KC Entrepreneurs, Success Stories

Marketing by Memory with T2

T2 creates immersive experiences that audiences can’t forget — and can’t help sharing.

ENTREPRENEUR

Teri Rogers

TYPE OF BUSINESS

Hybrid digital production company

YEAR FOUNDED

1989

EMPLOYEES

KEYS TO SUCCESS

“I think you have to be open to any and all possibilities for your talents. And I think you have to be fearless. And you have to absolutely embrace change.” ~Teri Rogers, CEO

T2 Studios officially calls itself a hybrid digital production company.

The firm has been known in Kansas City for decades. Its video production and postproduction work has captured numerous awards for design and storytelling creativity.

But what’s getting worldwide buzz lately is the firm’s leap into the next generation of digital design production—namely its experiential design. Creating an experience is a new level of design that is gaining ground quickly in a culture where digital branding is essential. And T2 is one of a few select firms in the country using experiential design on a regular basis.

It has the team of employees constantly thinking: “How do we create some sort of experience between this brand and a customer that will connect them in a positive way?” said Teri Rogers, T2 founder and CEO. “It could be an immersive experience—usually around an event or space. It can be around a participatory experience, physical installation or a Web-based experience.”

An immersive experience was on full display when the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts held its grand opening dinner with help from T2. Patrons likely expected video to be projected on a rectangular screen, just like every other staged event.

Instead, images streamed along the walls and gracefully danced within dinner plates as curious patrons looked to the ceiling with wonder. The entire production of light, imagery and motion moved in sequence to the music. It set the stage for a production unlike any other and in doing so helped introduce Kauffman, a facility unlike any other.

It’s a form of marketing, but much different than a traditional brochure or corny sales pitch at a trade show. It’s a personal memory.

“The world has changed to such a degree that, if people are going to connect to a product or brand or service or even a building like the Kauffman Center or the Nelson, they’re going to connect to it because they have had an experience—an experience that becomes memorable,” Rogers said.

Users walk away with such a good memory that they share it with others. The message, which might initially hit only a small group of people, starts to spread. If it’s done well, the message quickly becomes viral through social media and elsewhere, said Katie Daily, T2’s media and public relations manager.

Suddenly, that brand message begins to spread.

“I think the reason it’s so in demand right now is that it’s a new media platform and another way to connect with customers,” Rogers said.

From Payless Cashways to the Crossroads

T2 started when Rogers was working at Payless Cashways. She ran what was then an internal video department. It grew and eventually became a profit center for the company.

“We became more profitable than half their stores,” Rogers said.

Rogers bought the video production department in 1998 from Payless Cashways before the retailer’s subsequent demise. She moved the video business and the 18 employees to Kansas City’s Crossroads District. The company was called Take Two until recently when it became T2 in a move that helped to modernize and simplify the brand.

“Simplicity is key,” Daily said.

Change is also important in an industry that strives to capture the next big thing and remain relevant.

“Every five to seven years, you have to modernize your brand,” Rogers said.

The changes come amidst an ever-evolving industry. Technology has advanced just as fast as the public’s thirst for new experiences. Prices have also transformed what once was a smaller pool of professionals. A video-editing suite that once cost $100,000 to $150,000 can be purchased by novices for $10,000 to $20,000, Rogers said.

That brings competitors. It has also pushed T2 to be on the edge of the industry, produce the most polished product and have an energized and inspired team of professional storytellers driving the work.

“We really have an incredible pool of talent here,” Rogers said.

The studio’s success comes in part because employees and customers know the focus revolves around production and postproduction work. Yet everyone is inspired to work creatively around that mission.

“It’s a culture that Teri really created here,” Daily said. “People feel comfortable coming to Teri with new ideas, which allows the company to continue to innovate.”

All 30 employees are digital storytellers. And Rogers keeps an eye to the future when thinking about how to improve the talent pool.

“When you find a really big talent, you find an opening for them,” she said.

The company has gone from mainly production and post- production work to offering three additional area of expertise: animation and 3-D; interactive; and experiential design.

