DIVERSITY

Client References

Lamecia Butler, Facebook Supplier Diversity - lameciabutler@fb.com

Heidi Zeller, LA Country Metro Arts - zellerh@metro.net

Creative Community Contributions

Kizh Nation (Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians) media production and support, African American Beech Church of Indiana, 2021 Geffen Academy Hackathon, United Farm Workers, Speak.Studio.

Capabilities, Relevant Experience, & Unique Value Add

Our capabilities:

Award-winning storytelling

Campaign-level approach

Diverse, representative stories for a diversity of audiences

Instructional + Educational

Strategy

Qual and Quant analysis

Docu-style promos

Organic Design

Traditional and non-traditional marketing

Podcasts

Traditional commercial production

User Surveys+Interviews

Web+App Design

Augmented Reality+Virtual Reality

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE:

When it comes to relevant experience creating educational content and reaching target audiences, we feel there’s no one better than us. 

We think deeply about how to convey culturally impactful information, drive adoption, maximize recruitment+yield, and fuel high-value learning.

We’ve created and messaged educational+instructional content for traditional and non-traditional educational institutions like UCLA & UCLA Extension and UCLA Community School, Kaplan, foreign language schools like LA-based Broadway Mandarin immersion, school districts like Spanish Immersion Summit County School district Colorado.

We’ve also created and marketed educational+instructional content for companies ranging from Facebook Inc., podcast platform Speak.Studio, and manufacturing + machining company Tormach, and pool supply company King Technology, to name a few.

We conceive of and create short and long-form marketing, brand and instructional films and videos, PSAs and more.

We produce How To’s in our studio and “open up the playbook”, lensing content across the globe.

EDUCATION DOCU-STYLE PROMOS (sample)

EDUCATION + MISSION-DRIVEN DOCUSTYLE PROMOS (sample)

instructional + how to (sample)

OTHER NOTABLE INSTRUCTIONAL AND EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS:

2018 - 2021 - Facebook Supplier Diversity 

2016 Luskin Conference Center suite of videos and marketing

2019 Skechers Star Wars How To

2020 UCLA distance learning 

2019 UCLA welcome tours 

2019 The 5th Semester - Continued Writing, in association with Drexel University

2017 405 Shutdown 30 minute TV piece. Educational and entertainment; with stakeholders Caltrans, Metro and more

2020 Facebook  Source to Pay suite of videos

2019 Wunder Summit - Interviews  and 360 

2019 LA County Metro - Lessons Learned 

AYSO 20 Pandemic, In Home Instructional Videos

2020 AYSO 20 How To’s

2019 Livestreaming with Business education at Georgia Power for Georgia SMDC

2021 BUILT - Blacks in Tech, marketing and outreach group

our competitive advantages that differentiates us from other agencies

We’re the only story-driven creative technology agency in the mix I bet.

We use stories to grab the gut, engage the mind, warm the heart and touch the soul.

And we tell a diversity of stories in a diversity of ways. With a diverse team for diverse audiences. It’s really in our DNA.

We command a concoction of tech that includes AI, ML, coding, app development, Data Viz with traditional creative communications endeavors, including photography, music and more.

We’ve produced award-wining content from concept through storyboard, animatics, previz, emotional and intellectual design, scripting.

We’re really good at production of narrative, documentary, promotion, educational and hybrid content, talent management (both seasoned actors and non-actor subjects alike all the way through post production and traditional and self-distribution channels.

We’ve composed analogue and digital-native music for films and commercials and plays, built custom AR and VR educational experiences with Oscar and Emmy-winning leads and more. 

We’ve designed and implemented bespoke strategies for data and analytics tracking, and have implemented the execution of above integrations.

Facebook should partner with us because we’re really talented, pretty accomplished, will never be outworked, rambunctiously innovative and wildly tenacious in our pursuit of sustained excellence.

…

Oh and we can offer

2 standing studios

COMPETETIVE ADVANTAGES

Our competitive advantages?

We’re an award-winning, hybrid agency+production storytelling shop that is seasoned in in-person and remote production.

Our remote production looks like us shipping cameras, mics and lights to the four corners of the globe, and our in-person looks like us sitting in huts and living rooms, as well as walking crowded streets in Mumbai to knee-deep rivers around Boyle Heights in Los Angeles.

Our intentional empathy, our passion and tireless work ethic are a few. 

Our listening skills are exceptional.

We’re truly service-oriented. 

