Manifest

The 7 habits of highly effective creative

April 11, 2012

If rules are meant to be broken, then rules for doing creative are not just meant to be broken, but then taken out to a large field and blown up. Every day, new approaches, media and technologies are revising the possibilities of how we can communicate to each other in creative ways.

What follows, then, aren’t so much rules for effective creative as characteristics of it. We call them the 7 habits of highly effective creative. They’re a checklist of best practices that can help both the creation and evaluation of effective work. If anything were to be called Manifest’s creative approach, this would be the closest thing to it. We invite you not just to read them, but use them.

1. Tell a truth. Most effective creative is built on an insight about human nature, a surprising fact about our world, a truism that gets heads nodding or opens someone’s eyes. We introduced a program supporting children in sports by reminding people how exciting it was to get your first uniform. We also got national attention by telling Canadians that a strategy for combating cancer had been sitting on a shelf in Ottawa for years while people were unnecessarily dying. More >

Posted by Jim Diorio | Tags: Creative, Habits, Jim Diorio, manifest | 0 Comments

7 Things Corporate Citizenship Programs Need To Succeed

March 29, 2012

A new approach to corporate citizenship has moved up the agenda over the last few years. Increasingly companies recognize how important it is to move beyond traditional philanthropy to a new way of contributing to the greater good. The driving issue today is how to ensure that good corporate intentions translate into effective action that generates both societal benefit and business returns.

Here, based on our decade of experience at the leading edge of corporate cause and social marketing, are seven features of programs that work:

1. A champion: Every program, not matter how small, needs to have a champion to sell and promote it internally. Without a champion, your program will surely lose priority and momentum. More >

Posted by Mark | Tags: Corporate Citizenship, Mark Sarner, Success | 2 Comments

1 ad that won the Cannes Grand Prix For Good last year, and 4 ads that didn’t (but we still liked).

March 7, 2012

Each June in Cannes, France, there is a gathering to celebrate and award the best in creative advertising. It’s called the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. It’s kind of the Oscars of the marketing world, but without Billy Crystal.

For the past two years at this event, a special Grand Prix for Good has been awarded to the piece of communication made to promote a non-profit or public service judged best by the jury.

Since we at Manifest have an interest in crafting messages on behalf of non-profits and public service, we recently gathered to review the social marketing work that was featured at Cannes, 2011.

We had a lively discussion, and to cut to the chase, we did not agree with the Cannes jury on what won the Grand Prix For Good. But we did find some ads that we thought might have been better choices for it.

First, let’s look at what did win the Grand Prix for Good. It’s from Australia and was done for a non-profit called Scope, which advocates for and provides services for people with disabilities. Here it is:

More >

Posted by Joe | Tags: Campaigns, Cannes | 0 Comments

6 SEO must-dos to help users find your site

February 29, 2012

No clients come to us saying, “Build us a website that will ensure we miss out on potential traffic and sacrifice the chance to engage with thousands of visitors.”

Yet, that’s exactly what hundreds of nonprofit websites do daily by ignoring many of the basics of SEO (search engine optimization). No matter how sound the user experience, beautiful the graphic design or dynamic the content, building a great website without proper SEO is like building a spectacular house without any roads leading to it.

How are people going to find you? How is your site going to come up in first-page search results when users are searching for your subject matter? More >

Posted by Debra Sharp | Tags: Debra Sharp, Digital, Google, SEM, SEO, Website Traffic | 0 Comments

A rebrand for the American Red Cross

February 10, 2012

Yesterday, the American Red Cross officially announced a re-brand. Along with a subtle logo change, they have refreshed the look of their organization and have revised the language that expresses the essence of their brand. More >

Posted by Paulb | 0 Comments

The 4 things all members of a coalition must share

February 8, 2012

Every day people get together to explore how they can join forces to address one social problem or another. More often than not the motivation to meet is anger or frustration or both. Being mad as hell and resolving not to take “it” anymore can be a good place to start but rarely if ever is emotion a sustainable propellant for change. Change takes focus, fortitude, resolve and resilience. Harnessing the potential of the group and then growing it into a critical mass with meaningful momentum is a process built in four cornerstones:

1. Common cause: This is a framing issue. The language of change must speak to and for all involved. And it must engage the hearts and minds of a variety of markets and publics. More >

Posted by Mark | Tags: Advocacy, Coalition, Mark Sarner | 0 Comments

“Ifs” we’re glad someone asked: #3 in a series

February 1, 2012

Foreign aid has always been around in one form or another. But it sure has changed from the olden days—so much so that now we call it “international aid”, or even “global development”. Semantics abound, but in modern times the intent is the same however you label it: nations and organizations help other countries and peoples survive, and even thrive, in difficult times.

Foreign aid used to mean sending your troops to help someone else’s troops. Win or lose, what remained of your troops came home, and the rebuilding of devastated towns and lives was left to whoever was still standing.

During World War Two, the nature of foreign aid changed. Why? Because someone asked if keeping peace in the world needed to include helping those nations whose governments, economies and peoples were in trouble. Are we glad they did.

Fifty-one countries founded the UN, not only recognizing that a nation’s stability and success were More >

Posted by Sarah A | Tags: Foreign Aid, Global Development, If, International Aid | 0 Comments

5 issues not to forget about now that the holidays are over.

January 11, 2012

As traffic grinds back to its usual halt and retail outlets gear up for Valentine’s Day we must now accept that the holidays are over. But that doesn’t mean the holiday spirit of giving needs to end along with it.

The Season of Giving isn’t just referring to giving yourself an iPhone 4, it is also a time when people naturally think about others in need. Whether it is volunteering at a food bank, donating toys to children, or buying “a goat” for your great-uncle, December is a time when individuals and organizations alike are more inclined to give their time and money to a cause. So it makes sense that for many charities the majority of their fundraising takes place during the holiday season. More >

Posted by Greta | Tags: Campaigns, Fundraising, Holiday, homelessness, Hunger, International Development, Mental Illness, Poverty, Social Issues, Volunteer | 0 Comments