Designing Tomorrow: Creative Strategies for Social Impact
Designing Tomorrow explores a new playbook for modern social impact leaders and brands to reach their true impact potential.
Why do some social impact brands thrive, while so many others fail to get traction, build support for their cause, and make meaningful progress? Imagine your impact with truly sustainable revenue and resources. With deeper community engagement and relationships. With more influence in your social impact category.
Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center, each episode dives into the strategies, mindsets, and behaviors top social impact brands use to play and win in the attention economy. Go beyond high-level concepts to specific tools and tactics you can use today.
Watch on YouTube or listen to new episodes each Tuesday.
Let’s design a better tomorrow, together.
Designing Tomorrow is a Cosmic Production. Learn more at https://designbycosmic.com/
Designing Tomorrow is a registered trademark of Design By Cosmic, Inc.
Designing Tomorrow: Creative Strategies for Social Impact
Inside charity:water's Big Brand Bet
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The nonprofit sector has a marketing philosophy problem. We adopted a playbook built almost entirely around conversion: get the click, get the gift, optimize the funnel. But all of that activation depends on something most organizations never intentionally build: a brand people actually know, remember, and feel something about. Brady Josephson, Head of Growth & Innovation at charity:water, spent most of his career in direct response. Then the data told him something different, and charity:water went all in on brand.
Episode Highlights:
[00:03:00] How charity:water unknowingly burned through its brand equity
[00:05:30] What "investing in brand" actually means beyond logos and colors
[00:11:00] Self-determination theory and why trust is really about competence
[00:22:00] You can tell the same story far more times than you think
[00:25:00] Inside charity:water's 7,000 sq ft immersive experience space
[00:44:00] Pick one growth engine and stop trying to do everything
Notable Quotes:
[00:44:15]: "What you say no to or what you do less of is the game. That is strategy." Brady Josephson
[00:24:00]: "You acknowledge some of the footage is old, some of the facts are out of date, and yet you're putting millions of dollars of ad spend behind that piece." Eric Ressler
Resources & Links:
- charity:water — charitywater.org
- The Factory at Franklin — factoryatfranklin.com
- Lenny's Newsletter — lennysnewsletter.com
Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.
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