are, where we are (we're a national company), and what we do. We were looking for a company to do digital marketing for us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provide digital advertising and social media services to us. Currently, they're working on our website, which is over five years old and is not user friendly. People coming in from a private pay side often don't know what they need, so the website has to be informative and offer them a way to see our services from different directions. We not only want to provide our clients with the resources about our organization, but give them other available options. If we establish ourselves as a subject matter expert, they will come back to us when they're ready to buy.

Before they started working on the website, they provided a thorough content analysis and user testing, which proved that we needed to clarify our message. We do a lot of blogs for our website, so we sit down with our a digital marketing manager and figure out what topics we should talk about on our blogs. Usually, the topics are related to various events, such as Breast Cancer Month in October. Marshall Fenn help us make sure the topics are engaging, make sense for a specific time of the year, and give people a reason to come back to our website, follow us on social media, or check out our digital apps. Our sales cycle is fairly long: a lot of people who shop for our senior clients are their kids who realize their parents need extra help.

How did you come to work with them?

I've been working with them for about 10 years. I started working with them at a different company and I take them with me to every new company I go. I like the fact that I don't need five or six different vendors – I have one company that does digital marketing, knows what's on our website and is aware of what's happening in print.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent about $700,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2017 and the relationship is ongoing.

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

We've noticed a rise in conversions through our digital media and digital advertising as well as an increase in awareness through our social media. We've tried some new things, such as video ads on Facebook, which are starting to drive positive results.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

They've been amazing, keeping us on our toes. We have weekly meetings for each of our big projects and every couple of weeks we have touch-in meetings for digital and social media. For other things, such as press releases, I just call them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They take time to get to know your business instead of trying to fit you into something they've done for other clients.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't think so.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Listen to them and be honest with them. They've been doing this type of work for a long time and bring a lot to the table.