Your Majesty Co.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a hotel based in Amsterdam with a top-floor restaurant. I'm the marketing manager and am responsible for our cultural programming team.

What challenge were you trying to address with Your Majesty Co.?

I started working here about a year ago, but the collaboration began before I joined. They were originally hired to help with our website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They oversee all our website management, including all our background security and other issues. They maintain our website design, and they come up with new ideas to keep the site looking fresh and modern. Before I joined, they developed the whole site, which uses WordPress. They also built a custom booking engine to suit our CMS.

We recently started working with them to improve conversions. They analyze our website, find areas of improvement, and make suggestions for the site.

What is the team composition?

I interact with an account manager and producer, a senior designer, a head of programming and research, a tech director, and a creative director.

How did you come to work with Your Majesty Co.?

I wasn't a part of the selection process, but I believe they were chosen for their design creativity.

What is the status of this engagement?

I think the collaboration started near the end of 2014, but I don't know the exact date. The partnership is ongoing.

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

We have quarterly reviews to see which parts of the work need improvement and what has gone well. The website is mentioned in several design cases for different ways to approach website development.

How did Your Majesty Co. perform from a project management standpoint?

They manage the project very well, and they improve every year. Their process is smooth, and they react quickly. If anything strange arises, they make fixes at any time. Their communication is good, and their approach is very structured.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're willing to work with us to move forward, and we trust their expertise. They think strategically, and they never try to oversell their services. They have our best interests in mind.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They acknowledge issues as soon as they occur, and I can't think of anything they should improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Approach them early on and allow them to help you brainstorm. Their strategic creativity is very good, and their solutions are often better than ours. Go to them, and let them help you make a plan for your project.

Please provide a description of your company.

We’re a global marketing and advertising agency that specializes in creating brand experiences for leading companies.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I'm the chief technology officer for North America. I oversee a creative team, which is responsible for creating new technology-related experiences for our clients, and then an engineering team, which is responsible for the development and build of the hardware and software.

What was your goal for working with Your Majesty?

The goal for our engagement with Your Majesty was to work with smart, talented people.

The projects have all been around experiential marketing. Your Majesty has assisted in the planning as well as the execution of the digital components of these projects. 

Please describe the scope of their work.

We’ve worked with them on a number of different projects during the last three to three and a half years. One of our clients is Bentley Motor Cars – the luxury auto brand. They engaged us for an experiential marketing campaign, which required us to build a popup store in New York for Bentley.

We worked with Your Majesty to build a customized consumer experience. Bentley has millions of combinations that you can create your vehicle from, but most people tend to order the same kind of color combination and fabrics. So, we built a system with Your Majesty using the RFID [radio-frequency identification] cards, where people could create a custom profile and answer some subjective questions around things that they like by selecting images. Using an algorithm we developed with Your Majesty, it would spit out their personality traits and preferences. Then, we fabricated with Your Majesty a 30-foot parabolic screen and, using the leap motion controller and some other technologies, people could browse through the selections they made.

We flew in the car designers from Crewe, England, and then once a customer had his or her profile sorted out, they had the opportunity to meet with the designer. They would actually share with you different leathers, materials, paint, all these sorts of things, and hand draw a vehicle for you. We ended up selling a number of Bentleys, which is a very difficult thing to do. It was a good experience.

What was your process for selecting Your Majesty with which to work?

We work with a number of partners all around the world. When I’m considering working with an agency, I look for a number of things, including their ability to ideate and co-create with us, their ability to execute the creative work, and the quality of the technology that they develop. Your Majesty excels in all of these areas, and that’s why we continue to partner with them.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

Those figures are confidential.

Can you talk about the results of the project and how you feel Your Majesty performed in terms of the quality of their work?

They’re exceptional. I’ve always been delighted with their ability to work and their ability to problem solve for creative issues that arise as well as technological ones.

The quality of their people, from the engineers to the project managers, is without peer. When we’ve worked with them, they’re the first ones there and the last to leave. From pre-production to execution, it’s a pleasure to work with them.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

There are so many things Your Majesty has that I can’t find anywhere else. It’s not just their tremendous creative ability. It’s the way that they partner with the agencies. It’s a hard thing to do for any vendor, especially when we lead with the idea, and they have to be flexible in how they integrate with a large team and work with the clients.

