Client: Edisoft

Edisoft plays in a small and distinct niche - EDI - or electronic purchase ordering. But competing with multi-nationals is tough. Edisoft is respected and has a great product, but is competing with some of the world's largest brands. The existing marketing collateral was confusing.

Barefoot Creative's team engaged with the senior team at Edisoft and formally defined their goals, product benefits and package details. Key to the eye-catching brand that set them up as a true player in the international market was icons for each product that maintained the brand as well as distinguished product.

Client: Edisoft

Edisoft is positioned to build a legacy corporation - so they wisely invested in the brand. When competing at an international level, the cost of not branding is extremely high - because your potential clients will just not take you seriously. That was true of Edisoft. They had built a strong VAR network, but the VARS were unsure of the strength of the company because there had been so little marketing.

When Edisoft launched the new brand at an international tradeshow - they quite literally stopped the show. No matter how illusive you see brand to be, you are misguided to ignore it. Your brand is your face to your potential client - be careful what you say.

Client: Edisoft
Project: Web site

The web was critical to completing Edisofts full brand launch. The web site had to be updated and upgraded to reflect their strength as a technology company. Today their VARS have a renewed interest in the product and in selling that product. The strength of their brand, their collateral material and their web affirms the strength of their future.

Client: MEDA
Project: MEDATrust
Execution: Web

MEDA's innovate approach to international development is well known and reflected in the MEDATrust site. This transformational site is one of the most innovative uses of web - it is not just a brochure site with an ability to donate. It interacts with the participant and gives them a truly engaging experience in the effectiveness of microfinance. This was an amazing project to work on!

MEDA (Mennonite Economic Development Associates) are a global leader in microfinance and economic solutions for developing communities. As we looked at strategic and innovative ideas for donor acquisition and development, we saw the web as a tool that would engage the older donors and help them pass on their loyalty to MEDA to a younger generation as well as draw new donors to MEDA.

Medatrust.org is an interactive web site that helps donors create a microfinance portfolio of entrepreneurs they finance. Donors can participate as individuals, groups or corporations. Each participant is able to invest a sum of money, choose specific entrepreneurs to fund and add to that investment as they see fit. As the entrepreneur repays the loan, the funds are returned to the portfolio to be re-invested in another loan. The participant receives a receipt for tax purposes with the understanding that after 18 months of revolving in the loan system, the money is transferred to MEDA's capital fund to invest in new microfinance projects. Overall, our goal was to work with the microfinance partner without causing them additional work.

Developing an easy game plan for participants was challenging. The site is set up like an investment portfolio and we had to develop a set of rules that would reflect the activity at the microfinance level and make sense to the participant.

Partnering with the field added unique challenges, as the offices overseas were not as technologically equipped as North America. Internet service is much more costly and we had to make some adjustments in our expectations to make the transfer of data easy to use and easy for the field partner to send to the web site.

The site is extremely well received. While the site is still young, participants enjoy the hands on environment. The site attracts many businesses and partners who are now developing unique sites that select specific corporate loans to fund and invite staff members to participate.

Client: MEDA
Project: Mosquito Net Package
Execution: Direct Mail

While well known in international microfinance program circles, MEDA is not a household name. To add to that disadvantage, the board of MEDA was not convinced of the effectiveness of direct response tools in acquiring new donors and because MEDA is a member oriented organization, requested that we create a parallel company, Kimea. Kimea had zero brand power.

With more than a 0.6% response from a series of completely cold mailing list, MEDA almost doubled their current donor list in 12 months. More important, donors who responded to the cold acquisition mailing responded at a rate of more than 32% to the second gift offer.

Acquiring donors for non-profit organizations with low marketing budgets and little brand recognition is extremely difficult. It takes consistent efforts. But the key to building a strong foundation of private funding lies in the ability to cultivate those names into healthy donors, converting them to loyal, life-long supporters. When evaluating the cost of acquisition, one should always assess the value of lifetime givers.

