By Katherine Dodds On September 18, 2012 | 2 Comments
BE PART OF THE STORY. SO THE STORIES GET TOLD.
Once upon a time, when we were working with Velcrow Ripper to launch Scared Sacred (The first film of his trilogy which is being completed by the new release of Occupy Love), the tag line 'Be part of the story, so the stories get told' emerged in our mass email template for Hello Cool World - it's still there for those of you that are on any of our 'lists'. It proved to be prophetic, as the entire marketing world has not only cottoned on to 'story telling' as the hot new buzzword (oh but it's actually ancient) for all the cool young campaigns.
But it's true, story has a power that moves people more than moralizing or rational arguments alone. But when a story well told, with emotional appeal, is backed up with both compelling facts and a call to action - it's heart, mind, and world changing. And of course this is what the best of documentaries do with the added audio visual vocabulary to bring to the proverbial table.
Which is why we've taken a documentary storytelling (and discovery) approach to all our projects, even the ad campaigns!
I INTERRUPT THIS BLOG TO SHAMELESSLY PROMOTE FOUR FINE FILMS COMING TO VIFF!
(Listed here in screening order.) I've already got my tickets to the following films, made by fine filmmakers who are friends and colleagues. If you are in Vancouver get your tickets now!
1. The Last White Knight • Dir. Paul Saltzman (Prom Night in Mississippi) • Premieres Sept 29, 8:45pm Empire Granville 4
2. Occupy Love • Dir. Velcrow Ripper (Scared Sacred, Fierce Light) • Premieres Oct 4, 9pm Empire Granville 1
3. Shadows of Liberty • Dir. Jean-Philippe Tremblay • Premieres Oct 5, 3:20 p, Empire Granville 5
4. Blood Relative• Dir. Nimisha Mukerji (65_RedRoses) • Premieres Oct 6, 6:45pm Empire Granville 2
Our ongoing work on The Corporation has been a calling card, but that project is by no means over for me. I am still balancing my desire to truly have an impact on the corporate form itself, and to build a movement out of the consistently growing numbers of supporters who contact us. As happens at this time every year I have had a lot of filmmakers who are also fans of The Corporation inquiring about working with us.
This blog began as a letter to one of these filmmakers, and as it turned into a manifesto of sorts I decided to blog-i-fy it for all to read. This season, this contemplation is being tempered with the need to create a real live business plan for growth as part of the VanCity Women Entrepreneurs program I was accepted into. Currently, I am getting support to work on this growth plan and will be give the opportunity to pitch it to potential lenders and investors.
As happens every time more filmmakers want us to take on their projects I do a lot of soul searching about what exactly we did for films before, and what I can realistically do for them. I've been backward engineering the successes and challenges fo the work with The Corporation...
The Corporation has been a project now for me, for over a decade. I was involved with The Corporation before it was even in production, and my role was far more than that of someone brought in after the fact. My roles were as producer and creative director of the website, and Creative director for the branding (we created the signature logo) plus "Director of Corporate Communication" - an ironic title reflective of my role not as a publicist but as the producer/director of the entire grassroots outreach.
All efforts were centred around having the website as our communications hub and tool. With Mark Achbar's help I raised 100K for the website and leveraged 100K more from distribtuors in four countries, who collectively spent a million in advertising all directing traffic to our website, which continues to have a significant amount of traffic ten years later. In essence, a campaign needs to be produced and directed, and the resources required, as well as the timeline are much the same as making a film!
Tag(s):
Hello Cool World,
Environment,
Film Launch,
The Corporation,
Fair Trade,
Mark Achbar,
DVD,
Fair Trade DVD Distribution,
The Corporation Film,
Distribution,
Women Entrepreneurs
Katherine Dodds AKA "Kat" is the founder of Good Company Communications and HelloCoolWorld.com. Trained in renegade advertising & branding through her work with Adbusters in the '90s, Kat's early induction into the possibilities of the web-world was inspired by the term hypertext, which she immediately found comforting. She is dedicated to cause-related communication and to the development and use of tools that promote democratic processes.
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By Katherine Dodds On July 18, 2012 | 0 Comments
At Hello Cool World we put one operating principle to work on all our projects, borrowed from the wisdom of social marketing: representing real people is the best way to reach real people (AKA your intended audience) with any campaign. Even better to engage with intended audiences in order to build all aspects of the campaign. We were hired in 2009 by the BC Cancer Agency to create a social media campaign to promote cervical cancer screening, i.e. Pap tests. What we created was the LACE Campaign.
