Toast Studio

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of SparkTrain, an e-learning platform that offers training on soft skills and suggestive selling for people who work face-to-face with customers. It’s a web-based application. Users learn through short videos and quizzes.

What challenge were you trying to address with Toast Studio?

We were looking for someone who could write our content.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired them to make our videos and content. We gave them our objective and the goals of the program. We talked with them, and then they wrote 12 white papers for us. We went through that with them and confirmed we were on the same page. After that, they took the white papers and transformed them into 12 scripts. We wanted to make sure it matched perfectly with our vision.

We cast a comic for our videos. They’re corporate training courses, but we put a little humor in it. Toast Studio wrote the script, did the filming and put the video together. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with Julie (Executive Producer), Sandy (General Manager), Catherine (Project Manager), Mathilde (Project Manager), and Shawn (Managing Editor). There was also a sound person and someone who filmed.

How did you come to work with Toast Studio?

We found them on Instagram. We made an appointment with them. We realized they could not only create content, but they could make videos too.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2020, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

The quality is fantastic. We did a video project with another company before, and we feel that Toast Studio has a lot more experience. They coach us and always know what to do. They understand what we want. They took time at the start of the engagement to get to know us and understand our needs. They work quickly, and they’re thorough.

How did Toast Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is excellent. For timelines, we work with Julie and Mathilde. They follow the timeline, show us where we are, what we’ve done, and what we need to do. We’re totally satisfied. They’re amazing. If every partner we had worked like that, it’d be easy.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They really understand our perspective. They’re professional without being too corporate. They’re respectful and always ask how we feel at the beginning of each call. Since we’re a startup, if we’re late in making payments, they always understand. We have trust in them, and they trust us. We feel really important to them. They give us advice. They challenge us if we have an idea, but they hear our idea.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing I’d have them improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t hesitate. I recommend talking with Julie and Sandy. They’re amazing. They are there to help you.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the general manager of FounderFuel at Real Ventures. We’re a venture capitalist firm that invests in startups.

What challenge were you trying to address with Toast Studio?

We hired them to orchestrate our demo day, which is a four-month accelerator at the end of FounderFuel. We have eight companies that we invest in and the companies present at demo day where they pitch to investors. Because of COVID, we had to reinvent that process which ended up being a live stage production that was then broadcasted over a big intercom platform. All of the investors and the community were able to watch the live pitch.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Toast Studio brainstormed with us to figure out what the creative narrative and digital platforms would be. We explored doing a drive-in and then broadcasting that. We also looked at a variety of physical locations and platforms. They helped us architect what the coming together of the tech and physical platforms would be. Video production also covered how our founders lived at home during the last few months. Conducting a lot of creative behind the scenes, they did a lot of videos, including teasers. We landed on doing a Michael Bay, adventure theme. During demo day, we had three production cameras on-site live broadcasting the event on a live stage.

They did a lot of the logistical backend and then afterward all of the post-production, which entailed cutting all of the pictures into videos because those are what startups use to send investors to watch their pitches. Outside of helping with all of the creative thinking, production, lead-up, and content, they also helped us manage all of the different rooms we had investors in.

What is the team composition?

We worked with  Alex (Co-Founder), Isabelle (Film Producer), and about 5 other people.

How did you come to work with Toast Studio?

I met Alex in 2015.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since March 2016 and the collaboration is ongoing.

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

Their quality of service is excellent and they are willing to do crazy things.

How did Toast Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

Toast Studio has excellent project management skills and they make sure we are always on top of it. We stay in touch by either emailing or speaking.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I like that they’re willing to experiment with me and are very daring, creative, and audacious. Remaining solutions-oriented, they’re super flexible and accommodating.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes there are just too many people which can get confusing with email, which is why I usually end up just calling everyone.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would say just go for it when working with them and make sure every piece of your budget is really tied down because it can increase very quickly.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing manager for Hydro Quebec. We provide utilities for the province of Quebec.