For example, when we partnered with a financial services client, we were governed by a lot of restrictions and regulations. Managing privacy regulations can be difficult, and they handled those issues with sensitivity and skill. They’re very proactive in trying to solve problems before they happen.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

I would say they face certain challenges because while the quality of their work is on par with any agency, they’re not as large as most of the major players. They need to ensure they bring on the same caliber of people as they continue to grow. There were times we worried if they could handle the volume of the work we were giving them.

Please provide a description of your company. 

I work for MTV2 and Logo, both divisions of Viacom.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I oversee the social and digital media for those two brands.

What was your goal for working with Your Majesty?

Logo had a very antiquated website, and we really needed to refresh our approach to the website, top to bottom, the way it looked, and the way it functioned. At the same time, we had a network of LGBT blogs, that we were trying to combine into one unified platform that could be a safe place for the LGBT community. We went to Your Majesty with that co-problem and proposition.

We need a trend-setting website that really communicated to our audience, which is a very fashion-forward, forward-thinking, avant-garde audience, that [shows] we are a media brand that represents them.

Please describe the scope of their work.

They did some strategy for us, as we worked to identify our audience, but mainly we engaged them to redesign our website entirely.

What was your process for selecting Your Majesty with which to work?

We put out an RFP [request for proposal] to about 10 potential vendors, and then selected three to come pitch to us. We chose Your Majesty primarily because of their past work. A lot of their thinking was really in line with how our team was approaching this project. They showed a deep understanding of the problems we were facing.

They were actually the most expensive of all of the different choices. But, part of the reason we still chose them is not only do they have great design skills, they also have a strong project management infrastructure. They put as much emphasis on timelines and project management as they do with design. 

I wanted to work with a team that I felt like I could trust in terms of benchmarks and timelines. We didn't have time to get involved with a project that was going to go on for more than a year. We wanted to get in and get out, and I knew they would be able to do that.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

It was around $200,000.

What was the timeline of the project?

The timeline was aggressive. I think the project started in September and wrapped up in December [of 2014].

Can you talk about how they performed in terms of the quality of the work they delivered?

Their work was superb. The website has a world-class look and feel to it. We're still figuring out some logistical issues on our end, but we're planning on launching the new site soon. 

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

From the beginning, they understood our needs and put forward a clear vision. They compromised on issues that we felt passionate about and took feedback really well, but they also pushed back on issues they felt passionate about and brought some great ideas to the table.

I thought there was a positive tension between seeing our needs and understanding them, but also fighting for what they believed was the best website. We love them so much, we want to continue to work with them.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

None that I can think of. They were fantastic.

Please provide a description of your company. 

[We are] a global digital agency focused on customer engagement.

What is your role at the company?

I’m the executive creative director for our western region, as well as managing partner.

What was the business challenge that you were trying to address when you approached Your Majesty?

We’ve brought them on to assist with the digital side of several campaigns we’ve worked on during the last five years or so. We worked with Your Majesty when we had innovation targets that stretched us as a firm.

What were your specific business goals for the project?

The goal in our projects with Your Majesty was always to create industry leading digital experiences.

What was your process for selecting Your Majesty with which to work?

James [Widegren] and Jens [Karlsson, co-founders at Your Majesty] are former employees of mine at Kioken.

Can you give us a general estimate of the size of the project in dollar terms or personnel work hours? 

A very general estimate would be between $200,000 and $500,000.

When did the project begin, and when was it completed?

We’ve contracted with them on a number of projects between 2010-2015.

What were the results of the project, and how did Your Majesty perform?

On all the projects we partnered with Your Majesty we succeeded in overdelivering on all metrics to the clients. In regard to design, technology, and the actual process of working with them, we have never had a better experience working with a digital firm.

When working with them, was there anything unique or special about them compared to other partners with which you may have worked?

Yes, it’s their people. Your Majesty has unparalleled talent in terms of creative and technical ability. They consistently succeed in recruiting the best young minds in the industry, and the partners running the company are seasoned veterans who are still on top of their game.

Looking back on the project, do you have any constructive criticism? Is there any area that they could improve or you would do differently?

Absolutely not.