The firm’s experiential design group, dubbed XL, is in the spotlight right now. But T2 Studio’s core focus remains production and post-production. Without stellar production and storytelling, the immersion, the animation and anything else won’t work either, Rogers said.

Expanding with Partnerships

The growth strategy at T2 looks different than it might in other industries. When it came time to reach out to bigger markets and national brands outside Kansas City, the studio was strategic.

T2 studied the Chicago market extensively for a partner to work alongside. The Kansas City studio—on the bleeding edge of experiential work at the time—had expertise to offer other production and postproduction companies. It ended up having its pick of Chicago agencies to partner with in 2012, Rogers said. It selected Cutters Studios, a firm with an international resume and outstanding reputation. Both firms agreed they had something to give each other.

“It’s so much better to share resources than to reinvent the wheel,” Rogers said.

It used the same strategy to expand into Boston this year when a startup company wanted to add T2’s expertise in production and motion design to their visual effects. Rogers plans to have a New York City presence by winter. But none of those T2 offices will be filled with people. Because T2 functions almost like a subcontractor in the partnership arrangements, it will only need one or two people in each location. Others can work from Kansas City or fly in as needed.

‘Small Enough to be Nimble’

Being massive is hardly the plan, though.

“We don’t really want it to get a whole lot bigger than it is right now,” Rogers said. “We like it to be a boutique.”

The size has allowed them to react quickly and try new things without red tape or bureaucracy.

“We’re small enough to be nimble,” Rogers said.

Essentially, that means graphic designers, engineers, programmers, producers, editors and storytellers inside T2 are willing to try anything.

The studio just completed a unique project that takes the typical “buy a brick” fundraiser to a whole new level. T2 designed a computer program for the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts that will allow patrons to “sponsor a window.” T2 created an interactive program that allows supporters to post photos, quotes, artwork and more to their online “window.” Patrons can change their posts regularly and see what clever posts others have created. Ever aware of the user’s experience, T2 includes actual weather and time of day conditions on the online community of windows.

Employees seem willing to try just about any project someone can dream up, Rogers said. They’re in the early stages of working with Union Station and the Kansas City Public Library to build an interactive experience for teenagers.

“Everyone here is very aware, and if they see an opportunity, they bring it up, and we explore it,” Rogers says. “We weigh it and try to decide if it’s time.”

That’s exactly part of the reason experiential design has been so successful at T2 Studios. Every last detail of an immersion experience is considered.

The polished effect has injected a new feel into several area nonprofit annual fundraisers or galas—a tradition where standing out is key to earning patron support and donations.

A T2 immersive experience mesmerized gala attendees at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art this spring with a visual show that was built around the Dot to Dot gala theme. The museum’s long gala walls practically moved with graphics and sensory music. T2 incorporated the Nelson’s famed pieces for the production, but the visual effects put the works in a new dimension altogether for the audience.

T2 filmed reactions of patrons during the show and their feedback after.

“People were just blown away,” Rogers said. “To the point that they stood up in spontaneous applause.” Emmy Award-winning TV personality Carson Kressley said he planned to call the Metropolitan Museum of Art and tell them what he experienced.

“I’m telling them to start following what you people are doing here in Kansas City because you’ve got it going on,” Kressley said on the reaction video.

T2 also created a participatory experience for St. Luke’s Hospital in St. Louis when it opened a new heart institute. The experience was set up inside shopping malls during the winter, when seniors tend to walk more often. Visitors were able to use their hands to “paint” on a heart canvas.

The company’s work with Crayola and many other national brands has gotten attention from others, too. An Italian company recently selected T2 as one of 100 programming companies worldwide to beta test its product.

“We’re bidding projects every day,” Rogers said.

If there’s any advice Rogers has for others wondering how to stay relevant, it’s this: Don’t just be open to change—embrace it.

“I think you have to be open to any and all possibilities for your talents,” she said. “And I think you have to be fearless. And you have to absolutely embrace change.”

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