We’re diverse group of polyglots.

This is north inward-facing in the way we approach our client, and it’s outward-facing in the way we interact and engage with our audience. 

And the spirit of service is something our team has been doing this for over three decades.

Whether it be with living with local UFW migrant families whilst working for them in Brownsville, Texas, or walking the earth at the world HQ in California, it’s the same.

In addition to partnering in local communities, we travel to those communities.

There’s a reason why we’re able to go to two villages in Fiji and are considered official members of the community. 

There’s a reason why Southern California Native American groups like the Kizh Gabriellenos work with us.

There’s trust and understanding and a belief that we see and hear the needs of the communities we serve that our motives are true. 

We create space. The creation and  the holding of “space”, both literal and conceptual. In the most-basic of senses, we have standing, physical studio spaces in two locations in Los Angeles, and are opening up one in Madison, WI in January 2022. 

Storytelling, project management, videos, data viz and data crunching, quality and quantity analytics. 

INTEREST IN THE PROJECT

Our interest in the project is simple. Education is the key to empowerment, both individual and group.

No group in the history of the planet has been worse off for embracing education.

I’m a product and a witness of great education.

I’m a polyglot. I speak Spanish, Mandarin and English.

And I count Swift and music composition and performance as viable other languages in which I can communicate. 

You cannot have good output unless you have good input and the core to good input is access to good education. 

I’ve seen the value, and also the limitations of the current educational model. From a user of, and worker in, education.

It’s inefficient and imbalanced at best.

Nearly all of my core team members have family who are educators: Andrea’s father, husband, mother, aunts and uncles. Both of Len’s parents. And that’s just a start.

Our interest is personal and runs deep and wide.

It would be an honor to work on this project.

You couldn’t find a more-passionate and skilled group.

experience producing and amplifying mission-based video content

Picture+Sound has a boatload of experience producing mission-based content - UFW, UCLA, Angel Foundation, FIRC, Hispanics in Philanthropy. AYSO 20.

experience producing and amplifying tutorial and learning-based video content

We do - UCLA, Summit County School District, Speak.Studio, and Kaplan, King Technology, Tormach, to name a few.

Design & Marketing Process

Here’s the process we’ll follow to produce the deliverables: 

RESEARCH - We engage in a lot of listening, research and learning. 

CONCEPT - We co-develop and overarching strategic vision for the project.

DEVELOPMENT - We iterate on the concept and continue to refine, as new information becomes available.

PRODUCTION - We produce the most engaging, beautiful, intelligent and emotionally impactful content we can muster.

POST - We iterate and refine in post production.

LAUNCH - We launch, track, measure, report, and modulate/refine. 

The advantages:

Great things take a bit of time and pressure to do right. And whenever we’ve approached things this way, we’ve won, and usually won big.

The risks: 

Great things take a bit of time and pressure to do right. And whenever we’ve approached things this way, we’ve won, and usually won big.

General recommendations:

Project Values - Boldness, truth, innovation, specificity and authenticity, 

Project Management - Disciplined with an easy bedside manor. 

Design Thinking - We start with the end in mind and work backwards from there. We find/define our North Star constellation. 

Creative Concepting and Ideation - Paper, sketches iPad apps, white boarding, maybe interpretative dance (seriously… ok maybe it’s more like interpretive movement — and we’re not saying it’s any good, per se, but can be quite effective at fueling creativity).

Pre, Prod, and Post-Production - Adobe suite,Final Cut X, Davinci Resolve and Frame IO, with notes and revisions. 

Testing & Analytics - We use a variety of techniques, platforms and approaches to test and analyze our work and the marketplace’s consumption of our work. 

Work Plan & Timeline

We’ll really lean into research and development to make sure we “measure twice and cut once, as it were. We would probably dedicate part of our studio to a standing set so we can design and iterate at scale, but on budget.

A phased, iterative, data-supported, feedback-oriented approach seems, at this point, the best way to achieve success and excellence.

Measuring success

Are people animated to animate. Quite simple.

Creating video content that resonates nationally + Globally

Alfred Hitchcock said from “the more specific the story, the more universal story” — that’s how you connect with and move and audience.

We explore universal themes — Hope. Aspirations. Grit. Determination.

In all key groups: Educators+Administrators+Learners+Stakeholders

These asset-based themes are uniquely impactful in LATAM markets, from our experience.

Personal and group expression and empowerment. 

And we do that through words, sounds, images, iconography and more that are all specific to the people we’re serving and the stories we’re telling.

