Pick 3. It’s a well-known fact that you can’t get something quickly, well done and on budget. Pick 2, right? M&S proved us wonderfully wrong in the work they did with us for our client Goodwill. With COVID we knew the demand would be high for animation. We chose animation, not because of these constraints, but because it was the best expression of our idea. However, we were turned down a fair amount from production companies (US and International) because of the high demand. So when we ran across M&S and reached out to them, we were delighted that they were not only available to do the work for our budget, but that they were putting one of their head people on the job. Had we known about them earlier, it would’ve saved us a lot of time.

We’ve done international production before, and remote animation, so we weren’t too concerned about the South African piece. But they put us and the client at ease from Day 1. They made themselves, not just the producer, but the entire team available to our team. They put routines in place with scheduled weekly calls and an online portal to keep us all in sync throughout the process. They worked on our time-zone and actually having time lag was really great because it gave us time to review the work and collect our comments.

Process is important, but that’s not why I would recommend M&S. I’d recommend them because of the spirit they approached the project with. They were collaborative, open, and fun to work with (sounds cliché, but it’s true). They had a point of view but they also flowed with our team, even when the client was on, so we progressed through the work efficiently. They overdelivered, but didn’t make us feel it.

One unanticipated benefit they brought to the work was an international sensibility. Obviously, diversity is a key issue for all agencies today, but they are so well-versed in that culture, they naturally brought that perspective to the work. Having another viewpoint culturally helped make the work better, and more relevant.

We are excited to work with them again and can’t recommend them highly enough.

I just had a wonderful experience working with Masters & Savant on a very unique project. Their creativity is astonishing, and their partnership extremely professional. They consistently met deadlines and responded to several executive notes with a professional attitude. As a large organization, we have many chefs and I’m sure that can get confusing and frustrating, but Goddy and team at Polycat took it in stride. Also, this project had sensitivity to native Hawaiians and the team fully supported the necessity to give it an authentic feel, and proper representation of the Hawaiian culture

The animation that came out of this project will be the benchmark for future projects. When we started out with the project, I had a visualization in my mind of how it was going to turn out, and it is pretty much spot on. I want to thank everyone at Masters & Savant and Polycat for a terrific project that I’m sure our clients are going to love and appreciate for years to come.

Masters & Savant were a true creative partner in developing a character and rolling it out into an evolving campaign of animated video content for our client.

From inception through delivery, they ensured the creative integrity, humor and personality of the concepts and rolled with every iteration and curveball that came our way.

Masters & Savant are amazing partners. The level of craft they brought to the table on Google iPager was exactly what this project needed(…)

At the end of the day, the most-voted comment on YouTube is asking for the animators to get a raise. I agree with that random viewer.

We were blown away every step of the creative process (…) The entire team delivered beyond expectations

As an agency that is always pushing the production value of our ideas, we couldn’t have chosen a better partner for this project.

It was such a joy working with the team at Masters & Savant. They demonstrated a thorough understanding of our goals in messaging and bringing our mascot to life, which isn’t easy to do when you are an ogre!

They were prompt with deliverables even with a tight timeline. Highly recommended!.

For the past three years Masters & Savant has played an integral role in our ability to deliver exceptional creative to our global Fortune 1000 clients.

Their ability to understand the creative needs of a given campaign quickly, produce extraordinary results on tight schedules regardless of the treatment, and do so at competitive costs are why we’ve continued to increase the amount of work we do with them each year.

In fact, in the case of one of our clients, we are now their number one video vendor thanks in large part to Masters & Savant’s extraordinary efforts.

Masters & Savant lives and breathes our client promise of volume, velocity and variety. They’re an incredible partner and I wholeheartedly recommend them.

I’ve worked with M&S on various projects and they have all been dealt with and executed to the highest standards. No matter what we throw at them, they come at it with vigour and a creative spirit we love.

We think of M&S as partners, not just a production company. We’ve found ways to deal with our time zone differences so we never miss a beat and keep everything moving along swiftly and smoothly.

