Case Study | Humber College
Demonstrating Innovation and Impact for a Prominent Post-secondary Institution
Narrative Development | Content Creation and Editing | Communications Strategy | Digital Communications
Challenge
Industry-led innovation is happening rapidly. Humber College recognizes that being on the inside track of innovation is critical to long-term success for students, faculty, businesses, and community partners. That’s why the college created its Centres of Innovation (COI) Network — five centres of innovation that bring together industry and community partners, college students and faculty to develop new solutions to industry challenges.
Humber engaged Curious Public to help them showcase the COI Network by crafting an impact report and accompanying social media campaign to communicate the unique value of the Network to its three key audiences: partners, students, and faculty.
Insight
Curious Public interviewed the college’s leadership and the COI Network stakeholders to unearth the nuances of each innovation centre’s value, impact, storytelling opportunities, and educational and economic benefits. We wrote the COI Network’s inaugural impact report from these insights, showcasing each centre’s innovation in real-world problem-solving and the direct wins for all stakeholders. We also crafted core narratives and key messages for the three COI Network audiences. Finally, Curious Public executed a social media strategy to promote the report’s release supported by key messages for each target audience.
Result
The narrative solidified the COI Network’s unique value proposition for each audience: helping students master cutting-edge technologies, inspiring faculty to rekindle their passion for teaching, and helping partners revolutionize their operations. The Impact Report showcased how much the COI Network has already accomplished and set up benchmarks to measure its future success.
Since launching the COI Network, Humber College has been recognized as the second top research college in the country by Research InfoSource Inc.
Case Study | D2L
Creating Communications Strategies and Executive Platforms for a Leading Education Technology Company
Executive Reputation Management and Thought Leadership | Narrative Development | Issues Management | Content Creation and Editing | Speechwriting | Media Training
Challenge
One hurdle almost all technology companies face is a conversation about sector disruption overpowering the one about net benefits. D2L — a Canadian education technology company offering an online platform for learners and trainees of all ages — is not exempt. D2L’s goal is to transform technology to improve learning. So, D2L came to Curious Public to make sure their goal of supporting and improving education (and Canadians’ access to it) would ring true in their messaging. That would help the company lead larger conversations about skills development in Canada, without getting lost in the weeds of online versus in-person.
Insight
Our role was to find ways to tell compelling stories about D2L that said less about their specific products and more about the company’s support of education transformation and its belief in everyone’s right to the best possible learning opportunities.
We interviewed the company’s employees, executive team, and stakeholders to give us a complete 360° view of the company — its people, mission, challenges, and impact. From these interviews, we developed and delivered an overarching brand narrative and key messages for the company that crystallized its benefit to Canadian students, teachers, the overall education system, and the workforce.
We also used the process to develop and deliver communication platforms for key executives at the company.
These narratives became the basis for Curious Public to create an ongoing series of communications products like speeches, media Q&As, news releases, backgrounders, opinion pieces, blog posts, and more for both the company and its executives. These narratives also became a guide for D2L’s internal teams to manage the consistency of messaging and positioning.
Result
Our communication campaign and products have helped D2L further its reputation as an expert in the dynamic areas of education, continuing education, online learning, and upskilling. Our writing and consultation support has also helped develop impact reports and communications for major stakeholder events.
Our Work
Creating Communications Strategies and Executive Platforms for a Leading Education Technology Company
Executive Reputation Management and Thought Leadership | Narrative Development | Issues Management | Content Creation and Editing | Speechwriting | Media Training
Demonstrating Innovation and Impact for a Prominent Post-secondary Institution
Narrative Development | Content Creation and Editing | Communications Strategy | Digital Communications
Driving Growth With Existing Customers Through Compelling Storytelling
Narrative Development and Communication Strategy | Content Creation and Editing | Executive Reputation Management and Thought Leadership
Developing a New Research and Knowledge Centre With Canada's Leader in Women's Health
Strategic Planning | Narrative Development and Communications Strategy | Content Creation and Editing
Unifying Multi-channel Communications for an International Children's Charity
Marketing and Communications Strategy | Narrative Development | Content Creation and Editing | Communications Training
Supporting a Health Care Tech Company From Startup to Thought Leader
Narrative Development and Communications Strategy | Executive Reputation Management and Thought Leadership | Content Creation and Editing
Rebranding a Region to Promote Diversifying Communities and Economic Growth
Narrative Development and Communication Strategy | Content Creation and Editing | Competitor Analysis | Social Listening | Strategic Planning
Issues Management and DEIB Training Series for One of Canada's Top Independent Schools
Issues Management | Brand Reputation Management | Media, Communications, and DEIB Training
Case Study 5 - International Children's Charity
Unifying Multi-channel Communications for an International Children's Charity
Marketing and Communications Strategy | Narrative Development | Content Creation and Editing | Communications Training
Challenge
Telling your own brand’s story is a universal challenge — amplified by an organization’s size and the number of marketing channels. A leading children’s charity with multi-national arms brought Curious Public into their organization to help with that exact challenge. The charity had recently undergone significant organizational and personnel changes and needed to find a way to empower its newly expanded team to be brand ambassadors with compelling and unified messaging.
Insight
We talked with the organization’s leaders, staff and stakeholders. We also assessed the brand messaging across its many marketing channels and conducted an in-depth competitor analysis. We found that our client’s story and messaging felt fragmented and out of sync across channels. Additionally, audiences were struggling to connect popular campaigns to the organization itself.
Our client needed to unify its story and messaging, create a compelling editorial strategy, and find a way to help staff and departments work together as a centralized team with a single editorial/narrative approach.
We helped our client develop a refreshed brand narrative and a new editorial strategy to better connect the organization with its audience. We also led narrative and storytelling workshops across multiple departments so teams could all align their communication and brand storytelling on internal and external channels.
Result
Our client has executed its new editorial strategy in alignment with the refreshed brand narrative and is reporting positive results. They’ve also noted an uptick in creativity and morale amongst staff in part fostered through the collaborative workshops.