Niftic Agency

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a founding partner of a public affairs agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Niftic Agency?

I needed help with graphic design, web development, and app development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Niftic Agency does graphic design for our direct mail marketing appeals that we do with our clients. They’ve also worked on web development and SEO for our clients. For the SEO, we worked on keyword research and linking strategy together.

Additionally, the team designed and developed a web, iOS, and Android app for my firm. Finally, they work on our company’s branding.

What is the team composition?

We work with David (Creative Director & Graphic Designer), Chris (Partner & Chief Developer), and Remy (Founder).

How did you come to work with Niftic Agency?

They were a referral through a friend. They’re responsive, and their design is super clean and polished. It’s a very modern aesthetic. It’s a very good fit for the product we’re doing.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $200,000 over the last four years on various projects.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our first project together was Spring 2017, and our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Feedback on the app has been extremely positive. Clients of ours who have received marketing materials from Niftic Agency are always pleased. Our user feedback is always top-notch, and the design interface is very good.

How did Niftic Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent. The team is self-driven in the sense that they move the project along. They’ve always been very transparent in setting upfront expectations and timelines. We’re always on the same page in terms of milestones. We use Slack, Miro, Asana, and Trello to manage our work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their design aesthetic and user interface are excellent. The team really understands how an audience is going to engage, understand, and digest a design. Whether it’s a marketing or mail piece, the team really understands how design relates to the audience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind. Whenever there are issues, the team is great at resolving them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re worth it. They’re a smaller agency and they’ll handle you better than a larger one. The team is really committed to their clients and their projects. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the development manager at the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Salt Lake City. Our mission is to help people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover and regain control of their future.

The IRC is an international NGO working in over 40 countries around the world and in 26 U.S. cities providing life-changing services to refugees and displaced people globally. In 1994, the IRC opened its doors in Salt Lake City, since resettling over 12,000 refugees and providing vital programs and services to thousands more.

In my role, I'm responsible for fundraising, volunteer management, resource development, communications, community relations and much more. Within fundraising, we have annual events to engage the community and raise the profile of our work and the families we serve.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Niftic Agency?

Each year, we host one or two fundraising events. We learned of Niftic Agency years ago, and since we have utilized their expert services for every large fundraising event. In 2020, faced with a pandemic and myriad challenges, we turned to Niftic Agency to support a newly configured virtual fundraising event, Breaking Bread at Home.

What were your goals for this project?

We had specific fundraising and engagement goals, including raising a minimum of $25,000 and engaging over 150 supporters through elements of our event. Maintaining fundraising goals for events even during the pandemic is crucial to ensuring robust programming for the families we serve.

SOLUTION

How did you select Niftic Agency?

Over five years ago, we first utilized Niftic Agency's services for a small event with a quick turnaround that our internal team did not have capacity to complete. Niftic Agency's expert design team is attuned to the specific needs of a nonprofit agency, remains cost-effective, and build a professional relationship with a focus on collaboration.

They brought a breadth of experience working with other event designs, fresh ideas to reinvigorate events year over year, and maintain openness to receiving ideas and incorporating them into final design.

Not only do they work on the design elements, but they take a step back to ensure each element fits within the broader scope of the event.

Describe the project in detail.

After initial contact to confirm the project, we set up a meeting with our team and theirs to discuss the scope of the event, our goals, challenges we foresee, and concepts in their infant stages. Initial meetings are focused on broad strokes and brainstorming, especially as we considered the unique challenges presented by the pandemic.

Once we move beyond the brainstorming phase, the IRC team worked to provide written copy and any other raw elements (photos, vector files, etc.). In keeping with a collaborative process, this is placed in a shared file where comments and discussion can occur throughout the project.

Deadlines were set for digital and print elements to ensure they were prepared in time for the event. Niftic Agency's team is quick to respond to changes, even as deadlines come down to the wire.