Masters & Savant has been our go-to animation partner for all of our Stanford client work. They were able to create a very intricate watercolour illustration style and emulate that we developed for static use but seamlessly bring it to life in animation.

With every video, we start M&S off with very little info (a script) and they totally bring the concept to life from the very early stages and we rely on them for visual write-ups, storyboards, animatics and then bringing it all to life with animation – they’re quick to pick up on the brief and what we’re trying to do.

Aside from the great work, they’re very flexible in working with us: they’re able to staff projects in a way to move quickly, and they are always accommodating to us being long-distance from them (usually staying online late in the day to have a quick call with us when we get into the office).

One big reason we’ve had budget to do as many videos as we have with M&S is the cost efficiency we have with them, especially for the quality of the work – and they always come in on budget (and are willing to work with us on the budget even if we push things to the limit). Creatively, our creative directors have meshed really well with the M&S creative team and they seem to be on the same page / have a similar vision, which is not always easy to find with a partner.

Not only have the videos to date won awards, but we and the client are very happy and proud of the work done to date with M&S.

The output was stunning and even more beautiful than we could’ve imagined. It was amazing to wake up and receive work that was “completed overnight”

M&S delivered on our many rounds of changes. We appreciated their patience!

In a broadcast career spanning more than 25 years, working with Masters & Savant has been a highlight. In our experience, Masters & Savant are solution orientated, smart, responsive, inventive, passionate about the work (but not precious), and highly collaborative.

And as if all of that isn’t enough, they are truly fun to work with.

The Masters and Savant team share our appetite for innovation and have been instrumental in bringing to life the creative concept our team has developed for our brand OMO, protecting its integrity and supporting us throughout.

Their level of skill, not only in the craft but in the production support is outstanding and they have supported us in tightening timing plans but have not compromised on delivering creative excellence at the end of the project. They have provided competitive costings which are broken down easily for the client’s procurement department and we have felt supported in getting the cost in budget as well as a great rationale on all costs.

I am very impressed with the level of professionalism in all aspects of the services they have provided to us and they have always been willing to work through challenges with us, creating the feeling of ‘one team’.

Working with M&S is a treat and an amazing experience. They are great collaborators and exceptional artists. They produce beautifully crafted and incredible work.

I loved working with the Masters Team and look forward to our next project.

I’d been wanting to work with M&S for a few years now and lucked out when M&S and the Albino Animation team were interested in working with us on a new fresh campaign that was just a shell needing somebody. As partners, they helped us take our concepts and expand them to a full campaign. They brought us new ideas, found smart and efficient creative solutions to help us bring more spots to the table, and never waivered on the expectations we all set for ourselves.

The team is always on time, has excellent creative problem solvers, and executed every element of the campaign with ease. Our creatives loved working with them and helped to bring an engaging workflow to the project. This could have been a massive challenge, but M&S was a collaborative partner that I would work with again and again. I can’t wait for the next one.

Working with Masters & Savant has been a pleasure and a privilege. They are an enormously talented and skilled bunch and have created memorable moving image projects for Penn Mutual spanning everything from branding to promotion.

Each and every working session and brainstorm was handled with great alacrity and attention to detail – I have no hesitation in recommending them.

After working with the team at Masters & Savant, I could not recommend them highly enough. As is common in our industry, what started as a relatively simple project soon morphed into a complicated mountain of a challenge, with direction and project scope changing multiple times.

The team at Masters and Savant are not only the absolute best at what they do, but they’re also a passionate, accommodating, and friendly team to work with. They took everything in their stride and, ultimately, over-delivered an exceptional library of work for us.

We could not have done this without you. Your creative interpretation, the complexities of the challenge, the quality and quantity of the output, managing and syncing of the timelines and processes, reviews, collaboration (…) All of it would not have been possible without you – all the while under compressed and constrained conditions (…)

But more importantly, we know from preliminary statistics that the reach, open rates, and engagement rates of the main experience have already done its job better than could have been hoped for. People are actually opening it. They are actually going through it. They are actually spending time in it. And they are actually commenting (good and bad), which means they are thinking.