FAQ's

Who is Orchestra?

• We are a core team of 8 experienced marketing professionals: strategists, designers, copywriters, media planners/buyers, and front-end developers
• We are digital-first (every program has a digital element these days) but excel at building integrated programs that incorporate traditional & experiential media into the mix.
• In business for 10+ years
• HQ in Toronto, Canada, but use the global resources unique to that city to work anywhere in the world
• Work direct with clients or other client/agency partners
• We’re low maintenance, low ego and results driven.
• We firmly believe that good data drives good creative that drives good engagement

What kind of categories/businesses has Orchestra worked with?

Our most successful B2c and B2B customers include:
• Service based businesses
• Niche products
• Online events and online ticket sales

Who have significant experience in:
• Event promotion
• Fashion/Footwear/Jewelry
• Insurance/Finance
• Food and beverage
• Sporting goods
• Education
• Travel/Leisure

What services does Orchestra offer?

We have many years of experience in all aspects of branding, design, marketing, advertising. What we do most of is:

• Creating brand identities and positionings
• Establishing Value Propositions
• Defining customers, customer journeys and stakeholder message maps
• Building brand/market awareness
• Generating leads
• Growing distribution channels
• This is always through a mix of owned, earned and paid channels using relevant tactics that are appropriate to the task at hand.

How big do we have to be to work with you? Do you work with brand new startups?

Yes, absolutely. In fact, being able to help a new company set up their new brand is a great opportunity. For startups who have a dedicated marketing budget (even pre-sale if that’s where you are at) we plan and execute custom/bespoke marketing programs.
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Our most successful relationships are with companies who have a dedicated annual marketing budget of $100k to $1MM. We provide the expertise that bigger agencies do at a fraction of the cost and time required – making more of your budget work for you instead of padding hours for juniors attending meetings. Which the big agencies ALL do.

How do we start the process of deciding to work with you (or not)?

It’s pretty simple. We set up an intro call between our two senior teams to talk about your company’s history, future, challenges and objectives. We don’t charge you for this call.

We (and you) get a sense or not of whether this is a bunch of people with whom you want to work. Chemistry is important.

If it seems good, and based on your needs/wants/budgets, we put together a proposal incorporating the things you’ll need to get to where you want to be.

You’ll review that proposal and accept, reject or ask for modifications.

We’ll come to a mutually agreed scope of work. And then we’ll roll up our sleeves and get to work.

What should we have ready to go/be thinking about before this intro call?

It helps move things along if you have ready:

• A rough idea of what your challenge/problem is
• A list of existing brand assets
• Some idea of what your business’ USP is
• A list of your competitors in your market(s) and what they are doing

What are your rates and how do you bill?

We work with our clients in three ways: retainer, project or consulting. Each one has particular advantages for particular situations:

1. Retainer
This is where we plan a whole year (or at least 3 quarters) of work, set a budget and break the cost out into 12(9) monthly pieces.

• Upside: you pay the lowest unit cost for stuff and you know exactly what you’re getting and what you’re paying every month. No surprises.
• Downside: it doesn’t allow for maximum flexibility for you

Requires: minimum term budget of $5k a month

2. Project
This is where we create a discrete program to do a particular thing, and you only pay the prequoted amount for the program. It could be 1 week or 1 month in length, or happen once a quarter over the year.

• Upside: it allows more flexibility for you and you know exactly what you’re getting and what you’re paying. No surprises.
• Downside: you pay slightly higher unit cost for stuff and integration with other marketing activities is not as seamless as it could be.

Requires: minimum budget of $15K

3. Consulting Only
This is where you just buy hours from us a la carte – like you would a lawyer or accountant.

• Upside: allows you maximum flexibility to address discrete and specific needs from specific personnel
• Downside: You pay the highest unit rate for time/resources

Requires: rates are $120 – $275/ hour depending on team member(s) and expertise required

Media budgets - are they always included in budgets?

This depends on the arrangement: for retainer-based relationships, this can be built into the budgeting framework. For some retainer work and all project-based work, media budgets are separate and are billed direct to you, allowing you via a company credit card to avoid a media commission fee.

We recommend any significant campaign that requires outbound media have a minimum $5k per month.

Do I always get a dedicated Account Manager? Please tell me I get a dedicated Account Manager.

Yes. You do. To work directly with your designated one key point of contact.

What happens when extra things arise? How do you treat out of scope work?

Out of scope work is pretty common, and we always outline exactly what it is, what it will cost and how and where it will be added to the budget BEFORE we do it. Again, ‘No Billing Surprises’ is an important part of how we take care of our clients.

What languages do you work with?

We’ve done work in English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, German recently. We are partnered with a marketing-specific translation agency that can support up to 120 languages, including many indigenous ones.

How soon can you start?

Pretty quickly, in the grand scheme of things. It usually takes 2-8 days to set up the formal part of the business relationship (SLA/contracts etc.). We typically begin the work in the contract within days of that being completed. Depending on the size and complexity of the project, design and production can take anywhere from 3 to 12 weeks. Our goal is always to spread the work out as evenly as possible so as to not overload any one part of the production.

What about rush requests?

If projects are planned well, there shouldn’t actually be any rush requests. But we know stuff always comes up last minute. We can do rush requests, but they do attract a surcharge on top of whatever rates you have currently negotiated.

Curious about Orchestra?

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