Client: MEDA
Execution: Convention Coordination

Barefoot Creative provides collateral material, like signage, displays, programs and video presentations, to augment the success of the annual convention.

Timing is critical in the production of these products. We had 45 days to complete all of the collateral for a 3 day convention. This included the strategic plan, gathering resources, copywriting, taping and producing the multi-media products and all print materials.

Working together with MEDA's convention planning team, we were able to coordinate convention collateral that was thematic and inspirational. MEDA is a microfinance and economic development non-profit organization that relies on the support of members for direction, professional insight and financial support. The excitement amongst members helps MEDA to grow and increase its program. The members attending convention left inspired by the work done and motivated by the opportunities in the future. The overall giving to MEDA increased significantly in the months following convention.

Barefoot Creative also provided an on site audio/visual technician to help with the set up and execution of the collateral elements of the convention, ensuring a smooth convention.

Client: TLMC

The Leprosy Mission's logo is easily recognizable and has more than 100 years of brand equity. As we worked together with TLMC we were careful to maintain the integrity of the icon, but we also developed colour style guides, design templates and consistent use of the logo to increase the brand strength of TLMC.

Client: TLMC
Project: Cured not Cursed

One of the biggest challenges for non-profit organizations is to capture the attention of young people. Churches, schools and community organizations often request information they can share with young people in order to teach them about the cause. We believe that the best education comes from active participation.

Cured not Cursed is an active program for young people aged 12 - 18. The program includes engaging learning activities and games. The material is created to capture the imagination of young people and motivate them to help.

Small groups of youth can easily take on the challenge of curing and caring for one person affected by leprosy - it's an easy goal to reach through Cured not Cursed. But more than that, they will learn about compassion, other countries and leprosy as a disease.

Client: TLMC
Project: Frontline: Middle Donor Newsletter
Execution: Print

The team at the Leprosy Mission Canada is well equipped to cultivate donors, therefore they are always looking for better ways to communicate and build relationships with their donors. Our goal was to mail less and increase the annual giving of donors who gave annual gifts of $400+.

Reducing mailing is risky. We know by experience that donors often give spontaneously. The Leprosy Mission was taking a big risk to take some of their best donors and reducing the mail from 12 times a year to 4 times. We also increased the copy and reduced the design elements. Instead of a traditional direct mail package, Frontline was a minimalistic newsletter format.

The creation of Frontline significantly increased annual and long-term giving from the middle gift segment of the database. In talking to several donors, we learned that they were saving the newsletter because it was so interesting - so they had a binder full! (The response device is not attached to the newsletter, so they are able to give and retain the newsletter.)

Understanding donor patterns is critical. Mass donors are much more spontaneous than middle donors. Gifts of $25 - $75 are given in response to a direct offer. Larger gifts are given in loyalty to the cause. When we studied the data, we found that larger gift donors only gave a few times a year, even though they received requests every month. While Frontline is formatted as a newsletter, it is a 4 page personal letter from the Executive Director or a person he authorizes to speak. It is personal and compelling, but contains more information than the monthly letters to mass donors. It still focuses around a personal story, but adds many more details of the organization and logistics of the program. It works because it is intimate with the donors, sharing the heart of the organization. The offer is at a higher dollar value, requiring the donor to stretch their gift.

Client: Neopost

Neopost provides small and large businesses with business machines. As a direct competitor of Pitney Bowes in Canada, they have been working hard to increase their brand presence nation-wide.

This business campaign included: print advertising, web banners and a full mail out of CD's that contained a significant overview of their product list.

While each component offered a similar product mix, the campaigns were segmented to industry specific silos. Each marketing message was unique, building on the specific need of the customer.

The campaign was executed in coordination with Neopost's nation-wide distribution partnerships, increasing the overall effectiveness of the marketing materials.

Our experience in B2B campaigns is that client lines - even though they buy the same product as other industry segments - understand the message much more clearly when it is segmented for them, using their industries specific language.

