Frequently Asked Keane Questions - FAKQ
- About the team
- What we do
- How we work, estimates, billing, etc.
- Our beliefs
- Who we like to work with
- Why smaller is better
- How to find our office
Who are you, anyway?
Keane is a highly-organized team of creative specialists. Like the fabled hydra, but much more friendly and talented. Our team includes interactive designers, photographers, web developers, copywriters, illustrators, graphic designers, researchers and so on. When you approach us with a project, we make sure to assemble the perfect team to make your job sing. Why would we have the same copywriter working on your necktie website also working our other client’s solar tech tag lines? Rich media ads, as another example, take a different type of designer than the one developing your HTML email template. We simply don’t want to shortchange any project.
At the heart of Keane are Russ and Russ. Russ’s car is white; Russ’s car is black. Russ has a beard and Russ is clean shaven. Russ prefers his 35mm Olympus OM1, but Russ shoots on his beloved Canon G10. Russ plays the guitar and Russ plays drums, but we both play on Expert, baby. We really could go on like this for a while.
The point is that in the middle of it all are two very complementary gentlemen that act as your brand strategists and project facilitators. They are the visible 10% of the Keane iceberg and they’re likely the two that will show up for your project briefing. At least you’ll remember our names easily, right?
Wait…what is it that you do again?
We’re a brand agency, which means we’re architects, stewards, shapers and planners of our clients’ persona in whichever marketplaces they’re swimming in. Put more broadly, we do a lot of research, discuss the findings, research some more, debate the options, pen a strategy and then set out to implement it.
Our bread and butter is in developing brand strategy and then the visual execution that follows. The strategy side is a lot of consultation-style work that’s rooted in research and insight; the execution side is everything tangible your audience can see, touch, read, learn from and interact with. Check out our Portfolio section to see what we’re talking about.
Interesting, but that sounds like way more than I need…
Don’t worry. If you’re just looking for an ambient campaign, a fierce Flash piece for one of your microsites or help getting your social media strategy straight, you’re in luck. Those things are all slices of brand work and we love slices.
Actually, I am another agency/PR firm looking for [insert marketing or design deliverable here] support…
Perfect. We work really well with other teams and because we already speak your language, we can hit the ground running. Just like you hire a CPA to run the books or a lawyer when things get dodgy, we’d love to tackle any specialized project you can drive at us. Bring us in as a full partner or fly us under your company’s banner, we don’t mind either way. We get the job done on time and on budget, all the while making you look like a superstar to your clients.
Do you guys do logos? How about naming / brand strategy / web design & development / photography / ad campaigns / SEO / media planning / interactive / audience research / AdWords / social media / illustration / happy hours / direct mail / environmental / outdoor / international jet-setting / video / copywriting / motion graphics / email marketing / web apps / apparel design / data visualization / mobile marketing?
Yes. We do do that. No problem.
Just how expensive are you guys and how do you estimate projects?
In the grand scheme of the creative industry, Keane is not expensive and our fee structure is based on simple, flat hourly rates.
Costing methodology is one of the more nebulous sides of our industry, unfortunately. How else can you explain why you can get a logo delivered for $750 from Company A but $7,500 from Company B? The silliness runs ever deeper, of course, but we work with a method that manages to dodge a lot of the complexity.
Here’s how Keane does things:
- We give you an estimation of how many hours we think a given project will take us to do.
- We split that number up into appropriately-sized chunks.
- You pay us chunk-by-chunk as we do the work.
- Not too shabby.
Maybe you’re saying to yourself, “Hey, that’s like a crazy project-based/retainer-based/open-ended/pay-as-you-go hybrid!” You’d be right. We’ve found that every estimating/billing system out there has its trade-offs for the client or Keane – whether it’s related to transparency, financial risk, the quality of work or the quality of our relationship. And we sure are suckers for honesty, minimizing risk, doing killer work and staying together for the long haul.
The bottom line is that you want to know how much something is going to cost before it’s green-lit, but there has to be flexibility to handle the zigs of the ever-zagging marketplace. If the idea of an hour-by-hour makes you nervous, don’t worry. When we take on an approved job, we do everything in our power to stick to it – and if something looks like it needs to deviate from the plan, you can bet we’ll discuss it way ahead of time so we can decide how things should progress.
Thanks for explaining how you will bill us. Maybe I should have asked a bit more specifically. How much would, say, a new print ad cost me?
Well, it depends. It always depends, unfortunately. Costs for a given project are driven by a number of factors, including budgets, objectives, deliverables, timeframes, existing data/assets, et cetera. But it’s mostly budgets.
What we find works best is for you to tell us what your budget is, and then we draft a proposal that follows an optimal course of action based on the numbers. I know what you’re thinking, right? You’re thinking, “Hey, there’s no way I’m going to tell you what my budget is. You’re just trying to pry loose the one piece of information I can use for negotiation!” And that’s a reasonable objection, one cited quite often. But you really needn’t worry – we’re not out to screw anyone over. If we regularly juiced our profits by delivering shoddy services, we wouldn’t keep our clients on the books.
