Challenge: Demonstrate unique value of PBS shows and inspire people to make donations to support their local PBS station.

Brand Innovation: Show real people telling personal stories of how a specific PBS show inspired them pursue and fulfill their potential, and pair each story with a thought-provoking question challenging conventional wisdom about media and the positive, meaningful role it plays in peoples' lives.

Possibility Unlocked: Award-winning campaign and highest rated video collection across PBS ecosystem, a reflection of effectiveness at local and national levels, with one station reporting a 24% YOY increase in year-end fundraising inspired by this campaign.

Dig Deeper: Check out the guide created to help people in the field produce local stories to complement the national campaign.

PBS Testimonial Field Guide

Brand Challenge: Best known for its now 50-year-old trailblazing show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, The Fred Rogers Company wasn’t associated with innovation or the highly popular shows it currently produces, making it challenging to secure distribution partners for a growing portfolio of new content. The brand needed a re-frame and refresh—to help key stakeholders and growth audiences see how it continues to blaze new trails in the field of children’s entertainment.

Strategy: Led research with core target audiences and leveraged new insight to focus on Daniel Tiger as a representation of both the wildly popular series for young kids today—and the longstanding commitment to gold-standard storytelling for children. Developed fresh, multi-platform graphics system to provide a single, cohesive look and feel to increase brand awareness, build equity and propel the company forward on their ambitious journey toward growth.

Results: A new company name, tagline and brand package launched to industry acclaim. A robust, contemporary visual identity with kid-friendly colors, textures and characters, a new website, and a new brand guide amplified and advanced the pioneering spirit of this one-of-a-kind brand for a new generation. Explore more from the newly named Fred Rogers Productions at www.fredrogers.org.

Challenge: Identify opportunities for National Center for Family Philanthropy (NCFP) to use their 20th anniversary year to refresh perceptions of the brand, with the goal of growing audience, engaging family philanthropy community and increasing financial support.

Strategy: Threefold strategy included 1) surfacing and leveraging new insight to deliver a campaign strategically aligned with core benefits of family philanthropy, 2) creating a new visual expression of the brand and redesigning the website to improve online experience, making it easy for people to find and use resources to support and grow their family’s philanthropy, and 3) creating an editorial calendar to ensure key messages and timing were aligned with target audience outreach opportunities throughout the anniversary year.

Results: Videos debuted to great acclaim with a call for more like them. The new website launched as part of the yearlong anniversary celebration and the same creative direction was adopted for additional digital communications.

Challenge: Modernize people's perception of PBS to grow audiences and generate revenue.

Brand Innovation: Developed the multifaceted PBS Anywhere campaign, PBS's first experiential campaign in over a decade.  With breakthrough creative, the campaign showed audiences that they could get entertaining content they loved on their own terms-- anywhere, anytime, and on any device.

Through traveling pop-up lounges and a dedicated website, PBS Anywhere invited people to experience firsthand how PBS had evolved in response to customers' changing needs and behaviors while staying true to what people loved most about it: Content that opens up worlds of possibility for every adult and every child.

Possibility Unlocked: The American public experienced a contemporary PBS in ways they hadn't before, resulting in a 2.7% YOY increase in consumer brand perception scores for brand innovation, plus increased intent to view and intent to donate.

PBS Anywhere Stunt Creative Brief

Challenge: Making sure audiences knew PBS content when they saw it, no matter the platform, a critical step in growing brand awareness and loyalty.

Strategy: Invent a new way to help audiences identify PBS as the source of content they viewed on myriad platforms, streaming services and devices.

Results: Industry-first digital graphics and flexible packaging approach for differentiating PBS content that led to 25% increase in awareness among digital consumers.

Brand Challenge: Drive increased graduate school enrollment for this legacy higher education brand, without any advertising budget, at a time when digital technology provides students more choices for pursuing advanced degrees across the country.

Strategy: Identify opportunities to engage current students in new, deeper and more meaningful ways, both on campus and online, so students themselves would become ambassadors for Georgetown University.  

Results: During a 1/2–day brand innovation workshop with staff and students, we surfaced 165 new ideas and created 30-day action plans, including experiments and testing for the top 5 highest priority ideas within the current school semester.

Brand Challenge: Inspiring and aligning multiple internal and external stakeholders and project partners to ensure the vision and values of Mingei International Museum would blossom into an exciting, enriching, one-of-a-kind experience for visitors—with an eye toward expanding audience and deepening relationships with current visitors.

Strategy: Leveraged human centered design to engage staff, stakeholders, and museum visitors to refine core, differentiating brand values and attributes that embody “mingei,” art of the people, as well as to identify and profile core and growth audiences. Developed a foundational strategy brief rooted in these values and audiences, which served as a north star throughout museum renovation, a full visual re-brand and development of new and enhanced visitor experiences.

Results: The Museum made their collection available long online before pandemic-related shutdowns, increasing access for visitors from anywhere. They co-led and launched the first San Diego Design Week, engaging core and growth audiences during the height of the pandemic. And in Fall 2021, following a 3-year renovation and Covid-related closure, Mingei re-opened to national acclaim, with both paid and free opportunities to visit. They also are poised to host the second annual San Diego Design Week in 2022, further expanding access for new audiences.

Dive Deeper: Explore how the new Mingei International Museum stands apart in this story from the New York Times and learn more about what they stand for here.

Brand Challenge: Demonstrate the unique brand value of PBS and PBS KIDS to inspire engagement, drive donations and build brand loyalty.

Strategy: Leverage deep consumer insight to show—not just tell—how this gold-standard content opens up new worlds for every adult and every child curious enough to explore them.

Results: Increased positive brand perception scores, increased intent to view and increased intent to donate.

Challenge: Inspiring donations to support PBS' unique brand of media--content that opens worlds of possibilities for every child and every adult who chooses to explore it.

Brand Innovation: Surprise people by showing them how their investment in PBS awakens a sense of wonder and possibility for everyone—every child and every adult. The campaign illustrates how the unique variety of content from PBS invites everyone on a journey through unexpected discoveries, and an open-ended exploration of new ideas, new perspectives and new worlds that sometimes may not otherwise be available.

Possibility Unlocked: PBS affiliate stations raved about the campaign (asking for more videos) and the industry raved, too, awarding an EMMY® for best public service announcement and an EMMY® nomination for two of the campaign's cornerstone spots: PBS Trusted Guide and PBS Brand Touchstone.