Our project excitement and our agency’s strengths? 

Education. Empowerment. Creativity.

These are tenets my company is built on, and that I live by; both personally and professionally.

We kiss the way we want to kiss. We give gifts the way we want to receive them I suppose. I had a few stories that I saw myself in, as I was growing up, and would have benefitted from more…. That much is certain.

Telling the universal stories of individuals within unique, and usually-underserved communities is my jam and my mission. Voice to the voiceless. I understand that position because I was once in that position. Then used the tools of the medium to find a platform.

Which part of this project may pose challenges or serve as a learning opportunity/area of growth for your agency?

We tend to find that until we understand what communities and groups within communities we’re entering, there’s always a bit of “nerves” about making sure we can tell the right story and connect in the right way.

Not so-paradoxically,  this is the exact same fuel that pushes us forward, gets us into a new way of thinking, and makes us better people, and a better company, as a result.

Metrics

HOW we’ll measure the success of this project

The most important thing about success metrics is alignment with client values. Plain and simple.

We currently have video specific metrics (time, #, etc) but campaign success metrics would be more about new participants, participant retention and program adoption.

So…

Increase recruitment and adoption: Use high quality and motivational video content to market EdMod programming to recruit new participants, retain existing participants, and deepen participant adoption within programs.

Set goal and measure increase in new participants

Set goal and measure participant retention

Set goal and measure additional program adoption

That stated, impact on communities served is a good direction in which to look -- that is, are we landing our message and empowering our students and educators in ways that are both intentional and obvious, and some that are not.

Which metrics are most important to us

Of course we would track hours of video watched, video views, length of time of play and number of videos completed. Matriculation and completion of program. Conversions to partnerships and more.

the best way to measure return on investment

That might change depending on community served, but as a rule of thumb, a baseline measurement on ROI is conversions to relationships/partnerships, enrollment (when applicable) and retention in program: views, length of time of view, conversions to other programs/videos and enthusiasm and alignment of brand and sub-brand for groundwork for future years.

We would want to listen to client needs and aspirations, and tune our vision or RIO based on this.

Where OUR GREATEST SUCCESSES LIKELY TO BE FOUND

From a company perspective:

Efficacy of community empowerment. Increased access to, and benefit from designed opportunities and financial and cultural empowerment. derived from use of educational tools.

From a marketing perspective:

1. Relationship/partnership building. 

2. Enrollment in programs and ongoing engagement 

3. Branding opportunities: social, sponsorships, PPC, networking opps, etc.

We’re a cohesive, roundtable kind of team. We have less a hierarchy than we do a gathering where all parties voices are heard and metabolized.

ACT 1: Research Listening, Talking + Discovery - listening, research, consumption. Dog-fooding as it were. Not just as a team, but with target groups.

ACT 2: Strategy - Deriving, well-informed and diverse “culturally wise” meaning in the research then determining the path forward, as our diverse, in-house team partners with local, diverse contractors for local market impact.

ACT 3: Production - Design and produce work that harmonizes with the agreed strategy, as our diverse, in-house team partners with local, diverse producers for local market impact.

CLIMAX: Tracking, measuring and optimizing as our diverse, in-house team partners with local, diverse research companies for local market impact.

DENOUEMENT: Happiness and refinement.

Company Client Relationship / Communication Style

Our client relationships are everything to us. Like any good relationship is a melange of being confident in what you bring to the table, but knowing that the key is service. That ostensibly paradoxical relationship is what we do and do well. We listen to client needs, then design and manage timelines for creative and project management that are flexible enough for exploration and iteration, and firm-enough to achieve agreed upon deadlines and deliverables. 

How OUR team prefers to communicate

Consistent and clear communication and bi-directional/multi-directional feedback is essential, especially in the early stages, to set the right course. 

Our team has a variety of ways we communicate internally and externally. Everything from walking down the hall, to messaging on slack. We tend to interact via Slack/email/message/messenger/Asana group internally and externally we embrace and “all of the above” strategy. 

We learned this on our first UCLA project, where email was useless, but texting… that was the key… at least locally. Internationally it was all about WhatsApp and to a lesser degree Skype and that was just for the students and families we needed to interact with. UCLA staff ranged from emails to Trello boards, and we weren’t judging. So yeah, any and all. Carrier pigeons or fax is your thing? Cool. Let’s rock. 

