The Background: Youth development programs are a dime a dozen, even within the agricultural education segment, there are non-proifts that use sustainable food systems as a teach tool for kids. Youth Farm and Market Project, a Twin Cities based organization, was struggling to find and define a differentiated voice.
The Challenge: Youth Farm and Market project needed to increase awareness and donor's dollars, but didn't know how to tell a compelling story about their organization. A brand refresh with a concrete positioning, defined purpose, vision and values was necessary for not only the external audiences, but the internal teams as well.
The Research: Competitive analysis and secondary research. Stakeholder interviews including board members, chefs, volunteers, staff and youth. What makes Youth Farm special? What are the organizations compelling stories? Wh do local chefs get involved? What does Youth Farm mean to the communities it serves?
The Discovery: Planting the seed isn't enough, you have to nurture it to maturity much like the kids that Youth Farm serves, and it is the model this organization users that ensures the success of every student.
The Strategy: Cultivating youth.
Thanks to: Kris Lindquist - Creative Lead, Haley Kilgour - Account Lead, Matt Woestehoff - Tech Lead, Michael Simon - Designer, Colin Steinmann - Developer, Darrel Eager - Photographer, Ali Rogers - Videographer and Paul Sieka - Designer
The Background: The University of Minnesota is a system of five coordinated campuses, however the Twin Cities campus is synonymous with the system as a whole, which creates tension across the different universities.
The Challenge: Find a distinct voice for the University of Minnesota Duluth that fits within the overall University of Minnesota Driven to Discover brand while honoring what makes UMD unique. We needed to give the UMD staff, administration. faculty and students an brand identity and message that rang true to their core.
The Research: Brand immersion including campus visits and admissions tour. Stakeholder interviews including key leaders of UMD, Duluth municipalities, state officials and local business owners. Student ethnographies with both active and everyday students.
The Discovery: The people affiliated with the institution are Driven to Discover but in a completely different way. They are hearty, preservations that preserve and are true hands-on learners. Anything but a true depiction of their spirit would be deadly.
The Strategy: Determined to find practical solutions to practically every problem.
Thanks to: Matt Burgess - Creative Director, Kris Growcott - Writer, Clint Lurget - Art Director
The Background: Target was about to release the first Hunger Games DVD. They, like other retailers, had some exclusive Hunger Games gear that they also need to promote.
The Challenge: With the universal nature of movie release dates, every story form electronics behemoths to local drug stores carry it. Target need to give guests a reason to turn to them for their Hunger Games needs beyond the exclusive most people don't want pay for.
The Research: Having procured a district badge of my own, I talked to other Hunger Games fans about the books, the movies and the why they induced such pandemonium. Man on the street interviews. Movie screening.
The Discovery: True fanatics, truly devoted fans speak a language all their own. They can communicate with each other in a way that the average person or casual fan can't.
The Strategy: At Target, the odds are ever in your favor.
Thanks to: Scott Muskin - Creative Director, Jim McLarty - Copywriter, Kent Bishop - Art Director
The Background: wet n wild is a promotional/price driven brand that has never done campaign advertising before. This being their first time, the message needs to continue to drive sales, but also change perceptions.
The Challenge: wet n wild has a perception problem. It is the makeup we all used when we were young and our moms/grandmothers wouldn't let us spend more than a few dollars, when we wanted to try yellow nail polish for the first time or we needed something we were only going to wear once for a certain outfit or on Halloween. The name is tied to the wrong kind of nostalgia.
The Research: Secondary and competitive analysis. Focus groups with women who love and hate makeup. What does it say about someone? How do you use it? What power does it have? Is there a ritual? Can it be broken?
The Discovery: Women get in a makeup rut. Why? Because they get comfortable with an everyday look and forget the truly transformative power makeup has. Yet, when they see a woman wearing a look they love, they want to get their hands on it, like NOW.
The Strategy: Dare women to try any look they love and use the brand to our advantage by creating outrageous inspiration.
Thanks to: Nina Orezzoli - GCD, Emalie Baumann - Creative Director, Lindsay Wright - Design Lead, April Swinson - Writer, Katie Miller - Social Lead, Stephanie Schafer - Account Directory, Jennifer Berg - Account, Jenny Wolf - Account
In December of 2014, Joey Schliecher was featured on The Huffington Post for an open letter she wrote a woman who had fat-shamed her in the produce section of a Minot grocery store.
Well, when a stranger insults you like that, what else are you supposed to do? Joey held her head high and reminded the girl that beauty comes from the inside.
After reaching out to her directly, Joey agreed to be the star of our #wildaboutyou campaign. On National Compliment Day Joey and hundreds of other women exchanged words of affirmation, fun quips and purely positive comments about what it really means to be beautiful.
