our process

To Build a Feat

Powerful experiences. Where magic, inspiration and emotion collide head-on with strategy, planning, creativity and execution. Smart, flawless, jaw-dropping. To build a feat — an engagement strategy with clarity and impact — Feats undergoes a careful process to know and understand our client, their audiences and objectives. And to develop experiences that meet those objectives, creating measurable, sustainable change.

Discovery

We seek to understand you and, importantly, we help to reveal for you fresh opportunities to grow your organization. We also identify barriers to achieving goals - not just the symptoms.

Tools such as Feats Spark Sessions^TM allow us to flesh out opportunities to engage your constituents that will have the most impact.

Cornell's "Big Red in the Big Apple"

Through focused research and discovery, including facilitated focus groups with representatives of this prestigious university, Feats uncovered opportunities that led to the development of a unique, audience-centric series of events.

The outcomes included re-engaging high level prospects at a critical time. With increasing competition for legacy-level donors, helping rekindle emotional ties means keeping Cornell top of mind.

A weekend of meaningful events and exchanges included:

"Meeting of the Minds": We gathered provocative, thought-leading faculty to speak about their work and engage with alumni and grateful patients.
Alumni gathering for cocktails with professors and students in a hands-on environment that showcased the ways Cornell is changing our world
The opportunity to participate in Cornell's impact as the weekend culminated in a day of service projects throughout New York City

Experience Filter

We believe that live experiences are the best way to reach the hearts and minds of your constituents. Before we start planning programs we determine the best ways to harness our medium to achieve your goals. We also determine if events are the best course of action - if not, we'll tell you so.

Brown Advisory - Brown NOW '08: Navigating our World

What started as a fairly traditional anniversary dinner to thank clients evolved into a dynamic opportunity to showcase Brown's leading-edge financial advisory skills -- and grow those client relationships.

Brown figured their 10th anniversary was a good opportunity to reach out to clients en masse. Their real goal, however, was clearly to demonstrate the opportunities inherent in working with some of the best minds in the business. Feats' experience suggested a direct approach might better suit the mission than a formal dinner with standard-issue toasts and accolades.

Accordingly, we devised a full-day program of thought-provoking speakers on everything from GRIN technologies (Genomics, Robotics, Information and Nano technology) to green investing. This symposium would then become an annual content-creating event that can live for a larger universe of potential clients on the web.

The takeaway for investors: Brown was able to demonstrate their story through a genuinely meaningful experience and position themselves as thought leaders in the ever-changing 21^st century.

Creative Strategy

Once we determine the opportunities, audiences, and circumstances under which these people will act, we develop the overarching messaging and an integrated strategy that begins before the live events and lasts well beyond to ensure the highest level of ROI.

Wall Street Journal Online 10th Anniversary

When developing a creative strategy, we seek to connect with an audience by pulling them out of their normal surroundings.

For the Wall Street Journal Online's anniversary, Feats devised and deployed a mobile newsroom in the middle of Times Square manned with WSJ.com editors and writers working in real-time. "Newsies" took to the streets greeting commuters and pedestrians, handing out coupons and promoting an interactive "newshound" quiz. Embodying the juxtaposition of old style news delivery and new technological applications, inline skaters and traveling laptops enabled on-street connection. And site traffic soared with nary a fender-bender.

Gameplan

Here the specific elements of engagement strategy are identified, designed and put to budget parameters. Each component works together to support the desired outcome identified, taking into consideration existing assets, relationships and internal capabilities.

KPSS (Parent company to hair care brands KMS and Goldwell)

You can read more about our overall approach here.

Among the goals of this program were to showcase the trends, engage conference-attending hairstylists, kick off an international color contest, reinforce Goldwell's position as industry leader and trend setter via its KPSS-line of hair color products.

Two styles, one stage (in this case, a multi-tiered, multidimensional set).

Feats showcased the first style-world, Industrial Soul, within a parallel environment featuring the high energy and cool efficiency of factory-based manufacturing. A working construction lift, giant gears, sparks, smoke and steam. Gritty factory images, smoke stacks, pistons, fans and factory whistles. "Stomp"-style performers beating oil-can drums. Attention garnered -- then focused on the hair stylists and models who took to the stage to demonstrate cuts, coloring techniques and fashion.

Next, a dramatic transformation to Nomadic Freedom. Sharp angles gave way to flowing shapes, streaming sounds and earthy textures. The scaffolding stage set became a desert oasis, replete with images of sand dunes, sun-scorched mud huts, weathered wood, vast land and skyscapes and organic materials. Ballet and acro-dancers donned flowing tunics while musicians played tribal rhythms. And, again, amid the backdrop, stylists and models emerged to demonstrate and showcase future styles.

Finally, Feats merged two worlds into one for an electrifying finally of light, sound and movement. All encompassed within the visual Goldwell brand.

Implementation

Our team prides itself on the highest level of service and attention to details. A good idea is just an idea if it cannot be flawlessly implemented. Our depth and 24 years in business allow us to anticipate, provide flexibility and solid judgment.

Northrop Grumman

Working with the military and one of the world's largest defense and aerospace contractors requires equal parts creativity and precision. The game plan required we host a nationally significant and personally emotional event for 5,000 guests at a shipyard on a tight timeline, within budget.

Feats had 6 weeks to design and build a setting for 5000, including angled-for-broadcast entertainment staging, red-carpeted bridges, and a series of barges to move VIP's over water to the bow of this high security Navy vessel. Not just any vessel, this one was built on the Mississippi post Katrina, and it's bow included 7 tons of steel from the World Trade Center.

We masterminded speeches, moving videos, presentations and a ship christening, orchestrated a six-camera crew shooting for IMAG, a live Webcast and media feeds for outlets across the country and around the world.

But even meticulous planners aren't without emotion. The Feats crew joined FDNY, veterans, shipbuilders, military brass, national political figures and other dignitaries in shedding more than a few tears as the U.S.S. New York was christened in the New Orleans harbor.

Impact

How do we measure the impact of a program? Before we begin developing a strategy, we identify success factors. We integrate tools into the execution of a program to produce quantitative and qualitative metrics.

The Johns Hopkins Knowledge for the World Tour

In order for an institution to succeed at raising over $3 Billion, it is critical that they broaden their base of potential donors engaged. This was the goal of the Johns Hopkins Knowledge for the World 10-city tour around the country and abroad. At each stop along the route, Feats showcased Johns Hopkins' relevance in the local area, enhancing traditional, hosted receptions with substantive and engaging content.

By helping donors connect with Hopkins' world-changing research and global impact, the road show raised more than $30 million in gifts and uncovered more than 300 new major gift prospects.