New Ford Warriors in Pink Branded Doc

I don't know a single person in my life who has not somehow been affected by the scourge that is cancer. I lost my own mother to cancer's effects a little over ten years ago in a terrible experience that stole so much of her dignity and then her life. It left my family feeling devastated, distraught and feeling powerless. That's why whenever I get the opportunity--I fight cancer like a demon possessed. But little did I know that I would ever have the opportunity to tell a story about survivors--warriors that beat the demon.

I'm very proud to share a new branded doc developed for the Ford Warriors in Pink program, an apparel line developed by Ford (client) whose entire proceeds are donated to breast cancer research. Recently, Flow Nonfiction, Ford and the great folk at Team Detroit met with over a dozen "Warriors", survivors of breast cancer, to profile these "Models of Courage" in order to promote the latest line of apparel. The experience was magical, transformational and inspirational, as you'll see. BANG THE DRUM!

For more on the apparel line, and a behind the scenes look, visit the Ford Warriors in Pink Facebook community.

A Brand With Purpose: La Colombe Torrefaction

Back in the early 00s, I was lucky enough to be living in Philadelphia when the coffee roaster La Colombe Torrefaction was was a single cafe on Rittenhouse Square, sublimely local and intimate. It was, to every fan and customer, like having a little secret that if your friends from out-of-town were lucky, you might share, and you might not. The coffee was always fresh, intriguing and a lively alternative to the increasing Mc-Starbucks model. If you hung out long enough, you would see founders Jean Philip Iberti and Todd Carmichael come out of the back, joke with the baristas, hug a customer or two, then lug bags of beans from the truck, fresh from the roaster in . A couple of my friends, baristas then, are still with La Colombe, nearly 8 years later, and helped Todd expand to new markets like New York. At the time, it was rumored that Carmichael was a bit of an adventurer, and that he'd had some daring mission planned to Antartica or the North Pole... Little did we know, in 2008 he would become the first American to cross Antartica on foot with no assistance, in a record travel time of 39 days, 7 hours and 49 minutes, the fastest solo journey ever. His journey was captured in the moving National Geographic documentary, Race to the Bottom of the Earth. In fact, Carmichael has become a passionate and outspoken activist and speaker on environmental issues and causes, and La Colombe Torrefaction is part inspiration, muse and sponsor to many of Carmichael's solo-treks.

The brand and its founders, are somewhat inseparable and we're all the better for it--because La Colombe Torrefaction follows the 5 principles of ethical trade; Fairness, Longevity, Opportunity, Water and Strictly Earth Conscious. These principles ensure that La Colombe's coffee is produced in such a way that it meets Fair Trade rules, makes a positive financial impact on the suppliers communities, with long-term commitments to farmers and strict certification and regulation. In addition, the company is a supporter of certification organizations such as Fair Trade Alliance, Rainforest Alliance, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and others.

The Afrique Blend of coffee benefits children in Africa through organizations such as the Echoes Foundation in Uganda and Wide Horizons in Ethiopia, "bettering the lives of hundreds of orphaned children living in Africa." Carmichael is also the adoptive father of three Ethiopian girls.

Recently, Carmichael introduced a new blend, Lyon, a first of its kind charitable alliance with the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. "Through purchases of Lyon, you will make a significant impact on projects that defend lands and oceans, protect clean water, help endangered species, aid disaster relief and support alternative and green energy efforts." 

The founders of La Colombe think big  but move deliberately. They have cafes now in NY, Chicago and Seoul, have launched a bottled coffee and they are under way to build the US's first and only coffee decaffeination plant in the Port Richmond area of Philadelphia. It will bring much needed jobs to Philly, as well as attention to the city--right now, NY is the only official coffee port in the Northeast. The bonus, it will make decaf coffee cheaper and lower its carbon footprint--turns out your cup of single-source artisan Fair Trade decaf was most likely farmed abroad, shipped to the US where it was roasted and then shipped AGAIN to Europe or Vancouver for decaffeination.

A Brand With Purpose: Cabot

I'm starting a new series on this blog called "A Brand With Purpose." These posts will take a brief look into the purpose-driven activities of brands--activities that add meaning and value to people's lives. My goal here is to shine a spot-light on the role purpose can play in your company, group or initiative by sharing with you examples of the way other organizations go about their daily business with a higher value mission that goes beyond profit. Here's the first one: Cabot.

