Facebook EdMod Vendor Response

(please scroll and click)

Company Background

Boatright-Simon Picture+Sound is a minority and women-owned and led, award-winning data fueled, story-driven creative technology agency headquartered in Los Angeles, in the heart of Silicon Beach.

Our mission is to connect brands to a diversity of audiences by creating and sharing diverse stories that grab the gut, warm the heart, animate the mind and move the soul.

Those stories can take many forms depending on the brand and the audience. This includes: digital + social outreach, vivid large-scale print, promos + videos, innovative podcasts, websites, AR + Virtual Reality, non/traditional campaigns and data visualization.

Our team includes nerdy quant geeks, noisy, edgy marketing minds, a Cannes-premiering director and internationally acclaimed playwright, a two-time Emmy-winning producer, and a two time Oscar-winning visual effects visionary and large scale story-driven projection.

We’re currently helping multiple groups within Facebook, Disney, MBDA, LA County Metro, and more who are building their brands and businesses by connecting with diverse audiences.

Our team has subject matter expertise I education, having worked with SCORE, Kaplan and UCLA to name a few.

Here’s a current reel and a link to our website:

https://picandsound.com/reel

Client References

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

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

Creative Community Contributions: Geffen Academy Hackathon, African American group, Native American group, photos, video, music, UFW, Speak.Studio

Capabilities, Relevant Experience, & Unique Value Add

Our capabilities:

Campaign-level approach

Docu style promos

Traditional commercial

Surveying users

Design thinking

User interviews

Can find and communicate with unique groups

Culturally relevant work like e.g.

Produce video and audio content remotely at scale and with expertise

Relevant Experience:

UCLA, Front Range Range Community College, Summit School District, others, Broadway/LAUSD, Facebook Marketplace etc.

Facebook Supplier Diversity pieces -

UCLA distance learning

UCLA welcome tours

UCLA other

Livestreaming with Business education at

Livestreaming with business ed at state of Cal

BUILT - Blacks in Tech, marketing and outreach group

OTHER. - Look at YouTube

Big Bang Social

Luskin Conference Center In Room Video -

The Fifth Semester (in association with Drexel U)-https://youtu.be/4wuBBaoy2d0

https://youtu.be/__7H95FwE-I

UCLA Tour - https://youtu.be/-lr-vKRWWqM

Relevant Experience:

When it comes to relevant experience there’s no one better.

We’ve worked with primary foreign language schools like LA-based Broadway Mandarin immersion, school districts like Summit County Colorado, Spanish immersion and domestic and international recruitment, education and brand management for UCLA and UCLA extension.

Additionally Kaplan, podcast platform Speak.Studio, hardware manufacturing machining company Tormach.

Short and long form marketing, brand and instructional films and videos, as well as PSAs and more. Things are contained in our sound stage to expansive offerings that open up the playbook, widen the pallete and get us out into the world.

We’ve worked with brands like and thought deeply about how to convey culturally impactful information, drive adoption, yield and recruitment, and fueled high value learning.

OTHER NOTABLE INSTRUCTIONAL AND EDUCATION PROJECTS:

King tech suite of videos and marketing

Luskin Conference Center suite of videos and marketing

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

UCLA, Tormach, Speak.

Facebook Source to Pay suite of videos

Wunder Summit - Interviews and 360

Metro Lessons Learned

AYSO 20 in home videos

AYSO 20 Fall ref and others

The 5th Semester with Drexel

Skechers Shoes and more

Unique value adds

What is your competitive advantage that differentiates you from other agencies? Why should Facebook partner with your organization?

In short, Facebook should partner with us because we’re really good at what we do because we’re talented and tenacious, and 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. We’re the only story-driven creative technology agency in the world, that I’m aware of.

We command a concoction of tech that includes AI, ML, coding, app development, Data Viz with traditional creative communications endeavors, including photography, music. Diverse storytelling is in our very DNA.

We’ve produced award-wining content from concept through storyboard, animatics, previz, emotional and intellectual design, scripting, 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 digital-native music for films and commercials, 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 integrations.

Competitive Advantages?

Our competitive advantages?

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

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

We listen.

We’re truly service oriented. 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 XX California, its 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 2 villages in Fiji and are considered official members of the community.

There’s a reason why Southern California Native American groups 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.

Why are you interested in this project? -

Simply put. Education is the key to empowerment, both individual and group. I’m a product of great education. You cannot have good output unless you have good input and the core to good input is access to good education.

I’m a polyglot. I speak Spanish, Chinese and English. Plus I count Swift and music as a couple other languages in which I can communicate.

My three children are fluent in Chinese due to their dual immersion schools.

I commit a disproportionate amount resources, both personally and professionally to good education. No group in the history of the planet has been worse off for embracing education.

Do you have experience producing and amplifying mission-based video content?

Picture+Sound has a boatload of experience producing mission-based content - UFW, UCLA, Angel Foundation (Len) FIRC, HIP, Len’s stuff, other our stuff.

Do you have experience producing and amplifying tutorial and learning-based video content?

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

Data Security, Privacy, & Integrity

Facebook takes strong consideration of data security and privacy, and we like to check that our partners follow these considerations as well. Please answer the following questions around this subject:

Do you have a data security policy? If so, please provide details.

What is your approach to securing / encrypting qualitative and quantitative data, especially around that of your users (ie: surveying users, interviewing users, etc.)?

Securing qual and quant data.

Project Development Proposal

We listen first. Then ask questions.

A blueprint for success in this endeavor would look like this:

project plan, timeline, list of deliverables, resourcing, success metrics, key personnel, and client relationship following the structure below:

Deliverables & Resourcing

How would you resource and staff this project?

With a diverse staff of international and local stars custom picked to best-execute on goal. This is an interesting project with unique parameters and deliverables, so it will take an interesting, a non-obvious grouping of talent on all sides.

Who would lead each deliverable from your team? Who would lead this project overall?

Matt Boatright-Simon will oversee the entire project, along with Anastasia King, Len Rubel and Andrea Ridder.

Please, indicate which parts of the project, if any, you will be subcontracting to other companies.

Although we often work with partners(especially in other countries), and anticipate doing so again in this situation, should the need arise, we’re excited to work with our diverse team in-house.

Design & Marketing Process

Define the process you would follow to produce the necessary deliverables. What advantages and risks are inherent in your process? Please include your general recommendations and approach for the following:

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 -

How long will these deliverables take? Do you propose a phased approach?
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.

How will we measure success?

Are people animated to animate. Quite simple.

How would you propose we create video content for each of our audiences (educators, administrators, learners, etc)?

How would you propose we create video content that resonates nationally? Globally?

Universal themes. Hope. Aspirations. Personal and group expression and empowerment.

Which part of this project are you most excited about, and may fall in line with your agency’s strengths?

Telling the universal stories of individuals within unique, and usually underserved communities, as well as conveying ostensibly dry, or heady information in tonally and stylistically appropriate ways.

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 would you propose we measure the success of this project?

The most important thing about success metrics is alignment with client values. Plain and simple. So it’s difficult to specify metrics at this point. 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?

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.

What’s 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 ARE 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

What would be your approach to our client relationship?

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 does your team prefer 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 1

CASE STUDY 2

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