They are careful and offer open communication about the scope to ensure it will fit within our budget--this is essential for the IRC as a nonprofit working from tight budgets to ensure maximum profitability of our events.

What was the team composition?

We work with one designer at Niftic Agency, our main point of contact over the years. Additionally, another designer supported efforts throughout the project, including liaising with the IRC team. I'm sure there are others behind the scenes who support the progress as needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

For our most recent event, though it was changed by the pandemic, we exceeded our fundraising goals by $15,000 and saw more than 200 supporters engage in the event, either through a meal pickup option or the virtual program.

Throughout, Niftic Agency's work enhanced our efforts, helped created a cohesive event even though we were remote/virtual, and tied everything together to create a special experience for our supporters. Though much has changed, many of our supporters voiced their gratitude for the event held and the opportunity to gather.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We have a collaborative workflow overall. We have the added bonus of working with Niftic Agency for a number of years, though they have always made the process easy and accommodated our needs, even when working on last-minute design projects.

They take time to ensure that both sides understand the needs of the other and maintain open communication that gives the opportunity to smooth out any wrinkles along the way.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Niftic Agency and their team really care about the results, but also the process and the relationships built along the way. To ensure their work is of the utmost quality, they take time to better understand the organization, the event, the people involved and the expected outcomes.

No matter the project, they are quick to respond and offer their support. Over the years, the IRC team looks forward to working with Niftic Agency, as we understand just how much value they add to our events and our work.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They are flexible and understanding as challenges arise, and they are quick to remedy designs that don't quite meet the initial brainstorming brief.

In this, they succeed in navigating often complex circumstances of understanding each individual's vision for the project and pulling that into tangible design elements for both digital and print assets.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

ProcessAG is a 4-generation company in the creative industry. We do product design, brand management, and manufacturing overseas. We have 5 offices in China and 2 offices and 3 print facilities in North America. I’m the CEO of our company’s U.S. and western market divisions, which include U.S., Canadian, and European markets. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Niftic Agency?

Many of the brands that we service and integrate with needed digital software to bolt on the backend. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Recently, they built a fully interactive website with backend management for sales team leads. That was for a consumer product company. For that project, they also built new organic software. We needed them to create a chatbot that could communicate and talk to Facebook and handle digital marketing leads from inbound traffic that another team was generating. The volume was so great that we couldn’t manage it with a customer service team. They ended up creating a chatbot that could qualify or disqualify the leads and drive them to a customer service team that would capture and close the sale. Niftic Agency created some backend software on that whole interface. We had no problems, and everything worked as well as possible for a new chatbot system.

Niftic Agency managed everything digital for this company. We just did the designs and the brand management and handed it over to them, and then they bolted everything together and made it work. We had a couple of revision rounds, but everything worked seamlessly in the end.

What is the team dynamic?

We worked with 3 or 4 members from their team. An admin was our designated point of contact. The only other contact we really cared was the lead engineer, Chris [Partner, Niftic Agency], out of Washington D.C. He had probably another couple people on his team, but we didn’t want to integrate with them. We just wanted the simplicity of a single point of contact. The admin coordinated the schedule and the traffic, and communicating with the engineer allowed us to describe the details and the changes.

We vet our vendors pretty heavily so that we’re not running into problems. Most of our client base is pretty large. Some are 200 million, and others are in the billions like Nike and Adidas. It’s really important that we go through a proper vetting cycle. We don’t really have a price-driven model. We mostly care about stability and our utility cycle.

How did you come to work with Niftic Agency?

Typically, we set a criteria list on the size of the company, their programming skill set, experience, level of clientele, and professional management and operation. We want them to be using the best methods, backdate schedules, and things of that nature. As long as they have those processes in place, they can qualify for our team. That’s pretty standard for all our vendors.

