Part Two: CreateAthon 2010 Coverage

CreateAthon 2010 at LWT began Thursday with a kick-off meeting, filled with talkative and excited employees. We welcomed APT into our conference room and individual team meetings to cover what the groups were working on. The projects included a large variety of advertising and marketing efforts, such as: website development, strategic marketing plans, video, print and web design, branding, copywriting, photography, and much more. The night was full of laughter, creativity, and invaluable employee bonding.

Brief notes on LWT’s CreateAthon activities:

• National Alliance on Mental Illness Alabama: This organization requested materials for a faith-based conference, so a group of employees worked toward enhancing the content provided and created, essentially, an identity for the materials. This included producing a binder of modern, simplified information which could be extended to posters, emails, and other promotional tools.
• Goodwill: Goodwill only had an image placeholder as a previous site, so a group of employees worked to develop a new site with a focus on the people who work for Goodwill and what the organization does to help with job placement. Included in the website, among many other things, will be a variety of tag lines which cycle through with different photographs LWT shot.
• KidOne Transport: KidOne already has a website and strong social media presence, as well as many partnerships and fundraising events. Therefore, the strategic marketing plan required some extra creativity. A group of employees came up with a detailed list of target groups with a variety of tactics on how to make the process happen. The main goal will be to increase corporate sponsorship.
• Brantwood Children’s Home: The goal for this project was to develop a website to help increase awareness and focus on fundraising. Brantwood’s current website was redesigned to be upbeat and welcoming to mirror the real environment of Brantwood Children’s Home. This new site will also provide the owner/employees with a way to keep the site updated.
• One Place Family Justice Center: There was only a placeholder for the website, so a group of employees worked to develop a website to raise awareness and facilitate education. Everything from representative colors to advanced search/coding technology were analyzed in the design of this new site. This project came at a great time, too, because it’s National Domestic Abuse Awareness Month!
• Montgomery City-County Library System: A PSA-type video was created for the Library System to educate a broad-spectrum of library-users on the great offerings available. They have a great variety of tools, options, software programs, etc. that normally come with a fee, but are free to members of the Library System.
• Montgomery Public Schools’ Academies Programs: This organization requested help raising awareness overall, so a team of employees created a logo and print designs for a series of posters to hang around the schools. They also came up with additional ideas for guerrilla marketing tactics and materials to target parents. All of this will be used to inspire students to take charge of their futures and help them find their way into good careers.
• Dusty Trails Horse Rescue: This organization also needed help raising overall awareness and developing fundraising ideas, so a large group of employees created a strategic marketing plan. Numerous target groups with dozens of tactics for what will make the process happen were determined. At one point the entire conference room was full of people working on this SMP!

CreateAthon 2010 has been a great experience and everyone’s eagerness to help those in need remains strong each year. We must thank all of those who supported our efforts this year, including family, friends, and fellow CreateAthon-participating agencies!

Below are a few snapshots from the event! Click on any photo to be directed to our Flickr Album with more photos.