Facing a Challenge? Turn It Into an Opportunity!
Every business faces challenges and tries to find solutions. But sometimes, the task seems overwhelming: There are too many challenges and too little bandwidth to solve them.
We’ve heard this from many of our clients. And we’ve been able to lighten their load with our marketing and communications expertise. Here are a few examples of how we helped clients turn frustrating challenges into rewarding opportunities.
Finding – and keeping – the right talent
The digital world has opened up multiple ways to attract recruits, but it has also flooded the field. We have produced many creative ways to help differentiate our clients from their competition. For instance, Cathy Metson, Senior Manager of Communications at AstraZeneca Canada, wanted something unique to capture their culture of collaboration and teamwork. “We took the idea to Big Red Oak,” she says, “[and they] took our first idea to a new level.” The nine-episode series of Coffee Chat Videos was strengthened with pullout graphics distributed through social media. The company also uses the assets for visitor engagement and employee training; in fact, they shared the series with global counterparts as examples of best practices in recruitment and onboarding.
Lots of marketing ideas; not enough time!
You’ve brainstormed with your people, checked out the competition, researched tips from online experts, and the ideas are swimming in your head … but you don’t have the in-house resources and capabilities to analyze your audiences, design creative content, plan a campaign and roll it all out. It’s a familiar frustration. Leslie Rocha, Community Program Consultant for Canadian Automobile Association South Central Ontario, counts on Big Red Oak to fill in the gaps. She describes it like this: “Our work is just the beginning. We start with a thought, a conversation, and ‘half-bake’ it by saying what we want to introduce; then we take it to Big Red Oak who helps us fully bake it and turn it into reality.” One of our many projects for CAASCO demonstrated their appreciation of the young volunteers in their School Safety Patrol program. We contracted a renowned choreographer to create a dance that simulates the motions they make in their street-crossing duties: The 45 Dance is accompanied by an instructional version, The 45 Full Story. The dance was later included in virtual events, planned and managed by Big Red Oak, engaging patrollers, sponsors and advocates from across the country.
Staff wary of process changes
Change is our constant companion: not only in our personal lives, but also in technologies, communications, and consumer expectations. And that often involves changing your business processes, which isn’t easy. But it can be even harder to change your people’s habits. The trick is to explain why it’s happening; why it will make things better; and how you’ll help them adapt. We developed an effective change management program for Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, our nation’s premier nuclear science and technology organization, with 3,500 employees across three provinces. Our six-month, phased multi-media campaign included new branding and logo, articles and emails, presentations and infographics, social media posts and event content, and over 50 videos, such as this introductory production, We Are Integrated Services. The department’s CIO attested to its outcome: “Without Big Red Oak, CNL could not have successfully navigated the change management communications required to launch its new Integrated Services initiative.”
And more…
Through a multimedia approach – videos, infographics, podcasts, presentations – we have supported our clients’ training programs to keep their staff updated and efficient. We’ve complemented our clients’ in-house marketing teams with outsourced creative assets. And we’ve provided strategic content to energize stakeholders and unite their voices in forging meaningful connections with their audiences.
We think of ourselves as a small company with big-agency capabilities. Our top-notch team of filmmakers, designers, illustrators, animators, writers and strategists hear your concerns, learn your language, and form partnerships founded on mutual respect. After an in-depth analysis of your needs, your clients’ needs, your communication and marketing channels, your audiences, and your objectives, we recommend the strategies, create the content, and celebrate the results with you.
So, flip your perspective on the challenges you may be facing: Unlock their opportunities and clear the pathway to success.