We helped source a few different firms, and Niftic Agency won some of the projects and the bids. After some time, we just kept using them because they did a good job and gave us no problems. We’ve completed a handful of engagements. They’ve been active for some time now with us. They are in the top 2 or 3 vendors that we consistently partner with, and they’ve been a preferred vendor for the last 18 months. They probably graduated to that with some smaller projects, but they wouldn’t have been on my radar until they hit some of our important clients. Our agency picks up smaller tasks here and there, but we’re not managing projects in detail when they’re small or local.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent well over 6 figures.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together 18 months ago, and the collaboration is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re reading people and their personalities. That’s what we care about in these third-party vendors. We don’t like flashy sales people that make audacious claims on timelines and schedules. I don’t think Niftic Agency focuses on sales or selling. They’re more engineering-based and utility-driven, which we like because it gives us an honest read on them. It also means that when a product goes awry—which they all do in some way—they’ll handle it well. That’s what we care about.

Niftic Agency is just a good, hardworking team. We know if something goes wrong, they’ll put in the time to rectify it. That’s hard to find from a vendor.

How did Niftic Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve had no problems with timelines. We’re also giving them pretty large-scale projects. I would think our projects are ranked on their A scale. It’s just like all agencies, ourselves included: if you end up raking in a C-level client, you’re not going to finish the project as timely as an A-level client. That’s the function of all agencies.

We communicate however necessary. We generally expect live documents and even integration through certain apps like Slack or Trevio. Our communication is based on project managers and our facility in what they want. Niftic Agency has been pretty flexible. They’ll meet in person with our Salt Lake City team. They’ll come to our office, and we’ll go to theirs. The D.C. team has been doing a lot of video chat conferences and email correspondence. We like to have more than just phone conversations.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re great. We don’t recommend many firms, but I highly recommend Niftic Agency. They’re just good people. They do honest business, and we really value and appreciate vendors like that. I don’t have any issues with them. Of course, I don’t want them to get too busy because they’ll be juggling my stuff.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We know which areas we would like them to tackle, and I know they’re close because we’ve talked about having them take over the digital marketing traffic funnels. That’s a category where we haven’t been happy with other third-party vendors. It involves a lot of product marketing. That’s a category that we feel like they could integrate more and maybe positively take on. They haven’t done that yet. That would be a strong suit for them. It would also help them understand how the software they’re developing can be leveraged on applications. For example, a chatbot they created for us integrated with the Facebook API and literally was talking to Facebook users who liked our pages. It would pop up in their Messenger, type conversations, and offer them coupons and discounts.

Keep in mind, Niftic Agency doesn’t do digital marketing. We just asked for this solution, and they ended up creating this bot that started getting a lot of traction. When groups like this integrate at that level, I’m amazed they don’t stay in digital marketing because this could be a funnel for all of that. Right now, we have to go back to another agency for digital marketing, and we’re getting a conflict between both groups because the digital marketing group was a little protective of their channel and didn’t create this. What do we do? 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a producer and co-founder of a company that provides branded content in the film space, including unscripted work, primarily in the outdoor industry, as well as long-form documentary. We’ve made films for Red Bull and Keane, and we’re working on a series for the International Olympic Committee. We focus on driving an emotional hook to brands that want to reach consumers through evocative and aspirational storytelling, compared to just pitching a product. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Niftic Agency?

We worked with them for the Wyoming Office of Tourism campaign, which was about a Ugandan snowboarder who was also a Wyoming local. We made a feature film on him and sold it to Red Bull. This was parlayed into a campaign for the Wyoming Office of Tourism, focusing on diversity and cross-branding content between the Office and the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. This was our first project with a strong web-design component. Our core competency is video, so we hired Niftic Agency to design a digital platform for the 3 videos where we could direct traffic from the tourism office.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

An independent designer built the site, and Niftic Agency handled all the coding for it. Our designer was hard to work with and manage. He ended up leaving the project when it was 80% done. Chris [Partner and Technical Director, Niftic Agency] really stepped up and finished the site, working directly with the developers on the client side in order to avoid issues. Niftic Agency saved the day, in terms of presenting digital results to the client.

