We had a crazy idea a few
winters back. A group of us were given the simple task of coming up
with a program to bring brand purpose to life in the New York
office. Meaning, we had to find a way to do good citizenship work
that connected to what Landor stood for. OK, so it wasn't that simple given we had never done
anything like it, but we were up for the challenge. We took the
opportunity to turn on its head everything about the way we
worked-a laboratory of sorts for experimenting with the kind of
clients we work with and how we work with them. Starting out we set
only a few criteria, because, honestly, if you're going to reinvent
something, what's the fun in making up a whole bunch of rules about
it?
First and foremost Brand Aid is
an employee-led pro bono initiative. It lives and dies by whether
our cube-mates want to participate or not. We find worthy
pro-social organizations and businesses that
could use some Landor lovin'. We prefer smaller start-ups that
wouldn't normally get our attention if they called with an RFP.
Collectively, we pick three or four finalists based on whether we
believe we can big-time transform the organization (that's where
the Landor promise comes in) and, just as importantly, how
passionate we are about what they're doing. Then they come and pitch us for the business. We
struggle with the choices. We debate. We campaign in the hallways
for our favorites. We vote. And the winner becomes our lucky
client. The project is staffed entirely by volunteers and the
process involves doing whatever we think will produce the best work
for the client.
We can't pretend Brand Aid has
always been comfortable. In the beginning, it was terrifying. We
had a brilliant, charismatic client creating a social networking
platform for straight allies to join the fight for legal equality
for their LGBT friends. And the night before we started we
wondered, "What happens if nobody shows up to work on this?!" It's
not as if we had assigned resources like we do on a typical
project, because, after all, that goes against the very spirit we
wanted to foster. Over 30 people showed up to work on the project
including friends from our San Francisco office. We worked
tirelessly to meet an aggressive deadline. We pulled off a total
rebrand and stood proudly with our client at the Friendfactor
launch while the evening's host, Chelsea Clinton, spoke about how
important this cause was to her.
For our second round of Brand
Aid there was almost too much passion to go around-so we're
rebranding two organizations simultaneously! And slowly but surely
the outside-the-lines thinking that goes into Brand Aid is creeping
into our daily work.
Brand Aid has evolved into not
just a channel for good work and good deeds. It really is a program
where the employees have a voice in what we work on, how we work,
and what our role is. It lets people who are just starting out and
looking to make their mark shine. We succeed at being a democracy
without defaulting into a committee mindset. The no-rules format
went from terrifying to liberating, where we constantly get to ask
ourselves how and why. Brand Aid is where our best thinkers,
designers, and writers come together, joined by passion, and bang
out some pretty freaking awesome work that makes a difference in
the world. What's not to love?
By Kristin James,
Associate Client Director, New York office