Client: Neopost

Neopost had an opportunity to acquire and upgrade customers when Canada Post made digital compatibility on all mail machines mandatory. Barefoot Creative developed a series of four postcards with varying degrees of urgency to remind customers and potential customers to upgrade their mail machines. The Canada Post deadline drove the campaign. The postcards were personalized to maximize effectiveness in each sales region.

Client: Neopost

Getting the message to key decision makers in a business to business environment is challenging. Providing support to the sales team, Neopost tested the Shark package against a control package. The response was monitored by response to a web based contest advertised in the sales brochure. The test brochure carries a simple message, but the die cuts add interest to the brochure. (We tested the brochure with Canada Post before executing to ensure compatibility with their processing machines.)

The Shark well out performed the existing creative.

Why?

It stands out. Even though the format is simple, the die cuts add interest to the mailer. Yes, the die cuts increased the cost of production slightly, but the overall results of the campaign easily accounted for those increased costs.

Client: Unicef
Project: Gifts of Magic

Gifts of Magic are innovative gifts that touch the hearts of many men, women and children throughout Canada each holiday season. UNICEF embarked on a Gifts of Magic program several years ago, but had only distributed them through newsletters to current donors.

The success was high and UNICEF realized the need to give donors an extended opportunity to purchase Gifts of Magic.

We worked together with the UNICEF team to develop a comprehensive strategy that included donor cultivation, acquisition and media presence.

The catalogue is the foundation of the Gifts of Magic program. Using the spectacular photos from UNICEF's house file, we were able to create a catalogue that captured the essence of UNICEF: dignity for children worldwide.

A smaller version of the catalogue was developed for less expensive and more targeted acquisition inserts and bag stuffers.

Visionary Gifts

We also developed a specific catalogue of visionary gifts for donors with a large giving capacity. These gifts were carefully chosen and described to help visionary donors choose the perfect gift for someone they cared about.

Client: Unicef

UNICEF's strong brand presence is quickly apparent. Using the strength of the cyan and the strong photos of children around the world, we developed a series of brochures that communicate the core areas of UNICEF's work.

These brochures include response inserts. We deliberately inserted the response form rather than attached it, as these brochures are largely used at events and personal encounters with major donors. We wanted donors to retain the brochure for further reading.

The brochure contained comprehensive program information in the key areas of UNICEF's work. This information was supported by large black and white photos which clearly expressed the importance of their international capacity through a child's eye.

Client: Unicef
Project: Annual Report

Corporations and non-profit organizations often assume that their annual report is a communication piece that "must" be produced. Barefoot Creative believes that the annual report is an effective communication tool and should be used to clearly express brand, donor loyalty and opportunities for future engagement.

UNICEF's annual report was produced at a low budget. Their brand colours provide excellent contrast with the black and white photos. The report tells the story of UNICEF in ways that clearly communicate the work they do, the impact around the world and the opportunity to engage donors in UNICEF's international work.

Client: Ten Thousand Villages
Project: Web site

Ten Thousand Villages is a retail store that provides customers with the opportunity to purchase fair trade products from artisans from around the world. With brick and mortar stores across the country, Ten Thousand Villages clearly articulated its commitment to the store as a destination point. While they understood the increased opportunity with the web store, they also wanted to maintain a direct link to their retail stores.

Ten Thousand Villages also wanted the site to maintain the integrity of their mission and vision. While they do sell retail products, their raison d'etre is to provide a market for products from regions that are undeveloped at fair market prices. The critical component of the site is storytelling.

The site includes shopping cart functionality – and much more. The site contains a lot of content. Sorting, storing and accessing that content is a huge challenge. By providing some easy-to-use digital tools, Barefoot Creative was able to make updates simple for even novice web users.

Client: Ten Thousand Villages
Project: E-Flyer

The site functionality also contains a full digital tool kit for stores to advertise events, sales and develop strong customer relationships. While customers may shop on-line, they can also research products on-line and go to the store for the full personalized experience.