January 19, 2011
New Year, new work and a celebration of 10 years of Good Company & Hello Cool World...
By
Katherine Dodds
GOOD BUSINESS 2011! I admit I started 2011 feeling a bit tired — overwork and a family tragedy overshadowed New year's eve, and we began 2011 with a cornucopia of deadlines. But this morning I finally got to the post office to pick up a package that had been sitting in postal limbo while I was out of town. Opening it up I was inspired! A gift from Mark Achbar & Siobhan Flanagan, it is a very cool book called "Business Model Generation". The geek in me crowed with glee. It reminded me what all this busy-ness was for... and how we got here.
The story I like to tell is how seeing Manufacturing Consent, the film about Noam Chomsky & the media that Mark Achbar & Peter Wintonick made in '92, is why I went into media. And working with Mark on his next big film -- The Corporation -- is why I started a company (a tiny corporation that is not publicly traded!) And of course Adbusters was my training in advertising, and Naomi Klein's No Logo inspired me to fight the big brand bullies, but, as with Manufacturing Consent -- my sense was that the power beneath all this corporate media, publicity and advertising could not be left in the hands of only those seeking profit alone.
We bagan our mission to unleash the power of branding to do good. The Corporation devil-man logo became one of our calling cards. In addition our work with Options for Sexual Health (formerly Planned Parenthood of BC) to promote sexual health led us to a mission to expose advertising double standards, and to put sex in advertising where it belongs -- selling safer sex. Our overarching goal was to do business differently. And I'm very proud to say -- with the help of all our friends -- we have.
We are not only in new year, but about to be in a new decade for the company. Our 10th birthday -- will be celebrated on Valentine's day. As our decade marker approaches we are up to some exciting stuff. And now is the time to both reflect and solidify our business model, hence my very great delight in receiving a book that in practical terms purports to be for "visionaries, game changers, and challengers striving to defy outmoded business models and design tomorrow's enterprises".
Thank you Mark & Siobhan, not only for the book but for the contant ongoing and unremitting support for what we've been trying to do for the past 10 years! XO 2 u 2!
So, I'll review the book later (after I've actually read it) but for now this is a decade in review with a few highlights of where we are going in 2011 that soldifies our approach to business.
We once toyed with the idea of becoming an non-profit, but as the years went by it became clear that the work (and expense) to adminstrate a non-profit would be better spent partnering with non-profits and building a social venture model that actually allows us to do more of the work we want to do, to give more value to our partner/clients and have it cost the beneficiaries less.
So here goes:
We're becoming a real distributor. Official and everything. But with a difference.
What we are calling "Fair Trade Distribution" is an approach to offering a greater return to the filmmakers, and creators of the project, while using the profits we generate to develop and sustain campaigns. For example:
65_REDROSES
• 65_RedRoses -- the fantastic film by Nimisha Mukerji and Philip Lyall -- which follows the truly inspirational Eva Markvoort on her journey to get a double lung transplant. The film has been chosen to be part of Oprah Winfrey's Documentary Club and will air on her new network OWN in the spring. We will be distributing the film in Canada, and hopefully organizing screenings in the US and using our profits to launch the #4Eva Movement for Organ Donation.
THE CORPORATION EDUCATIONAL VERSION
• The Corporation -- A new high school version -- which we will use a a catalyst to launch a youth movement in high schools across North America. Our profits will go to the Campaign 4 Corporate Harm Reduction, and allow us to create more online resources and enhance our networking capabilities to mobilize people to challenge corporate power.
UTS'AM WITNESS
Photo Nancy Bleck
• Uts'am Witness Book -- With Nancy Bleck and Chief Bill Williams, co-founders of the Uts'am Witness project we are on contract with Canadian publishers Douglas & McIntyre to write a book about this ground-breaking cross cultural collaboration between members of the Squamish Nation, artists, wilderness preservationists, the Roundhouse Community Centre and over 10,000 folks who participated in the camping weekends.
Through this complex alternative to a 'war in the woods' mentality, an area of wilderness was saved from logging, and is now being controlled by the Squamish Nation. It has been re-named the traditional name given to this part of their territory. The book will feature Nancy Bleck's photographs taken over 10 years, and text from interviews with participants from the project.
Hello Cool World is collaborating by promoting and handling pre-sales of the book and once again, using the profits to promote the cause and develop digital extensions, a book trailer and an online presence for the project.
What all these projects have in common is a re-framing of the traditional distribution business model. They use crowd-sourcing, collaboration profit sharing, and challenge the old idea of business for it's own sake. We're making things happen (we hope) and anyone who becomes a client or a customer is contributing to the cause.
We're also expanding our ability to be an Ad Agency - of course also with a difference! But I'll save a full description of our upcoming new collaborative grassroots projects with Immunize BC, Chee Mamuk and our own "That's So Sexy" ad campaign for another blog.
Tag(s):
Fair Trade DVD Distribution,
health promotion,
Harm Reduction,
Hello Cool World,
First Nations,
Aboriginal,
Environment,
Mark Achbar,
Naomi Klein,
The Corporation Film
Recent Blogs by Katherine Dodds:
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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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