What challenge were you trying to address with Toast Studio?

We wanted to overhaul our content on social media in order to better reach our audience.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided strategy. They came up with ideas of different ways to share content, such as energy efficiency, and how to engage customers on social media, specifically Facebook and Instagram. 

There were several brainstorming sessions where they listened to our insights and familiarized themselves with our internal structure and methods. From there, they created a playbook as a main reference for future social media messages. They made a three-month calendar, implementing their proposals.

What is the team composition?

There were five people, including the project lead.

How did you come to work with Toast Studio?

Their president holds conferences on content marketing. We heard him speak and reached out for some help.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $50,000–$199,999.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in February 2020, and the relationship is ongoing. We expect to wrap it up by December 2020.

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

The content hasn’t gone live yet. They helped integrate their strategies, and challenged us to innovate. They saw the importance of our message and assisted us in becoming organized, turning around our social media messaging. 

How did Toast Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great. There was constant communication, and they made sure to move at our pace. We had regular meetings to discuss progress and worked collaboratively when delays arose. We used Google Docs and communicated via phone, email, and Zoom. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They quickly understood where we wanted to go, and took us even further. They made great suggestions and were very creative. They helped bring humor into our messages to be more appealing. They have reasonable prices. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Get a good briefing, and figure out what you really want, before meeting with them. It will save time. Be prepared for them to push you.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a digital strategist for a financial institution. We do banking for doctors, physicians, and architects.

What challenge were you trying to address with Toast Studio?

We were doing a new brand for the company and were going to launch it for our employees this June and for the rest of our customers in September. We wanted to do something by video to make sure that our employees and customers are able to feel the essence of what the new brand will be.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We are working with them to produce two videos. It’s a work in progress. For the video in June, we’re going to do animation. For the second video, we’re hoping to do a video with actual people. If we’re not able to do some onsite filming with people, we will work with motion video.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with Julie (Executive Producer) and a strategist. Julie makes sure all the information that we give her gets to the rest of the team. There will be 3–4 total when we get to production.  

How did you come to work with Toast Studio?

We were looking for an agency that was able to understand what we were doing. We wanted to work with people who were able to offer quality work. I had worked with Toast Studio for a year in the past, so I knew what they were capable of. That’s why we chose them for this project.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2020, and the work is ongoing.

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

It’s difficult for people to understand what we do and how to speak to our clientele. Toast Studio’s team has been open and willing to learn about our business. They visited the website and have asked good questions about what we really want to accomplish with the videos. They’ve presented what they’ve done with different customers and brands that they’ve worked with. We are really pleased to work with Toast Studio.

How did Toast Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s easy to work with them: everything is clear, and there haven’t been any issues. They’re super easy to get in contact with. When they find new ideas, they automatically send stuff to us and make suggestions. They’re honest. They’re pretty easygoing which helps us to be confident with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

When I asked my team and my supervisor to try Toast Studio, I was scared because maybe they weren’t as good as I remembered from working with them, but that wasn’t the case. They’re really perfect and professional. Toast Studio knows what they’re doing and what’s new on the market. When we share an idea with them, they know what we’re saying. It’s like being a part of a family: they really take care of us. I don’t feel like another number.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have anything for them to do better. They’re really open in letting us know we’re short of time but that they can still work with it. They tell us when we need to focus and deliver what they need so they can produce the best product. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Toast Studio can do more than you think. A lot of people are working with them because they do great and amazing videos, but they also so brand content, social media content, TV shows, podcasts, and more. When you work with them, be open and find what more they can do.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We fund clean tech companies that can showcase that their technology is market-viable, good for the economy, but also good for the environment. We’re funded by the federal government but we have a private-sector board. I’m responsible for communications and civil partnerships.

What challenge were you trying to address with Toast Studio?