Relevant Case Studies / Work Samples

Provide links and background information to at least 2 previous case studies and work samples that are specifically relevant to this project and best represent your company’s mission, style, and capabilities. 

CASE STUDY

TAGS: brand, recruiting & yield, story, bi-lingual, diversity, underserved communities, pre-existing footage

CASE STUDY 1- UCLA INTERNATIONAL + DOMESTIC RECRUITMENT

ACT 1 - THE SET UP:

Listen -> research -> consume

As part of a tectonic “vision shift”, the new Vice Chancellor of admissions at UCLA wanted to recruit a student population that better-reflected the community this esteemed public institution was supposed to be serving.

And reaching underserved communities and first generation families in places like migrant farming towns in the Central Valley of California where Spanish was the only language spoken in the home, economically depressed South Los Angeles, and a wide-range of communities across the globe was key to her vision. But she needed help.

We did a deep dive analysis of past work, and went on a formal, measured “listening tour” within the admissions org to find out what was working, and what needed to be augmented or addressed.

ACT 2 - THE ACTION:

Find meaning in the research -> innovate -> design a path forward

We designed an a overarching strategy, and granularly precise tactical approach that would maximize our production and deployment of our content across the globe. There were a lot of must-haves on their list of messaging needs; specific targeted agenda items that needed to be made in a 6 minute film. And we nailed them all. Some subtly and some more vociferously. 

Our creative and outreach group researched *before we shot one frame of content, so we could make sure every second of our work was aligned with UCLA’s mission, admission’s mission and our target audiences’ needs. Not an easy task, with a university with such diverse offerings and audiences, but once achieved, it was quite exhilarating.

Then we synthesized proprietary UCLA data, goals, and benchmarks with a our vision for what UCLA’s team needed to accomplish, and decided on a docu-style promo suite of films that told impactful and highly emotional stories of current and former students and faculty.

We held remote and in-person interviews and captured photography all over the world in the communities we wanted to connect with. Telling their story because the more specific your story is, the more universal it is.  

We scoured extant and archival footage, sourced family photos and 8mm film, accessed popular film clips like Coming To America and Blues Brothers, 

We worked with UCLA’s internal marketing group and targeted small room closed circuit viewing in local communities, Spanish speaking homes and schools in Argentina, Guatemala, Mexico, and locally in Boyle Heights, Inland Empire, East LA and beyond, as well as Hyderabad, Singapore and more.

We small group AB tested the work with potential and current students and parents across the globe and refined edits based on that feedback as well as notes and suggestions from UCLA and local field operatives.

The work was such a success that our flotilla of content was leveraged into social media clips, sound bites for radio, images for OOH, and footage for national TV commercials.

ACT 3 - THE PAYOFF:

Distribute-> track ->measure->optimize ->repeat

Over 107,000 new student applications - a record number of students from a record number of communities; both internationally and domestically. And a pool of students that reflected the values and culture of the communities UCLA wished to serve per its mission.

That yielded the largest, most-diverse slate of incoming freshman and transfer students that UCLA had ever seen.

A soft power move that resonated within other divisions of UCLA and across UC in general. One that increased it’s ranking in U.S News and Chronicle of Higher Ed to best public university in the country.

CASE STUDY

TAGS: brand-driven recruiting & adoption instructional, foreign language, diversity, remote production, user generated footage

ACT 1 - THE SET UP:

Listen -> research -> consume

Disney corp trusted us with their first year back Disney Parks outreach for planDisney 2022 , a high-impact outreach campaign that required two-language, multi-continental production. 

A hybrid gig — Half outreach and half education.

A series of videos and outreach on Disney social channels and parent site to fuel application, adoption and animation for a new slate of planDisney community contributors.

And all this in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, and in the most divisive time (https://www.sfgate.com/disneyland/article/Disneyland-has-toxic-online-fans-16532319.php) for community contributors in the history of Disney.

All in the height of COVID and when Disney was in the midst of record losses in their their theme park division.

The life was not easy.

But :) It’s the happiest place on earth, after all, so let’s get to crackin!

ACT 2 - THE ACTION:

Find meaning in the research -> innovate -> design a path forward

Quick-turnaround, high-volume user generated videos.

Content shot in-home mixed with original and Disney stock photography, with culturally-precise language and nuances, , copywritten, recorded and edited across thousands of miles and four time zones.

Worked with internal Disney team to assure user information/data was safe 

Worked with Disney Parks in-house marketing team to make sure we were delivering on goals.

