frequently aSKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
Below you'll find some of the most commonly asked questions about our services. Let us know if we missed something!
WHAT IS THE PROCESS OF GETTING STARTED?
Our first priority is to get an accurate understanding of your goals and/or challenges to learn whether our services are good fit for you and how best to apply them to address your needs. Following the discovery meeting, we estimate the scope of work for any deliverables that have been requested. Once the estimate has been approved, the master services agreement has been signed, and we've received the first payment then we begin the pre-production process of getting into the nitty gritty of your production project.
WHEN SHOULD I ENGAGE BUZZMASTERS?
As early as possible. As marketing and budgetary cycles impact our clients ability to enroll in our services, it is very important to begin the planning process as early as possible.
How long does it take to produce media content?
There is really no definitive answer for this question as every project is different from another. As most media projects we undertake are to develop long term video/content marketing campaigns on behalf on our clients, we are subject to many dependencies. Dependencies like the weather, season, and availability of locations and talent. For this reason, we typically say we can turn a video product around in 4 - 6 weeks after shooting has wrapped.
We do however have a rush fee for clients who require fast turn-around media and we are positioned well to deliver on these projects with a full team of educated, experienced, professionals working at every point of the production process in concert. The rush fee enables us to pay the staff overtime created by rush projects while ensuring projects for other clients are still delivered on time
What is a project champion/client representative?
A project champion is the person in the purchasing organization who is responsible for being one point of communication between BuzzMasters and the client. They are responsible also for providing timely feedback, approvals, and change requests. They are the gatekeeper between the client and BuzzMasters.
One person being responsible for these things improves project communication and overall efficiency.
What budgets does BuzzMasters work with?
Most of our projects fall into the $30-50K budget range and some much higher in the $100K+ range. While we can service sub $25K clients, those who derive the most benefit from working with us are those who are aggressively improving their brand presence through content marketing and require a lot of brand-consistent media content to roll out over time.
Budgets under $25K will not always qualify for our services though we do advise you to reach out so we can gauge our availability to support you with your project.
what are your payment terms?
Project based requires a 50% commitment fee in order for us to book your project into our production schedule. 30% is due when post-production begins, and the final 20% is due upon completion.
Retainer based is billed bi-weekly.
All payments are due within 30 days of the invoice date. Late payments are charged interest at the rate of 2.75% per month compounding.
Approved incidentals are billed as they are incurred.
What are incidental fees?
Incidental fees refers to things like travel, accommodations, per diem, change requests, and other expenses incurred on behalf of our clients in order to complete the project.
How are changeS handled?
Change requests require a written request from the client to make a change that affects the project scope of work. When such a request is received, a new estimate is produced for the impacted scope of work which must be approved by the client before the change will be implemented into the project plan.
What forms of payment are accepted?
Cash, cheque, direct deposit, and Interac eTransfers directed to hello@buzzmasters.ca
We do not accept credit cards.
What are the client obligations?
Out of respect for delivering your project on time, we have certain client obligations which must be met in a timely fashion.
Clients are expected to have all approvals or review notes back to us within five business days of receiving new material for review. Approval is implied if no feedback is received within five business days.
It is also important that you provide all the materials we request in the same time frame (e.g. brand manuals, logos, other media assets, etc.).
Rights, ownership, and usage
Subject to Agency’s receiving full payment under this Agreement, Agency assigns to the Client, without representation or warranty, all rights, title and interest Agency may have in any work specifically created by Agency for the Client pursuant to this Agreement, except that:
(a) Agency may use and distribute such work as part of its portfolio for promotional purposes;
(b) Agency shall own and retain all rights to any and all concepts, ideas, designs, proposals and other work and materials (collectively, “Work”) which have been presented to the Client but not included in the final work product;
(c) Agency shall own and retain all rights to any technology, technical documentation, inventions, algorithms, software, architecture, logic, navigation, 3d modelling files, animation files and other source files for front-end deliverables, computer programs, source codes, game engines or other backend and background elements, files and features incorporated into or utilized by the Work (collectively, “Background Technology”). Unless the parties agree otherwise in a written and signed Statement of Work, Agency shall retain ownership of any and all Background Technology, including any and all associated intellectual property rights. Agency hereby grants to Client a nonexclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide license to use, reproduce, distribute, display and perform Agency’s Background Technology, in compiled machine readable object code form only, to the extent incorporated into deliverables provided hereunder strictly for the purposes and in the territories set out in the applicable Statement of Work. Use of Background Technology for any other project, on any other website or in any other medium shall be subject to additional fees and licenses which may be granted or withheld by Agency in its sole discretion; and
(d) If the Client desires to utilize any of the Work, whether accepted or rejected by the Client hereunder, for any marketing campaign, promotion, product, service, advertisement or any other purpose outside the scope of this Agreement, then the Client shall hire Agency to design, create, develop, market and otherwise implement such work. The Client may solicit or hire a third party to implement such Work if, and only if, Agency declines to do so and such third party is hired on terms in no way more beneficial than the terms first offered to Agency.
(e) Subject to the services provided hereunder, Agency shall retain all rights to any illustrations and other proprietary artwork, if any, listed in any SOW (each item, a “Design”), provided that Agency shall not, without Client’s prior written consent, use, license, sell or otherwise authorize the use of any Design for use in connection with the marketing or promotion of any consumer product, in any format or medium, electronic or otherwise, for a period of one year from date on which such Design is first published. Except as otherwise set forth in this Section 11, Agency grants Client the limited, exclusive, irrevocable right to use the Designs as set forth in any SOW.
I thought buzzmasters was a social media company...
When we started the business in 2017, we provided live event coverage with near real-time post-production, publishing to social media, and audience engagement services on social media. While we don't provide any direct social media services, we are a media production agency with great awareness of digital channels, the content technical requirements for those channels, as well as the audience expectations of content on those channels. You are tapping into much more than simply media production services when you work with BuzzMasters. We pride ourselves on our specialized knowledge in communications, branding, and marketing technology and our ability to tie business objectives to communications initiatives.
DID WE MISS SOMETHING? share your questions with us at hello@buzzmasters.ca