Our external communications were largely dormant. We didn’t have a very active social media presence, and we didn’t have a newsletter or regular updates. Internally, we revamped our external communications, reactivated social media accounts, and now have some presence on external sites. We got to a point where we felt like we could take it to the next level, and turned to external resources to achieve that.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had branding guidelines, which they followed. So their involvement with us is largely based on marketing. The first phase is focusing on awareness. They created a campaign that is hyper-targeted to potential applicants that would be interested in applying for our programs. They’ve helped us find out who our audience is and how they consume their news. They’ve produced the banner ads and social media ads. Now we’re in the process of creating a video ad, which includes scripting.

What is the team composition?

We have a client lead who is responsible for overseeing our project. We also work with a number of different consultants from their team depending on what we’re talking with. I work most closely with Sean, who has been curating most of our messaging, scripting the video, and that sort of thing, because it requires more back and forth. We also have a branding consultant.

How did you come to work with Toast Studio?

We put out an RFP and were impressed by Toast Studio’s creative approach to branding and marketing.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $80,000 overall.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2019 and our engagement is ongoing.

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

 So far, the project has generated a number of new visitors to our site and downloading out application document. We’ve also seen an increased rate of people actually completing the application if they’re coming from a channel where they would have seen our awareness campaign. This tells us that the hyper-targeting is working and we’re finding the right people because they’re going through the process. Since we’re still in the first phase of the project right now, we don’t have concrete data to determine the increase by percentage.   

How did Toast Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re still in the early phases, so we’re still determining our comfort level is in terms of our expectations and how we would like to be informed. Largely, we’ve been using video conferencing, and our team traveled to their offices for an initial meeting. We feel very well-supported by them. They’ve been able to meet at the last second when we need it. We got the fresh look and feel of a dynamic organization that would appeal to young entrepreneurs.

As you can imagine, we’ve had to pivot our campaign a bit given the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic. They’ve been very forthcoming in how that will impact our campaign and how we should change our messaging. So, our communication with them has been really great in that regard.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve worked with other agencies in the past, but we really wanted an outside the box approach. Toast Studio was that they came up with a solution that wasn’t centered on how government organizations communicate. Our solution was more appealing to entrepreneurs.

We also like that they started these campaigns for us, but we could continue it in-house in the future. Their business model is based on our success but isn’t dependent on us continuing to work with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s hard to say, but in an ideal world, it would be great if we could collaborate more in-person at the beginning of our project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust them and their process. You have to let yourself be open to their ideas in order to showcase what they can do.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at an insurance company that offers car and auto insurance all over Quebec. We also provide business insurance and group insurance.

What challenge were you trying to address with Toast Studio?

We hired Toast Studio because we’d been running with the same content marketing strategy for a while. Part of the strategy included a blog where we share content for our clients to provide an added value and stay top of their minds. Even though we sell insurance, we’re able to talk about different subjects related to our field of expertise, such as health.

We found that our bounce rate was quite high. We also wanted to increase the click rate and reading time for the blog.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team at Toast Studio provided recommendations for our team. They created a document that outlined their detailed suggestions to improve the blog’s metrics. We have a marketing department internally but wanted to get an outside view and feedback. Their team identified areas we didn’t think about.

Toast Studio suggested external partners that would develop videos for our blog and provided resources to find images and useful links.

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact was Sandy (Strategy, Performance & Senior Account Services Director, Toast Studio). At one point, three people were working on the project.

How did you come to work with Toast Studio?

We received their email campaigns every Monday. We thought that they had an interesting and different point of view that was also very much in line with our way of thinking. Toast Studio caught our eye. They specialize in producing great content outside of just content marketing strategy.

How much have you invested with them?

Their services cost about $8,000 CAD (approximately $6,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Toast Studio in February 2019, and the project concluded in March 2019.

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

The team at Toast Studio greatly helped our business. Our bounce rate has reduced, and the reading time & click rate has increased on our articles and email campaigns. When the blog project finished, we used their consulting services.