Integrated into Disney Parks social platforms and website

ACT 3 - THE PAYOFF:

Distribute-> track ->measure->optimize ->repeat

planDisney’s largest and most-successful North American English speaking and LATAM crop ever.

Needed diverse adoption of not-only the application.

Lauding from Disney execs

More great work. Much more.

CASE STUDY

TAGS: brand, instructional, social, product demo

CASE STUDY 3 - TORMACH

ACT 1 - THE SET UP:

Listen -> research -> consume

A nerdy machining company was looking to harness their nascent online presence and foment a small, but passionate online machining community to become to gravitational center of the burgeoning home hobby and pro MAKE culture.

And do it in a style that would turn their…”unique” brand of geeks on. Think more grungy Seattle garage-band aesthetics, versus glam 80’s hair band.

ACT 2 - THE ACTION:

Find meaning in the research -> innovate -> design a path forward

A long series of precise long-form educational+product videos that meticulously showed process, and flagrantly flexed form.

We even went as fast as doing a “throwback” homage series on their new vice entitled… you guessed it, Waunakee Vice…

Laugh if you want. We did.

And Tormach did and still is — All the way to the bank.

ACT 3 - THE PAYOFF:

Distribute-> track ->measure->optimize ->repeat

Record sales of existing and new products.

We turned in-house talent Tormach engineer Andy Greivstad into a minor celebrity, at least within the worldwide maker community.

A 4500 percent jump in online community adoption and engagement.

TAGS: brand, instructional, product demo, foreign language, remote production, social

TAGS: brand, data visualization

Tags: Instructional

TAGS: brand, story, bi-lingual, underserved communities

BUDGET

*Budget range can be flexible to scale up or down depending on the needs of client.

We anticipate a large degree of part-time and and a small smattering full time work.

EdMod Program “Dog-fooding”

Work with the EdMod team to run through all current EdMod programming as learners and/or educators where applicable. The goal of this project is to get hands-on experience using our programs and products and walking in the shoes of EdMod’s learners and educators.

BUDGET: $30-$50k

EdMod Video Landscape Analysis, User Testing and Channel Recommendations

Review and user test all past and present EdMod video content and identify strengths and growth opportunities. Utilize EdMod’s existing usertesting.com software license to conduct user tests. Survey the current video market and peers relative to EdMod’s primary audiences and make recommendations of video content to produce to resonate with those audiences. Provide recommendations and comparison across various video channels (ie YouTube, Facebook Watch, Reels, etc.).

BUDGET: $90-150k

Engineer for the Week 2022 LATAM Video Strategy

Work closely with the Marketing team to review the crafted go-to-market strategy (ready on 10/29) for Latin America and provide video recommendations on how to achieve proposed marketing goals. Execute on the following deliverables at the close of strategy development:

• Strategy document / proposal

• 1 long-form promotional video

• 1–3 Short form social media cuts

BUDGET: $125 - $185k

EFTW Student Stories Video Series

Utilize existing interview footage of EFTW learners to create a video series that showcases their experience in EFTW, the projects they’ve created, and the impact EFTW and tech has made in their lives. Supplement interview footage with animation to enhance the videos. Include both long-form (more than 60s), horizontal and short-form (less than 60s), vertical formats to be used across social media and the chosen long-form video channel.

• 3–6 long-form promotional videos - $55 - $85k

• 3–6 short form social media cuts (vertical and horizontal) $25 - $45k

BUDGET: $80k -  $130k

Engineer for the Week “Products with Purpose” Instructional Videos (English & Spanish)

Create a series of instructional videos that walk educators and learners through EFTW’s new program offering, Products with Purpose, in both English and Spanish.

• 15–30 1-3 minute instructional videos in English 

• 15–30 1-3 minute instructional videos in Spanish

BUDGET: $8k-14k/video =  $120k - $420k

Social Media Cuts to Support Program Promotion

Work closely with the Marketing team to develop 15 short-form creative video assets to publish on social media (Facebook, Instagram) that are 60 seconds or less.

BUDGET: $60k - $105k

TOTAL $505k - $1.545m

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PITCH DECK

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RELEVANT WORK

INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEOS

MARKETING

Wunder Juice

405 Shutdown Television Show

UCLA Pauley Pavillion 

Luskin Conference Center

Film Suite

AYSO REGION 20

SPANISH LANGUAGE

OUT OF HOME

DIGITAL

GRAPHICS REEL