Bienvenue sur le blogue Hello Cool World! Nous sommes heureux de pouvoir enfin communiquer avec les francophones du Canada!
Hello Cool World est une firme de communication axée sur les causes sociales et les organismes sans but lucratif. Elle travaille régulièrement avec des OSBL et des agences gouvernementales pour développer des campagnes de communication.
Récemment, Hello Cool World s’est associée à Inter Pares, une organisation de justice sociale, pour lancer un processus de stratégie de marque et de positionnement. Puisque c’est une organisation bilingue, Hello Cool World s’est pourvue d’une consultante francophone (Bonjour!) pour l’aider à mener le projet dans les deux langues.
Lors de notre visite à Ottawa, nous avons rencontré membres de l’équipe IP et ceux du conseil d’administration et recueilli leurs idées, pensées et opinions par rapport au positionnement d’Inter Pares dans le monde des OSBL et de la justice sociale. Nous en sommes ressortis énergisés et remplis d’idées!
I write blogs, web content, articles, newsletters... anything you need to share your ideas, business or product with the world. I'm here to help.
www.anabellebf.com
Two weeks ago we kicked off the branding and positioning project in Ottawa, meeting with Inter Pares staff and getting feedback from the board who were attending their annual board workshops.
This weekend was Media Democracy Days in Vancouver, and Hello Cool World had a table, showcasing many of our projects and campaigns. Since it was a veritable pool of the right sorts of folks to seek opinions from, we decided it was the perfect place to hold an informal focus test. We offered a chance to win one of the DVDs off our Hello Cool World webstore in exchange for about 15 minutes of their time to take a survey which asked them to review the Inter Pares logo, website, and brochure and answer a few questsions about these materials.
Most of our fellow tablers, were happy to help, as well as more than a few passers by, and in amongst a day of conversations about media, democracy, and our own set of projects, which include a new high school cut of The Corporation, we managed to get 15 surveys filled out, and lots of great feedback. We'll be putting the survey on line, in both Engish and French so watch for the link and help us gather feedback from our networks.
WE'RE EXCITED TO PUT THE HELLO COOL WORLD APPROACH TO WORK FOR INTER PARES!
We've worked with Inter Pares a few times over the years, creating the "Take Back the Day" and "Give Something Big" campaigns as well as designing their general brochure. We're strong believers in their work, and look forward to a year of collaborating with them, and their supporters, to give all their communications materials a new 're-freshed' identity.
Having build our own reputation through critique of corporate globalization, we at Hello Cool World simply don't do corporate branding. Period. But we do believe in using the tools of the advertisers, and the power of branding, to do good work for good people — like Inter Pares. Our version of "social" branding re-frames the very idea of branding, and uses a grassroots approach to engage our intended audiences in the process, and we hope, to get their support!
We will be talking to a selection of Inter Pares' donors and funders, long term and newly joined, to get their insights on what the organization means to them, and why they deserve support. As well we will be seeking opinions from beyond the converted, looking at what it takes to engage, in particular, younger audiences who may not have heard of Inter Pares.
Our greatest challenge will be to create simplified messages, that still authentically speak to what they are all about. For an organization that does so many things, this may be hard to express in one elevator speech.
For the moment, we are in a mode of gathering as wide a range of opinions and views on both their work itself, their image and their reputation in the community of like-minded organizations.
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.
This Sunday, May 9 is Mother’s Day and we’re encouraging everyone to Take Back the Day with the peace and justice organization Inter Pares. We helped create the campaign to reclaim the original meaning of Mother’s Day and are big supporters of Inter Pares. They work internationally with grassroots groups and activists, and have a particular focus on empowering women. You can learn more about Inter Pares (Latin for “among equals”) at: www.takebacktheday.ca
Check out this short animated on the real, radical “her-story” of Mother’s Day, a day rooted in social activism and the inspiring stories of its 3 extraordinary founding foremothers.
It's a time of reflection on where the need is, and on what one can possibly do to have any kind of impact. I prepared for the new year by having a donations frenzy yesterday afternoon for a number of alternative media venues that I regularly read. (List and links at the end of this blog). And thank you to all you HelloCoolWorld.com supporters that donated to GiveSomethingBig. If you missed the chance to send holiday cards, you can donate to Inter Pares anytime! We think they are worth supporting.
One of the pleasures of working on the ‘GiveSomethingBig.com’ campaign for Inter Pares was meeting designer David Berman. He’s been working with the Ottawa-based social justice organization for 8 years. We had met on the phone during an earlier project -- but in the summer of ’08 we gathered in the IP board room, for a workshop with the data-boys from Exvisu, to talk about audiences, blogospheres and strategies to motivate giving.
I write blogs, web content, articles, newsletters... anything you need to share your ideas, business or product with the world. I'm here to help.
www.anabellebf.com
We've worked with Inter Pares a few times over the years, creating the "
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.
of working on the ‘