How did Toast Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very flexible. Even though we weren’t in the same city as them, we were always able to plan meetings, visit their offices, and have them come to our Montreal office. Along with being readily available, the team at Toast Studio responds quickly. We communicated with them through email and phone.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team at Toast Studio was able to demonstrate that they’re aware of business trends. Because they also have great articles, they’re able to showcase their expertise each week. Toast Studio is a leader in their field.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I think everything went well. We had no issues with deadlines or anything else.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be prepared. If they’re able to make a clear list of expectations and have objectives, Toast Studio likes having that on hand before they start their work. It helps them make the most of their time while benefitting the client’s business.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a brand manager at a distillery. We sell wine and spirit brands across Canada, including gin, spiced rum, bourbon, vodka, and other alcoholic products.

What challenge were you trying to address with Toast Studio?

I wanted our business to be more active on social media. We needed a creative mind that would touch on certain points and help us gain new customers through social media channels.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Toast Studio has been a creative asset. They come up with ideas to communicate our brand. Their team assists in producing videos and photoshoots for the distillery. They pull together our social media channels, crafting content for Facebook and Instagram. Their team also assisted with one of our Christmas campaigns.

What is the team composition?

Sandy (Account Services Director, Toast Studio) is our primary contact.

How did you come to work with Toast Studio?

My former boss found Toast Studio when we were building a website. They helped us get in touch with other agencies.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $100,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Toast Studio in September 2017, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

We’ve seen a tremendous increase because of what they’ve done with our Facebook page. Sales doubled during the period when the Christmas campaign was combined with store promotions. Toast Studio’s social media work also contributed to that.

How did Toast Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

Toast Studio proactively comes up with creative ideas. They’re extremely responsive. We communicate through text, email, and phone calls. Our teams use a social media calendar to manage posts and content. Sometimes things come up, and we need the work quickly. They do their best to make it happen.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Toast Studio’s young and creative team is an advantage. They’re excellent at social media.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could have more out of the box ideas, but they’re amazing at what they do. I don’t have anything negative to say about Toast Studio.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clients should have an idea of what they want to do on social media. They can go into an engagement knowing where they want to go and able to see how the agency can achieve their goals.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I design and manufacture menswear.

What challenge were you trying to address with Toast Studio?

We needed assistance with social media marketing.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Toast Studio helped us with a pilot initiative for social media marketing. Using provided images, their team created written, visual, and video content for our company’s social media posts. They primarily targeted our audience through Facebook but also did some work for Instagram. On both platforms, they strategically marketed to consumer profiles that would most likely draw traffic to our website. The Toast Studio resources are working with our internal staff to put together an optimized posting schedule for the content.

At the same time as this project, we were also launching an e-commerce site. We wanted everything done in sync, so when the website was delayed, we had to pause our work with Toast Studio. We’re just now starting to publish their posts on social media.

What is the team composition?

We initially spoke with Danny (Senior Director, Toast Studio), then Shawn (Community Manager, Toast Studio) took over. He handles our day-to-day needs.

How did you come to work with Toast Studio?

A colleague had worked with them in the past and was happy with the quality of their services. I reached out following that recommendation.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $20,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in December 2017, and the project is ongoing. At the end of this pilot initiative, we’ll evaluate the results and decide whether to continue the relationship or not.

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

Because of all of the delays stemming from the e-commerce site, most of their work is still waiting to be published. It’s too early to share any concrete results. With that said, we’re impressed with their work overall. I'm looking forward to seeing the results.

How did Toast Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

I was mainly involved in the initial discussions and strategizing, but I think they managed the full project very well. They communicate with our internal resources via phone and email. Once we publish more content, we’ll begin to schedule weekly check-ins.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciated the quality of their work in general. Toast Studio is highly creative throughout their processes, from development to execution. Their content is rich and meaningful to our target consumers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We try to move as quickly as possible, but delays with the e-commerce site hindered our progress. I can’t fault Toast Studio for the slow turnaround time. Honestly, they were moving quicker than we were.

Any advice for potential customers?

I recommend clients consider partnering with Toast Studio. I’ve been pleased with their work from beginning to end.