Sherri doing a branding presentation to a group of entrepreneurs
I had a great time presenting “How to Make Your Brand Work” at JobSkills last week to a diverse and enthusiastic group of entrepreneurs. It’s always gratifying to talk about how branding can help businesses or organizations large and small to define themselves, stand out from competitors, be memorable, authentic, and achieve their marketing objectives.
The Office of Eco-Seneca initiatives (OESi) at Seneca College was developed to promote awareness and increase knowledge of environmental and sustainability issues throughout Seneca, and beyond. OESi’s most recent initiative is Seneca Green Citizen Campaign. As an important step in branding the campaign, G Strategic was thrilled to have the opportunity to consult directly with Green Citizen’s primary audience – the students.
Sherri designed and facilitated a series of “brandstorming” sessions to question student’s potential engagement prior to the full campaign launch in 2012/2013. Three classes of students from the Green Business Management and Marketing programs were asked: “What would it take to get ALL Seneca students excited about being Green Citizens?” Participants were invited to brainstorm ideas that would raise awareness, generate interest and enthusiasm among their fellow students for the campaign.
Direct consultation allows an organization to base communications strategy on solid ground, increasing the probability of successfully reaching strategic objectives. G Strategic believes strongly in the added value of brandsorming!
A word cloud showing the most popular words from the brand exploration sessions.
As this years festival was rapidly approaching, G Strategic facilitated a Brand Exploration Session with a cross-section of RPFF stakeholders, from festival founder Chandra Siddan to filmmakers, volunteers, community group leaders and RPFF staff. The group represented a wide range of experience and perspectives on the festival, and their insight and passion generated a synergy that was both inspired and inspiring.
Through a series of facilitated activities, the group brainstormed and pooled their collective wisdom around key topics: exploring RPFF context, defining stakeholder groups and needs, and translating those needs into ideas for RPFF web site content and functionality – as well as exploring other ‘low-tech/no-tech’ communications tools, sensitive to the fact that some stakeholders have limited access to web technology and/or linguistic or other barriers.
The Brand Exploration Session proved rich in insights and real-world observations. Primary research – direct input from front-line stakeholders – invariably provides valuable information and perspectives. In the case of RPFF, this direct consultation embodies two core values of the organization as articulated in the RPFF Strategic Plan 2010-2012: cultural awareness and inclusion. It is also a demonstration of authenticity and respect. All of these values are essential to this strategic process. The energy, passion, and generosity of this group was impressive, and illustrates the dedication to Regent Park Film Festival by all who participated. Bravo!
““What a great session! The format of the consultation, the quality of responses and the thoroughness of your research have been invaluable to the formation of our festival communications so far. You’re leading us to asking important questions about RPFF and towards a better understanding of how we would like to portray ourselves. Really looking forward to the next steps. Thank you!”
Ananya Ohri
Festival Manager
Regent Park Film Festival
