Stylo Creative

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I run an online, e-commerce children’s clothing store.

What challenge were you trying to address with Stylo Creative?

We originally started by selling baby bows, but when we launched our bibs and mats we wanted a video to announce them. Stylo created those videos.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They created 5-6 different versions of the videos, including some with 3D renderings.

What is the team composition?

I mainly talked to Dylan (Creative Director).

How did you come to work with Stylo Creative?

They do a lot of work for another company I’m familiar with. I noticed the videos were good for marketing and social media and contacted them. Their examples on their website were in the style I wanted for mine as well.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $10,000-$15,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since January 2020. The first project ended and we’re going to do another project focusing on another of our projects.

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

There are big benefits to working with companies capable of doing 3D-rendering. It allows you to do a lot more with showcasing the product on video. I believe we got a 9x return on the ad-spend thanks to the video. It’s been a really successful campaign. I’ve really enjoyed working with them.

How did Stylo Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

It was very easy to communicate with them. I prefer texting and they agreed to that. They were always quick to respond.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication stands out the most. They understood what we wanted and were able to pitch extra ideas, which I liked since I’m not the most creative person. They made a great finished product.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not that I can think of.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Come into your video with a plan. I didn’t, and that made the project take a bit longer. They’re not the ones who sell the product so you should tell them what you’re picturing.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of ACTA, an activewear brand that gives back to charity.

What challenge were you trying to address with Stylo Creative?

We’ve done a lot of projects with them, but our biggest goal is to display our product in a way that would be enticing to our audience and drive sales.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve done between 12–15 projects with Stylo Creative. They rent the appropriate equipment and lighting for each project. Their team also handles the scouting for talent. 

For certain assignments, they go through intense branding with us to make sure it fits our brand and style, as far as motion graphics, animations, or illustrations. Our graphic designer shows them what we’re thinking and they take it to another level and conceptualize it. They shoot all the videos and work on the post-editing needs for animation. 

What is the team composition?

I work mostly with three people. Dillon (Creative Director), Drake (3D Artist & Designer) is the main animator, and Bryan (Executive Producer) steers the creative direction. 

How did you come to work with Stylo Creative?

They are way more talented from a creative aspect, especially in conceptualizing different ideas. I felt like I clicked really well with them personally and it would be easy to work with them. Their 4D animation and talent within their business at their price point was unlike any other option I could find.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent close to $115,000 with them. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2018 and our engagement is ongoing. 

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

Their actual product and service from the very beginning has worked really well for us. 

How did Stylo Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re always flexible to our needs, even as we’ve grown as a business and things have changed. We always have really tight deadlines as a business because of our release structure, and they always meet deadlines. They’re honestly even too good at meeting deadlines,working after hours and through the night sometimes. We mainly communicate through text and in-person meetings. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They always conceptualize well and find the talent we need. Their creative direction is their biggest strength. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We moved our headquarters to a different state and I’d want them to be able to be in-person, so we use them a little less because of our situation. Even though their price is really good, I wanted to find even cheaper ways to do it because that’s natural, but there’s not much they could improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to communicate clearly about what you want the results to be for your project and they will make sure it happens. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief strategy officer at SalesRabbit, a SaaS company that sells field sales software.

What challenge were you trying to address with Stylo Creative?

Most of our content was in text form, and we wanted to introduce a lot more video to better convey our value proposition. We wanted to have SEO-based video for Google carousels. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

It started from the ground up with Stylo Creative, and they continue to create videos for us.

For example, we were building a library of 50 videos for sales training course material. Stylo Creative put together a bunch of concepts that have been successful with our clients (e.g. talking head videos with animation). 

It was a collaborative process. The coach featured in the videos and I worked with Dillon (Creative Director, Stylo Creative) and the Stylo team to create outlines and storyboards for the animation that would represent what we were verbally communicating. 

They directed it, animated it, filmed it in their studio and edited it. Ever since then, they’ve managed the assets. For a lot of the projects, they come up with the concepts, including the animation, series, and flows. They’ve also made copy suggestions.

For a lot of videos, they’ve had to reanimate the user interface across iOS, Android, tablets, and smartphones, as well as desktop computers. This was fairly complex, and they did a really good job understanding our product and working with our product team to make sure everything was displayed correctly. 

Over time, they’ve really attuned themselves to our modality of marketing. It’s at the point now where they can generate concepts for us that are on-brand, and the assets they create first round are usually on point.

What is the team composition?

I work mainly with Dillon, but have interacted with other members on their team.

How did you come to work with Stylo Creative?

They were recommended to us by one of the actors in our training series. We had worked with other premium film groups, and while we had good results, they weren’t creating the kind of on-brand experience we were looking for. 

After looking at Stylo Creative’s assets and past projects, it was very clear to us that they’d be able to nail our brand. Also, they’re very talented with animation, and that was a pretty attractive aspect about them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $10,000-$25,000 with the team.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2018, and the video was finished in January 2019. They’re still on retainer with us.

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

Many of our clients license the use of the videos to train their sales teams. There’s been some digital marketing impact from views generated, clickthrough traffic to our website, and lead conversion. The videos have been used in email campaigns and nurture campaigns which have generated clicks and views. 

Anecdotally, it’s helped us position ourselves as an innovative brand, and it’s generated interest and intrigue. It’s disruptive, valuable, and relevant to our particular audiences. We do 20 software demos per-day and segments of that video get used each time. It’s peaked a lot of curiosity in our software demos.

Another example of a successful project: we have a huge conference with thousands of attendees that we do annually. We created a new software marketing product and wanted to launch it there. We had Dillon and his team create this video. They put a lot of work and energy into it and delivered it within a tight deadline. It’s one one of our most-liked videos. We still use the video and are really pleased with it.

How did Stylo Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

We were only 15 minutes away from each other. Dillon is really good about showing up for face-to-face on time when he’s needed. He’s super organized and comes with ideas to discuss.

Remotely, they used Frame.io, and that tool was awesome. We had multiple collaborators from our company on that tool at one given time, and Stylo Creative was very responsive. When they finished a revision or edit, they’d send us a link on Frame.io and we could distribute that amongst our different department heads. They’re also very responsive via text messages, phone calls, and email. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They generate solid ideas, and they’re committed to high-quality outcomes. It’s very clear that they don’t want to associate themselves with any low-quality projects. They take their brand and fingerprint on projects very seriously. 

Also, they’ve been able to bring a lot of extra resources to the table when we need them. For example, they’ve been willing to invest in certain equipment. If they don’t have it and they want a certain effect, they’ll go the extra mile to make sure they get it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’re on a retainer basis with them, and they could improve their documentation around hours used and what they’re working on. They don’t have the best solution around billing and hours logged. They just use an Excel spreadsheet, which is fine. 

However, part of that is our fault because we built such a good relationship with them now that we allow a lot of autonomy to work in the way that they do. We don’t scrutinize their time allocation or hours. We’ve been super satisfied with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Provide them with a lot of context. Give them homework. Prior to engaging them, give them a list of as much write-up as possible.

Provide them with documented direction whether it’s writing in Google Sheets or showing a video of yourself explaining what you’re trying to do. They consume your communication, direction, and vision really well. They’re responsive, and they’ll return with a lot of ideas, a fresh vision, and added direction.