Together, we became a part of the Hutchinson Health Care Foundation — Community Senior Care Campaign.
The satisfaction of being a part of this campaign becomes a reality when the groundbreaking for the new Senior Care Campus takes place in April.  It will reflect the foresight of the community to do something now to ensure the future of health care in the future.  Collateral materials were created to communicate the message to the community about the needs of senior health care.  The 4 color brochure was designed to correspond with a previous brochure and a website created by another design firm. Being conscious about the branding that had already begun was important to the continuity of the project. Once the new brochure was designed and we had coordinated the all the aspects of the mailing set in place, a newspaper ad was designed to run in the papers immediately before and after the mailing.  Post-it-note pads were printed to hand with major donor packets.  We plan to attend the groundbreaking this April.

Can you make a brochure out of my triple wall corrugated cardboard?  YES. We did.

This 4 color brochure was prnted on brown kraft paper to match the cardboard.  We had the triple wall corrugated cardboard cut to size and designed the brochure to be adhered to the card with one panel.  The mailing has produced solid leads that have turned into new accounts that have more than paid for the cost of this marketing piece.   Out of the box thinking done here.

First of all, we are not perfect.  Give yourself some slack.   At Moxie Media, when we finish a big project we go review the strategy, did it work? or do we make changes or come up with new ways to make the work flow even more efficient for the customer and us. We just finished a large catalog with thousands of products in it.  One initiative that came out of our discussion was that we will help the customer to create a “list” of common word usages and spellings in order to make sure everyone who proof reads is on the same page.  It seems really simple, but it can be a very good way to communicate and avoid deviation from what is the “norm” or standard for this client.  It does not mean it is the same for each client or customer either. This suggestion actually came from the customer, who used this process during a previous job experience.

Here is an example.

How do you spell build up – build-up — buildup?  All three are correct.

Needless to say - one person corrected the proof build-up, and another buildup.  So it is not consistent in the publication.  This word usage is now going on the “list” for this customer.

Here is a short list that will help you create your own list.

1. How do you write your address?? do you abbreviate the state??  If so how?   MN – Mn — Minnesota
2. How do you write your phone numbers?  Do you like 320-587-0587 — 320.587.0587 — 1-320-587-0587 — 587-0587
3. Do you use a period at the end of headlines? even if they are not a complete sentence? what if they are not complete sentences?
4. Do you have a style sheet for font usage? Do you use a certain font family? Does everyone use the font – even in their email?
5. Is there certain industry lingo that everyone uses? ex:  predrilled or pre-drilled and undrilled or un-drilled or should it just be drilled and undrilled
6. How do you use fractions?  1/4″  or do you convert to smaller letters – maybe they should be decimals because you are using metric measurements .75  or .756
7. Are the colors used in the document within a certain color pallette that you use for branding?

The list could go on and on.  But I think you get the idea.  Write it down. Give it to the appropriate staff, to your designer, your proof readers, to the printer. It will take some time to get everyone on board. But in the long run it will enhance the quality of your project and how it is perceived in the future.

If you would like help with this on your next project, give us a call at Moxie Media and we can get the ball rolling in the right direction.

Community Senior Care Campaign 2009

Hutchinson Health Care Foundation

Philanthropy at its greatest is helping people to help other people.  This is a one of Moxie’s core values and is close to the heart of the staff at Moxie.  We approached the Hutchinson Are Healthcare Foundation to offer them our services as a company.  At the time, we were unaware of the emerging campaign.  We had a connection to the Foundation as one of our owners had been a board member for the Foundation in the past and knew just who we should talk to.  Being local, and having previous experience with community fund drives played a key role in the decision of the Foundation to work with Moxie for this project.  Our previous experience with healthcare campaigns included the Community Cares Campaign for the Immanuel St. Joesphs — Mayo Health System in Mankato MN; annual campaigns for St. James Health Care, St. James MN and capital campaign for Fairmont Medical Center — Mayo Health System, Fairmont MN.

The project included several kinds of media. 

• A full color  mailing piece  printed 4 color on gloss text weight stock that included a return envelope making giving easy for the donor
• the envelope was a standard 6 3/4 return envelope – large enough to hold a personal check
• post – it – notes for a leave behind gift when talking with major donors
• graphic design of a full page newspaper ad to run  in the Hutchinson Leader – ad ran in sync with the mailing effort of the brochure
• copy writing of brochure - donated by Moxie Media, we reviewed previous campaign materials and video to provide a cohesive message throughout the campaign 
• mail list of appropriate audience – matching the donor base with the need of the campaign 
• mailing services – gave direction to the Foundation to obtain non-profit mailing status for their mailing to reduce the cost of the postage
• project management – overall assistance to make sure each piece of the campaign was created, delivered on a timely basis
• writing pens – of course! to write the check in support of health care for the future

The Foundation staff  was a joy to work with and we really felt a part of the community as we completed this effort together.