You all know the classic Vermont cheese and dairy brand Cabot that started in 1919. But did you know it Cabot was a cooperative with 1,200 members who run small family-owned farms? Together, they crafted a set of shared principles that enable them to maintain a unified and successful company, while also growing their own businesses.

"Our fundamental approach to stewardship and social impact is based on the triple bottom line of social, environmental and economic impacts. Our approach is called context-based sustainability.  The scope of our sustainability efforts runs from farm-to-fork, but we realize our greatest influence is from the cow to the creamery and from the creamery to our customers. Our cooperative's typical member/owner is a multi-generational dairy farm family, a trend we endeavor to extend for a long time to come."

How do we as consumers know Cabot is living its purpose? Because it reinvests in, supports and creates programs that improve the lives of their members--and ours, by supporting health and education initiatives. Cabot created Healthy Living School Grants that provide matching funds of up to $200 for community health and wellness programs. They also have resources for healthy fundraising on their website and partner with national programs in order to battle the childhood obesity epidemic.

Recently, Cabot has turned to branded documentary to tell their stories. Skye Chalmers and Driven Studio  produced fourteen videos to profile each of the cooperatives Board of Directors, documenting their farm operations, their families, and what it means to be a cooperative member. There are 1200 farm families living throughout upstate New York and New England who together own the Agri-Mark, Cabot, and McCadam brands. When you watch these films of the board members, they reveal a remarkable company.

 

Brands Search for Authenticity with Doc-Style

I can't tell you how many creative briefs I've read or written over my dozen years on Madison Ave that include the word "authenticity" and yet, have wound up with a commercial or ad that smacks of artifice. As a planner, sometimes I was told to include the word by a cultish brand manager, on other occasions, I offered it up as a platitude to overzealous creative directors. However, I usually tried my best to uncover the resonance in that term with an example lifted directly from interviews or research with consumers. Often in creative briefings--I'd tell a little story, repeating what a consumer had told me, and harp on the fact that the consumer was in a real relationship with the brand, a meaningful one that should be respected and acknowledged. And often I would get blank stares. Authenticity isn't easy to come by in advertising, but when it does, its powerful and effective.

If you're in the ad biz, you know the best houses repping directors--but you may not have ever heard of Nonfiction. Not to be confused with Flow Nonfiction the Austin shop that does cause-based docs (client), Nonfiction specializes on a burgeoning style of commercial filmmaking, often referred to as "doc-style."   Important crossover artists like Albert Maysles, Stacy Peralta, Jessica Yu and Todd Selby (the Selby) are on the rooster at Nonfiction. Their work spans gigs with Burger King, Toyota, John Deere, Microsoft, American Express, Bank of America and numerous other brands. You've seen doc-style--its the reality TV version of commercials where we see real small business owners, farmers, cab drivers and so forth telling their stories and how they relate to a particular brand.

 In many cases, real-life inspires commercials and brands. In 2006, a documentary called "A Man Named Pearl" documented the life of Pearl Fryar, a one-time sharecropper, who built an amazing topiary garden in one of the poorest counties in South Carolina. 

 

The doc aired at festivals and later on cable (HGTV). Not long after, John Deere hired Nonfiction-repped director Stacy Peralta (Dogtown and Z Boys) to shoot a doc-style commercial featuring Pearl. Unfortunately, John Deere didn't hire the original documentarians, but Peralta and the agency clearly references the original doc in style.

 So--what's the point here? Maybe its the global recession and the economy, maybe its the shift in values from generation-to-generation, maybe its the ultra-transparency of company behavior, but there is a palpable need for authenticity from brands by consumers, and the industry seems to be slowly responding. "Real Stories" get noticed in a sea of artifice, even if replicated in a meta-way for advertisements. Though brands remain badges for consumers, increasingly, real-people are badges for brands as they seek a more authentic relationship. After all, brands are just perceptions in the minds of consumers.

Human Rights Watch Nominated for Webby

HRW was nominated for a 2012 Webby for their work telling the stories of Egypt's more well-known revolutionaries who used all kinds of online and social media to report on the Arab Spring. The campaign featured photographs by Platon and interviews. Though they didn't win today, the work bears highlighting in my humble opinion.