MDRG, Inc.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the account director at 360i, an advertising and digital marketing agency.

What challenge were you trying to address with MDRG?

We hired them to work with us on a couple of different projects, mostly for our New Orleans clients.

What was the scope of their involvement?

MDRG has actually done some focus group testing for us as we've been developing creative concepts. They've also done some audience testing and measurement as it relates to our LGBT audience. 

We usually contact them and give them a statement of what we want to learn. MDRG then takes and runs with it, and they come back to us with different solutions.

If we don't have a client that knows exactly how much they want to spend on research, MDRG is good at helping us identify different levels of spend and the different deliverables and assets from each of those. 

We've engaged with them to do advertising and brand research, and they customize the approach based on what our clients want to learn and how much they have to spend.

They do all of the primary research. For example, for our LGBT community, we wanted to know their thoughts on New Orleans as a location. For that, not only did the team create the research methodology, but they also had the tools to help us go and learn those things.

They manage the projects end-to-end. They come back to us and report on the data, analyze it, and tells us key takeaways based on what they learned. 

What is the team composition?

We work with 3–5 people based on the size of the project. We usually work with a project lead, but we also get one-on-one service from the president of the company.

How did you come to work with MDRG?

I knew their president because MDRG had done work for my previous agency. I got to know the team and worked with them on several projects. I had also worked with their VP of operations previously at another agency.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $150,000 so far. We’ve done 3–4 projects that were around $40,000–$50,000 each.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in 2016, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

Their work has been extremely helpful. They're very thorough, organized, and thoughtful. When they present research, it's very actionable. We've worked with other research companies where that's not the case; they give you the hard data and you have to somehow figure out what it means.

But MDRG has been a really good partner for our clients because they understand the destination and the goals having worked with us several times. We've been very happy with the customized work that they've done for us and our clients. 

How did MDRG perform from a project management standpoint?

The project lead keeps us apprised of the status of the project and presents the research to us. They've done a good job. We've never gone over budget or over time.

When they present us with a proposal upfront, not only does it include the expected fees at sometimes various levels but also a timeline. They've always met both of those. The team also does a great job of managing expectations, so there are never any surprises.

What did you find most impressive about them?

MDRG has been a really solid partner for us, and they're very trustworthy. We'll likely work with them again, especially on this particular client.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Early on we talked to them about giving us those various levels of spend because they were initially giving us a single proposal with a fee attached to it. We gave them feedback at the time about being a little bit more flexible. 

If, for example, a client has $50,000 to spend, MDRG would give a proposal for $50,000. Once we worked with them and gave them that feedback about being a little bit more flexible, they began giving more options. 

They started adjusting and giving us various levels of spend which has been extremely helpful. That was something early on that they could have done better, but they adjusted and they've been very adaptable to that. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very transparent and upfront with the team, and they'll work with you. That's what we learned early on after working with them.

Rather than being vague about your budget, collaborating with them is the best approach. Be transparent about budgets and real about your timelines. If they know that information up front, they can customize a solution for you.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for Painting with a Twist, which encourages people to have. great time engaging their creative side by painting while sipping on wine. I’m the CMO.

What challenge were you trying to address with MDRG, Inc.?

The craft/entertainment industry was reaching a point of saturation when I joined Painting with a Twist. We created the industry when we launched around 10 years, it boomed. This carried us in our early days but to continue our growth we wanted to look at ourselves as more mature than we previously had. We asked MDRG to help us get a sense of who our guests were, why they came to us, and any other insights that would help us better define our brand and our offerings.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did a couple of things for us. First, we wanted to talk to existing guests and find out what we could do to get them to return more often. MDRG leveraged our existing email list to send out a survey. Using that information, we developed marketing tactics to reach the guests. For example, we weren’t sure how much our customers were using email so we launched a new national program to meet our guests in that communication channel.

We then talked to MDRG about a category research project, since our industry is too new and small to have off-the-shelf research. They helped us learn about nuances in our customer base. After working with a separate creative agency to develop our brand based on this research, we came back to MDRG to test it. They helped us test consumer statements and logo options.

What is the team composition?

Barbara (Director of Research) and Heath (Senior Manager) are my main contacts but Sondra (President & Owner) is involved in all of it. She actually gave the results of our research to our franchise community at a conference last July. That was a really impactful experience.

How did you come to work with MDRG, Inc.?

I had experience with them in previous roles at other companies, as well as in the community here in New Orleans.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $10,000–$49,999 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from October 2018 until February 2019.

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

Their category research was foundational in allowing us to understand our guests and attract more guests and repeat guests via our brand. They successfully developed guest feedback to relaunch our brand. There weren’t really any metrics or KPIs for this type of project.

How did MDRG, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re clear on deadlines and always deliver on time. A lot of marketers are working alone or in a very small team and use outside resources to expand their team. For me, I like to use outside resources like partners to bounce things off of. They’re very collaborative.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m always interested in making data-based decisions, so my favorite thing is getting the initial insights review from them. They’re awesome, smart people to work with and they tell you what they think you should do with the results. They don’t just hand them over and walk away. This is why I always go back to them.

Their passion for developing brands that are successful stands out as well. They’re committed to making me successful and going above and beyond.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Two things come to mind. First, they could better educate us on their research methodology and present us with options for how they could go about it. They always pick the best one, but I’d like to educate myself more. They do a B+ job on this already, though.

Second, they can do a lot but they often don’t have access to the business problems we’re having. This information would let them pitch more tailored solutions.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s easy for a busy person to turn the research around quickly into a presentation with a robust conversation but that’s what MDRG excels at. They’re always excited to have those types of conversations with me because it challenges them to think about both their process and our business. A different set eyes is always valuable.