Well it's been a couple weeks since our last coffee and I haven't written any sort of a recap.
Briefly, we had nice group including David, Monique, Anoud, and Hillary who was new to coffee. We talked about a range of things from Jello to loyalty programs to Meetup.com and Sheeples. (David and I got off on a tangent afterwards on how to design a new breed of research facility, which led to this post).
The new news is that we have a fresh Planning for Good brief in the door. It's the last one of the year. Unfortunately I'll be unable to attend the next coffee which is scheduled for this coming Friday 12/7 but Melissa Wilhelm has agreed to be our guest host. She hasn't been at coffee for a few weeks so I'm sure she'll be fired up to work on this PFG assignment.
Oh, I should also mention that the Unicef brief we worked on a few weeks ago was presented to the client. Here is what Gareth said about it at the PFG Facebook Group:
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the UNICEF brief. As Ed said, it was a great meeting and the ideas lived beyond my scratchy voice. They were truly blown away and are due to get back to us with next steps in the next day or so.
Alisa, the client, asked us to pass on her thanks. So thank you all very much.
The guys promised to get the presentation up on SlideShare in the near future. I'll post it once it's up.
Anyway, our new brief is an exciting one and I know Melissa has a lot of heart for the cause. It's for Live Earth. Here's a brief version of the assignment, from Planning for Good's new blog:
It’s no longer a debate. Global climate change is a fact of life today. Scientists from all over the world agree that the evidence of a warming trend is "unequivocal," and that human activity has "very likely" been the driving force in that change over the last 50 years; they believe the earth could warm by an additional 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit during the 21st century if we fail to reduce emissions from burning fossil fuels. This rise in average temperature will have far-reaching effects. Sea levels will rise, flooding coastal areas. Heat waves will be more frequent and more intense. Droughts and wildfires will occur more often. Disease-carrying mosquitoes will expand their range. And species will be pushed to extinction.
Global warming is already affecting the world we know, endangering polar bears, shortening ski seasons and creating more intense storms.
The Live Earth global concerts on 7/07/07 helped to create a tipping point of awareness in the U.S. this summer. Live Earth is leading the charge to create a mass movement to influence people to address climate change, through the power of entertainment. With 8 concerts on 7 continents, and a broadcast on over 150 TV stations around the globe. Live Earth was the largest global media event in history. This event was the single largest online entertainment event ever, and in total we had an estimated live audience of 1 million people, and 2 billion total viewers around the world.
The UN secretary general has called the climate crisis “the most defining crisis of our time,” and has pointed to the U.S. (and China) as the leading emitters of greenhouse gasses. In the next 9 months, Live Earth will focus our efforts here at home where awareness and behavior change are lagging from the rest of the western world.
Background – Live Earth 2008 Campus Program:
On April 20, 2008 we will kick-off a massive Live Earth fueled student movement in the U.S. Ultimately, we aim to reach half the total student population – nearly nine million undergraduates.
Assignment:
Help us position Live Earth and create a messaging strategy that will kick-start students to take action. Help us define actions that will be the most relevant to students and help the cause. Evaluate our current messaging and inform us on how we can make it smarter, more impactful.
The Live Earth Assignment has 3 components:
1. How should LE be positioned to college students?
2. How should messaging come out of that?
3. What do the actions look like?
The assignment is due 12/17 so bring your brain and some caffeine and join Melissa this Friday 12/7! Usual time and place: 8:00am at Common Grounds, 17th and Wazee in downtown Denver.
[image: Live Earth belt sold in the UK, made from reclaimed London fire brigade hose, available for purchase here.]