Below: Jolene Andrew original LACE "Action Team" member
The audience we focused on evolved as the brand framework emerged. LACE stands for "Live Aware Create Empowerment" and the symbol of LACE can be any colour, any size tied on as a reminder for every women to get her Pap. In our early campaign development we were reaching out to young women in BC, who were often not getting their Pap tests when they should. Other communities who are underserved with regular Paps include immigrant women and Aboriginal women. We pulled together an "action team" of diverse young women representative of immigrant, settler and Aboriginal communities, and got to work creating photo & video content to build a presence in the wider community.
We built the brand to be adaptable and we were thrilled when the campaign did resonate with the very communities we were trying to reach, not only young women but in our first year we also connected wtih a group of South Asian students who helped us create Punjabi materials and set up a phone line. And we were very excited that (thanks in part to Chee Mamuk's outreach on our behalf) we signed up eight First Nations Health Centres, and in 2011 we had sixteen! This is a significant number given the total number of Aboriginal health centres and clincis in BC.
As we gear up for another year of LACE Campaign's promotion of Pap Awareness Week 2012 (#Pap12 happening October 22-28) I am thinking again of our 2010 LACE contest winner Lee-Anne Deneault of the Q’wemtsin Health Society (QHS).
Right: Candace & Lee-Anne from QHS
What is significant about her being the winner, is that not only were materials created that resonated with Aboriginal communities, strong Aboriginal familes were positively represented as role models for all women in BC. In addition, as we were getting behind the scenes video documentation we uncovered a real life story - elder Violet herself is a survivor of cervical cancer, and a strong supporter of Pap tests. Watch a video of Lee-Anne's and her community's story after the jump!
By Bella Sie On July 11, 2012 | 0 Comments
We're thrilled to announce that the first issue of the Toward the Heart e'Zine launched on July 5th!
The e'Zine is part of our collaboration with the BCCDC Harm Reduction Strategies and Services (HRSS) program, which works to keep British Columbians safe and minimize death, disease, and injury resulting from high risk behaviours, like injection drug use or unsafe sex.
Together we created Toward the Heart, an online resource for service providers, community members, and injection drug users to get reliable information, support and important media alerts. It's a great place to learn about harm reduction in BC.
Bella is the newest addition to Hello Cool World, enlisting for the cause at the end of 2010. A graduate of BCIT's Broadcast Communications for TV program, she's worked in all aspects of production and has a knack for new media & technology.
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By Katherine Dodds On June 27, 2012 | 2 Comments
The sun is finally out in Vancouver! And here at Hello Cool World we are preparing (we hope) for a growth spurt. So far we've spent the spring recovering from the extreme sport that was our end of fiscal year, and it's been nice to have a few minutes to reflect on where we want to go next.
When the office space of our Mad Men dreams fell through (we like to think of
ourselves, as having an affinity for the MM aesthetic but with more girls, queers, and food), I moved things back to my Chinatown warehouse, where I now find myself organizing the future from the inside out. Both literally (boxes of stuff) and figuratively, with some head space to envision my business future.
As I write this, I am embarking on the new adventure that is the Vancity and Status of Women Canada project formerly known as "WE-FOG" and now rebranded as the WE-Communty, and I am being afforded the luxury of being able to focus on my vision for business growth, while being part of a supportive community with access to the tools of business that have hitherto been a mystery to me.
You see, I have two art degrees, once was a practicing artist and poet, and I am now 'in recovery'. ; )
So to be more specific, the 'Women Entrepreneurs, Financing Opportunities for Growth' program is a pilot project by Vancity Community Foundation with funding from the Status of Women Canada and I am honoured to be among the first 10 women-run businesses chosen to participate. I'm in excellent and exciting company!
What I have to do to be part of this is produce a business growth plan over the next six months, and the support of my assigned business coach Jill Earthy I couldn't be more excited to do this. At the end of it all we are expected and to present our plan for growth, and given the opportuntiy to pitch it to financiers.
Admittedly it's a recent dream but nevertheless it has come true and it couldn't be at a better time.
What I am asking of you, my readers of this blog, who I hope include friends, colleagues, clients, fans of Hello Cool World who I do not yet know, newly found mentors and advisors, and yes, also critics - is to join me on this journey and give me your feedback.
By Katherine Dodds On June 07, 2012 | 0 Comments
Soon school will be out... But here at Hello Cool World we already have 'Back-to-School' on our minds...
Over the summer we'll be working on the educational distribution plans for both the new cut of The Corporation for high schools and getting 65_RedRoses out to schools first in BC, then across Canada, and we are very excited about both these prospects.
With both these films we are striving to find ways to fund added-value. Our vision is that through partnering with stakeholders to develop issue-based study guides and online materials we can subsidize the licensing costs so more teachers and students can use these resources.
We're doing distribution differently, with a social outcome holding equal weight with the bottom line.
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