Niftic Agency

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

My husband and I are the owners of a  high-quality RV and trailer rental business that provides positive and memorable travel experiences before, during, and after each rental. The variety of RVs in our AdventureKT fleet accommodate the comfort and needs of groups ranging from 1-8. Each vehicle is mechanically and aesthetically maintained against the highest safety and quality standards. Every member of our passionate staff is committed to empowering travelers with outdoor information, vehicle know-how, and roadside assistance that results in confident and happy travelers. We stand above other companies in this space due to our exceptional customer service which has earned us a 5-Star Yelp status.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire niftic agency?

We purchased an existing RV rental business three years ago and needed to significantly refresh the branding, logo, website, and the overall customer experience. As a small but growing business, we needed a marketing partner who not only understood the Outdoor/Travel space, but who was creative, efficient, responsive, pleasant, and could scale their services to accommodate our budget and timeline. niftic agency turned out to be a perfect fit on all fronts.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to refresh the AdventureKT branding, this would include our logo, website, and overall customer experience when booking an RV online. Once this foundation was in place, we planned to activate a more proactive marketing plan that would expand our customer base, increase our rental revenue, and attract a less price-sensitive clientele.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We sent out an RFP to 4 agencies. All 4 were recommended to us by trusted industry contacts and colleagues. We needed a marketing partner that had experience in a variety of industries yet understood the nuances of the Outdoor and Travel space.

Describe the project in detail.

niftic did a thorough needs assessment to assure we were aligned on the project scope, timeline, and budget. Once complete, we moved into action using a well-planned and realistic work calendar.

The niftic team kept us on schedule, from the initial phase of consumer research, selection of design elements, color pallets, fonts and photography to the user experience and technical functionality of our site. They helped make sure we were engaged and excited throughout the process as well. Having worked on a number of similar projects over the years, I can honestly say that this was by far one of the most positive experiences I've had.

What was the team composition?

We were assigned a team of 3, with a primary lead that managed our overall project. Because of a registration software that we use, we needed to connect our niftic web developer with this third party and have them work together directly to establish the compatibility between this software and our new site. This went very smoothly and we were grateful for niftic's receptiveness to working with this existing partner of ours.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What outcomes or results can you share that demonstrate progress and/or success?

Our new and existing customers love our new website, both how it looks and how it functions. Not only has our web user experience been significantly upgraded, but our bounce rate was reduced by 20% within a week of launching. We've also seen that our online bookings have increased by 10%, saving us time and resources. Our third party partners have held our new site up as the best they've seen in the industry. Everyone loves the results.

How effective was the project management?

The project management was excellent. Our collaboration was pleasant, productive, and on track with the schedule. We got into a rhythm of how we preferred to communicate which led to very efficient meetings and feedback exchanges. Our niftic team was often ahead of schedule with their deliverables, which was impressive.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

In addition to the excellent customer service and the quality of the overall project delivered, we found Niftic to be a true partner of ours rather than just a project provider. From day one, the niftic team was genuinely vested in who we were as a business and what we were building.

Additionally their pricing structure is great in that we could leverage them on a project by project basis or a retainer, depending upon our changing needs. They offer a wide variety of marketing and development services and this adaptive and scalable model is ideal in our ever changing business environment.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

As International Business Developer, it is my responsibility to make sure our group is working with partners that are well-versed in several arms of the business, including EComm and consumer electronics. Working with a group (niftic.agency) that has a clear understanding of how to make the digital user experience unique for our customers and that can help refine our vision has been invaluable.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what reason(s) did your company hire niftic.agency?

After experiencing on-going frustrations with different groups, we chose to work with experts in the space (niftic.agency) who are able to solve problems and create unique user experiences. All team members of niftic.agency took the time to clearly understand what we wanted, and, in the end, delivered above and beyond our expectations – an experience better than we imagined. They were professional and tailored the project to our needs like no other, rather than simply pushing a cookie-cutter solution like the vast majority of digital agencies.

What were your goals for this project?

We were looking for a curated digital user experience that aligned with our brand of providing high-end consumer electronics.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We selected niftic.agency after extensive vetting, research, and discussion with the group. They provided transparency about their services and what it would take to make our vision real. They clearly noted where more resources would be required and why, and inspired confidence in our group. Their understanding of the digital/web landscape, both from a design and technical perspective, is second to none.

Describe the project in detail.

The organization of niftic.agency can only be spoken of highly. Consistent follow-up and regular weekly conversations via phone and screen-share tools enabled us to gain a clear understanding of what was going on (both from a visual and technical perspective). They were transparent about where the project was at (in form of email correspondence), excelled in their attention to detail, and solved problems that others couldn't.

What was the team composition?

The team consists of experts in their respective fields with a clear understanding of who is accountable. Chris Fowles spearheaded the technical development of our project, though due his advanced understanding of design principles, seamlessly integrates with the work of Design Director, David Herzog. Remy Fowles' project management and strategic understanding enabled us to have a clear understanding of deliverables and who is accountable for what. She held our group accountable as needed. The whole team inspired confidence.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Within 90 days, we saw immense influx (exceeding 70%) is engagement on the site – we were not only reaching more people, but more importantly, reaching the right people, at the right time, resulting in a significant increase in both sales, and returning visitors. In addition to this, niftic helped generate extensive growth on our social channels, many of whom articulated they were impressed with the experience on our page, resulting in their choice to "follow" our activity on other platforms.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was exceptional.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was most impressed by their ability to solve problems and deliver results, without sacrificing quality of deliverables, or communication without the executive team. They made it clear to us when there were problems and were willing to have the difficult conversations when they were needed, further inspiring confidence that we were working with true professionals.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No. The group delivered again and again, and I can only praise their efforts and final product.

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.