Of course, we’re always eager to meet with you, learn about your project and provide a proposal to you, regardless of whether or not you have a budget in mind. Who knows, maybe you’re a billionaire and your time machine’s cocktail lounge needs a sexy name, and you don’t care about the costs. Keane isn’t picky and we’re here to help!
Way to skirt the question again. Give me a number. How much does a website cost?
Fine. $1,000-$600,000, depending on all the stuff we mention above. Give us a call and let’s hammer it out together.
For discussion’s sake, let’s say that I want to hire you guys. What should I expect? What’s the process like?
First of all, we have to meet and talk about things. We need to fully understand what you’re looking for, what the objectives are, how much time you have, et cetera. Takes about an hour.
Next, we come back to the office and start assembling our team, talking things through and getting everyone up to speed; the end result, of course, is a proposal for your consideration. This usually takes no more than a few days, but for more involved projects can take a bit longer.
After the proposal is approved and contracts are signed, we get to work! Different projects necessitate different actions, of course, so it’s difficult to spell out all the processes that take over at this point.
What we can say is this:
- We will never promise you something we’re unsure we can deliver.
- A senior member of Keane will be managing and highly involved in the day-to-day progress of your project. We don’t watch you sign a job approval then toss you the phone number of a junior-level account executive.
- We want you to be a big part of the process. A significant step in the project life cycle is the end stage, where we relinquish custody of the finished goods. We want to make sure the handoff is seamless.
- We will likely ask you a ton of questions and we may not ever stop.
- We are client service champions. What this means is that we will answer the phone at 10PM if you call – so feel free. It also means that you may receive emails at 2AM. Do not be alarmed.
- We believe safe ideas are for bankers. Notice what happened when financial types decided to get risky? Utter financial collapse across the world. Mediocrity and status quo are needed in the banking business. Keane, on the other hand, will likely present ideas to you that’ll make you squirm just a bit. Your brand is worth nothing less.
You guys are always talking about client relationships and good fits. What does that mean?
We certainly spend a lot of time on client relationships. Aside from the actual work we do, it’s the most important thing of all. New agency-client relationships are a lot like dating and we hate one-night stands. We’re inherently going to spend a lot of time together, and so for your sanity (and ours) we want to make sure that everyone involved meshes well. If not, things can get ugly and no one likes to go through a breakup.
Who do you love to work with, then?
We love to work with people who understand what we do, why we do it and how it’s done. It’s as simple as that. We also love to work with people who have a long-term relationship in mind and while previous experience with outside creatives is helpful, we won’t hold it against you if this is your first time.
What about those big agencies in town? Doesn't more people mean better work?
Have you seen Mad Men, that series on AMC? Great show. Set in a 1960s ad agency. People could smoke indoors, apparently. Because they had no Internet access, they had to shuttle messages across town via bicycle and analyze research the hard way with graph paper and long division. Back then, agencies were huge – dozens of people at even the most modestly-sized of firms. It was the heyday of advertising.
Today, you won’t need dozens of people on your account. In fact, those larger, well-established agencies will likely only assign a small number of people to your project. Now, this all needs to be put into perspective, of course – if you’re BASF or The Gap, you’ll likely need plenty of folks managing multiple fronts. So we won’t be hurt if you go to BBDO.
Understand, also, that those big bucks you’d shell out goes toward a lot more than just employees’ salaries. You can bet there’s a fistful more that pays for the five levels of upper management and all those employee perks you read about in Phoenix Magazine’s Best Places to Work features. We’re not saying it’s wrong, just that there’s a different way to approach things. Ultimately, it’s a better deal for you.
Keane embraces collaboration technologies to cut dollars while preserving value. We’re nimble, efficient and adaptable. There are no byzantine hierarchies, just a team of focused minds with powerful computers. There’s not really much more you’d need, right?
Why did you name yourselves after that British band?
Keane is actually the middle name of the company’s founder, and unfortunately for the piano rock bands out there, Russ Perry was born and named long before Tim Rice-Oxley even touched any ivory. Technically, they’ve named themselves after us. We’ve already explored our options for legal recourse, but aren’t really able to comment further. Ongoing investigations and all.
How do I get to your office?
First, our address is 21 E 6th St. #517, Tempe AZ 85281. Click here for a Google Map. We’re in a tall brick building off 6th & Mill in Tempe called The Orchidhouse. It’s a very awesome office, but it’s a bit tricky the very first time you come over.
Copy/paste the following, take it to a tattoo parlor and put it on your forearm; you’ll never forget it.
When you turn East onto 6th St from Mill Ave, there will be an underground parking lot entrance to your right, immediately before Bisonwitches and just before you enter the cul-de-sac. Take a ticket – and don’t worry, you won’t have to pay to get out.
At the bottom of the ramp, take a left and then another immediate left. Proceed toward the far wall in front of you and turn right when you get there. After maybe 50 feet or so, you’ll see the elevator for The Orchidhouse on the left, which is the one you’ll need to take up to the Plaza level.
When you come off the elevator on the street, you’ll see the door for The Orchidhouse building right in front of you. It has a giant orchid on it. The code to open the door is 2625. Once in the elevator, you’ll need to punch in 2625# yet again (don’t forget the # this time) to get to the fifth floor. We’re #517. Just come on in!
