The Missing Ingredient

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of marketing for a food company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ChuckJoe?

I needed help with the digital strategy and execution for my channel.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ChuckJoe is responsible for driving our digital marketing strategy for a broad-based awareness, moving into engagement, and then finding ways to further lead the consumer down the purchase funnel to drive conversion. They work on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok and manage our influencer relations. We have also leaned into targeted programmatic display, and we’ve recently done an out-of-home via digital billboards.

What is the team composition?

We work with a team of five people from ChuckJoe.

How did you come to work with ChuckJoe?

I actually worked with the founder at my previous organization when he was still a part of another digital agency.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $400,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2022, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have standard KPIs for the campaign goals and targets. We look at awareness, clicks, and views, and we have conversion KPIs that we have identified as driving to a dedicated landing page. Given the fact that we are not a B2C business, we’re driving media to my grocery web page, but users can't buy products via the website, so we're unable to track closed sales data. Those are the three KPIs we track, and we're currently surpassing our goal.

How did ChuckJoe perform from a project management standpoint?

ChuckJoe has performed well in terms of project management. I've had to make several cuts to the budget at different times of the year, and they have been very thoughtful in how they looked at the year-to-go plan to ensure that we’re adjusting the budget accordingly but also still meeting our associated targets.

We have meetings with them on a bi-weekly basis. We typically communicate through email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

ChuckJoe is very thoughtful, strategic, and informed. I also appreciate how personable they are. They lean in as a partner; they truly care about the strategy and the positioning of our brand and what we're trying to accomplish. They're thought leaders in the space.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. Every time I provided feedback to them, they were open and pragmatic in nature. They accept our feedback well and are great at identifying ways to improve and identify a respective solution for our problems. I feel confident that ChuckJoe is the type of agency partner that will be open to assessing every opportunity and will do everything that they can to appease their partner.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don't be afraid to ask questions. At the end of the day, it's a partnership. You've hired them, but they're also working for your brand. If you see an opportunity, don't be afraid to be open and transparent about what you see and what you need.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the deputy executive director of DiscoverE, a nonprofit organization committed to raising awareness about engineering and technical careers, specifically for girls, disadvantaged students, and students of color. Our organization is a coalition of 100 different organizations, all working towards celebrating the accomplishments of engineers and technical professionals and engaging the next generation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ChuckJoe?

We were trying to figure out how we could bring more viewers and audience participants to our professional development series called the Persist Series for women in engineering.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, we had a small grant to bring visibility to our program, and we hired ChuckJoe to provide us with the digital marketing we needed. Since then, we’ve slowly expanded our engagement, and they now help us market our Chats with Change Makers series.

With ChuckJoe’s help, we’ve developed a detailed user journey. Additionally, they’ve helped us create and manage a variety of paid ad campaigns on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram for our programs. Moving forward, we'll be doing a brand awareness campaign with their help.

What is the team composition?

We work with around 4–5 people from ChuckJoe, including Cherie (Senior Strategist), Brittany (Account Manager), and CJ (Founder & CEO).

How did you come to work with ChuckJoe?

We were introduced to ChuckJoe by another partner of ours.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent a little under $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around the fall of 2020, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to ChuckJoe’s help, we’ve been able to raise the visibility of our Chats with Change Makers series by 424%, which is very important. Over the last year, we’ve also seen a 33% increase in enrollments for our Future City competition for middle school kids, and the registration hasn’t closed yet.

How did ChuckJoe perform from a project management standpoint?

ChuckJoe’s project management is very good. They’ve created a couple of dashboards for us to see metrics at a glance. Recently, we implemented Asana for internal project management, so we'll invite them to collaborate with us over that platform as well. Additionally, we communicate via regular phone calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

ChuckJoe’s willingness to work with us on a small budget and help us grow is impressive. They’re very generous with their time and expertise, acting as a true partner for us. We can always talk about any problem we’re trying to solve, and they help us solve it.

Additionally, ChuckJoe is very flexible and collaborative. Whenever something doesn’t go according to our plans or expectations, they provide us with three or four other tactics to try to get the results we need.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I love what they’re doing.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Hire them and have fun! It is best to go in with your set of strengths and weaknesses clear, but if you’re not sure, they can also analyze your online presence to tell you your areas of opportunity.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Bear Down Brands. We create consumer products that we sell online and to retailers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ChuckJoe?

We had a brand of lunchboxes that we wanted to promote. Hence, we hired ChuckJoe for their digital marketing services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ChuckJoe handled our digital marketing needs. Initially, we provided them with a brief that outlined the scope of the project. After that, they proceeded with the work, mainly managing our social media and email marketing efforts. Their team created and implemented ads across those channels. They also managed our website.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 3–4 people from their side, including the CEO, an account manager, and a creative.

How did you come to work with ChuckJoe?

It was through a recommendation.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together on this project from January 2017–2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The ads they created had a positive impact on our business: our brand grew, and we saw an increase in sales every year. Overall, they did a great job.

How did ChuckJoe perform from a project management standpoint?

They managed the project very well, and we felt like they were an extension of our team throughout. We used Asana as our project management tool and communicated through Slack and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They clearly understood the market and were really good at what they do. They were also professional.

Are there any areas they could improve on?

I don’t have any constructive feedback for them. I can only think of fond memories when looking back at this engagement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re looking for a digital marketing partner, I definitely recommend working with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Wild Earth Allies joins forces with local organizations and individuals to protect the wildlife and habitats that are so vital to our global biodiversity and sustainability. Our mission is to protect vital areas of our natural world for the benefit of wildlife, habitats, and people by inspiring collaborative action. As Program Officer, I support our conservation programs and partnerships on strategy, implementation, and impact monitoring. I also support communications efforts to increase the visibility of our global field teams and partners, including through production of short films.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ChuckJoe?

We partnered with ChuckJoe on strategy and digital roll-out of our new short film, Olas De Esperanza: Building Community for Hawksbill Turtle Conservation. Spotlighting our partner ProCosta, the film shares the story of grassroots conservation efforts delivering renewed hope for hawksbill turtles in El Salvador.

SOLUTION

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

We were introduced to ChuckJoe through DoGoodery, which is a full-service communications agency that works with partners who have an authentic commitment to doing good.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Their team conducted an audit of our social channels and developed a strategy for the film roll-out. They scheduled a call to review their proposed strategy and responded to our feedback. They worked with DoGoodery and our team to create social media content for YouTube and Facebook. They reviewed progress with us regularly through the ~6 week campaign.

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

We worked most closely with CJ (Founder and CEO), Jime (Account Manager), and Brea (Paid Media Manager).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our film was viewed over 160,000 times on YouTube. Our email subscribers effectively doubled with over 2,500 sign-ups through YouTube and Facebook.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Workflow was very smooth. Their team conducted an audit of our social channels and developed a strategy for the film roll-out. They scheduled a call to review their proposed strategy and responded to our feedback. We also had a mid-campaign an final review to discuss results.

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

Having never worked with external communications agencies before, we were impressed by ChuckJoe's deep digital marketing and strategy expertise. We were also blown away by the results of our film roll-out campaign. Not only did ChuckJoe drive traffic to our film (160,000+ views), but viewers actually watched the film in its entirety. Video completion rate was 32.25% for our 3:23 minute film.

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

No, we see no areas for improvement. We learned a great deal from our partnership with ChuckJoe.