We had 3 iterations, initially building a blueprint for the site. Our designer made wireframes and, from there, started to put everything into the full site. Niftic Agency coded it on the backend, creating some of the animations we needed.

My favorite aspect of the site was the collage of old photos of Brolin, the Ugandan-born snowboarder. As the user scrolls down, they fly onto the screen and make a collage. I had no idea how to set that up, but Niftic Agency put it together in an attractive way.

I also liked how the buttons move down with each video. Attached to the website was a sweepstakes component. As users coming from the Wyoming Office of Tourism after big social media pushes on the video would arrive on the site, they’d see a big call-to-action, which involved entering a sweepstake to win a weekend in Jackson Hole and riding with Brolin. The buttons Niftic Agency created move as users scrolled down the page. Niftic Agency didn’t build the JacksonHole.com site.

What is the team dynamic?

Most of the dialogue occurred through the designer, to Chris and David [Creative Director and Graphic Designer, Niftic Agency]. I acted as the project manager. We were in constant communication, talking at least once a week.

How did you come to work with Niftic Agency?

I went to school with David. He knew about our film projects, and we started talking about the company. Our initial designer mentioned that he had worked with Niftic Agency before. We moved forward on his recommendation and hired Niftic Agency to handle the coding.

This was my first time working on an interactive site, and I didn’t know what it would require. I originally thought that the designer would be able to code it as well, but we trusted his word that we needed to find someone else for that task. He didn’t have the expertise for it, so we trusted him to work with Niftic Agency. He ended up leaving the country during the project due to some personal issues. Niftic Agency really stepped up and was able to finish our project.

How much have you invested with them?

The budget was $25,000 for the whole project. We paid Niftic Agency 30% of that for the coding.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was about 6 weeks long. We shot everything in October 2016 and got back at the beginning of November. We started the development and released the site at the beginning of 2017.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project exceeded all reach and impressions planned by the Wyoming Office of Tourism. They called the work a huge success, as this had been a major challenge. They have a partnership with the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and were struggling to figure out how to find diverse and engaging content to draw people to Wyoming while also meeting the needs of that partnership. This project provided a unique marketing campaign around an interesting individual, checking both boxes. It drew a more diverse crowd to Wyoming and showcased the Office’s partnership with the resort.

How did Niftic Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

Their level of communication was professional. David and I talked almost weekly, and he gave me full updates on the development. I would do the same for the video. We had bi-weekly calls with the client, and Niftic Agency’s reports were helpful for articulating our progress to the client. They would usually send me an email update outlining where we were in terms of the milestones we’d set based on the 3 iterations of the site, from blueprints to wireframes and development. I was notified of which items they had trouble getting from our designer. If there were any questions, we’d hop on a phone call. If I needed Niftic Agency to speak directly with the developers for the resort, they were able to do that easily as well.

Our designer was originally going to handle embedding the site into JacksonHole.com. After he left, Chris had to manage that process by directly communicating with the developers and making sure that the site fits in terms of the menu and the toolbar.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The only way to really learn something is by going ahead and doing it in order to get the experience. One of the biggest takeaways I got from this project was explained to me through a book metaphor: the first thing someone will notice when looking at a book is its color, after which they will determine that it’s a book and what is actually inside. Designing a site works in the opposite way: the viewer starts with what is on the inside and then notices additional aspects like color, feel, and so on. It’s critically important to have a full understanding of every step. We don’t want to put a ton of work into doing something beautiful that isn’t at all what the client originally intended. This explanation was valuable to me, and I figured it out by working with Niftic Agency.

Are there any areas they could improve?

This was our first project with a heavy web component. Going through the process gave me a better understanding of building a site like this. In retrospect, I would have done a few things differently on my end, in terms of articulating the vision and consolidating all the assets. From my experience working with Niftic Agency, they executed at 100% on every aspect. I'd walk them through the site in a clearer manner, instead of going through our designer.