From the teaser post, all the way into the post-award show parties, we received great engagement from an enthusiastic community of music and makeup lovers. Thousands of excited fans guessed celebrity looks. The wet n wild product Grammy went to MVP and the most talked about look was the red lip.
Along with posting awards and ways to recreate looks on Instagram, we spent the night watching conversations about makeup and inviting users into our community. We drove people from Twitter to Instagram and saw an increase in overall fan growth.
The list of winners looked like this: Best Neutral Look – Chrissy Teigen, Best Bold Look – Rihanna, Best Red Lip – Meghan Trainor, Best Cateye – Ariana Grande, Best Use of Color – Taylor Swift, Most Audacious Mani – Nicki Minaj, Most Voluminous Lashes – Gwen Stefani, Best Brow of the Night – Zendaya
We were able to show women they can get a gorgeous high-fashion look without having to spend a pretty penny. And when it comes to out-smarting versus out-spending our competitors, the award goes to … wet n wild beauty. This activation cost around $500 from props to shipping.
The world's leading marketing intelligence agency featured the Steal the Look App as part of its MULO coverage.
"Consistent with its value positioning, wet n wild's new app is aimed at helping women copy expensive make-up looks with equivalent items from the brand's product portfolio."
The Background: The IVEY Awards, a local awards show celebrating the professional Twin Cities theater community, approached EPIC to create a new way to honor the Lifetime Achievement Award winners beyond the award itself.
The Challenge: Creating a website from scratch in 8 weeks with content that needed to be gathered from multiple locations, people and organizations. The site needed to be easily amendable for the IVEY Awards board in order to become a living, breathing archive for all Lifetime Achievement Award winners.
The Research: Access to the awards winners was sporadic and in some cases impossible, therefore the research con sited of one-on-one interviews, biography deep dives, archive searches and secondary research.
The Discovery: This was a content creation project more than a development project. Our goal was to create something the winners and the Iveys would be proud of. There was no insight to find. We needed to present the passion, determination and love for Twin Cities theater each of the awards winners have Authenticity was key.
The Strategy: Use the dreamer/creator archetype to tell a unified story that could also showcase very distinct personalities and narratives.
Thanks to: Joe LaPorte - Creative Lead, Ali Napier - Project Manager, Callie Myers - UX, Andrew Beckman - Designer, Eric Forseth - Copywriter, Jared May - Design and Development and David Reidinger - Copywriter
The Background: Aurora is the largest healthcare system in the state of Wisconsin and the 6th largest in the nation. In recent history they acquired and expanded at a rapid rate, leaving Wisconsinites feeling like Aurora was the Wal-Mart of healthcare. This was troublesome when you are in the business of taking are of people.
The Challenge: Healthcare is a confusing, ever-changing landscape full of messages that don't make it easier for people to make decisions about their health or understand thier care any better. This included Aurora. We set out to change that.
he Research: Secondary research and competitive analysis. Stakeholder interviews including key marketing team members, physicians, nurses, surgeons, administration and staff. Patient ethnographies. What is your healthcare world made up of? What is your relationship with your doctors? When you think of your health, what does that include?
The Discovery: When people are thinking about their health and how it plays into their larger lives, doctors, hospitals, medications and check-ups are scarcely represented, if at all. This community thinks health and healthcare are two very different things.
The Strategy: At Aurora, we treat you like a person, not a patient because we are for you life, not just your health.
Thanks to: Mike Haeg - Creative Director, April Swinson - Creative Director, Brit Ryan, Art Director, Ann Strong - Account, Heidi Lee - Account, Henni Iwrasson - Producer
The Background: Supercuts commitment to training, customer service and attention to detail sets the brand apart from other value chain salons. They came to us to help change the perception of the brand.
The Challenge: The value chain salon, or "chop shop" as they are charmingly referred to are indistinguishable. They are quick. They are cheap. They are about convenience and all of these things tend to result in a not so stellar hair cut.
The Research: Secondary and competitive analysis. Focus groups with men and women who are Supercuts customers. What does it say about someone? How does Supercuts fit into your everyday life? Is there a ritual? Is it a necessary evil? (In partnership with PSB Research)
The Discovery: A haircut is not the main event for Supercuts customers. It is another box they have to check off. It isn't something they plan for it is something they fit in. They want a salon that focuses on getting them back to their life, because what happens next is what really matters.
The Strategy: Supercuts gets you back to your life.
Thanks to: Derek Pletch - GCD, Matt Burgess - Creative Director, Meredith Abbot - Art Director, Julie Hagemann - Account Lead, Henni Iwarsson - Producer
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