6 January 0001
A People’s History of the Seven Inlets SmartMeme Studios has been the agency of record for The Squaxin Island Museum Library and Research Center (MLRC) and Squaxin Island Tourism since 2015. We have helped the tribe develop their annual marketing campaign for the museum, events, and tourism trade shows. We manage the museum’s weekly Facebook content, and the digital advertising for museum events on social media, and have significantly increased traffic and engagement with the MLRC.
6 January 0001
Alliance for Biking and Walking Alliance for Biking and Walking is the new identity for the organization formerly known as Thunderhead Alliance, a North American coalition of 140 biking and walking advocacy organizations. The new name is the most visible piece of a complete rebranding by SmartMeme Studios that included a new logo, color scheme, tagline, and website domain. The new name and brand identity are the results of a yearlong rebranding process facilitated by SmartMeme Studios.
6 January 0001
Be Wild New York! In 2015, The Adirondack Council in New York sought to launch a state-wide campaign advocating for 20,000 acres of new state-protected lands that encompass the headwaters of the Hudson River to be classified as wilderness. When joined with other adjacent wilderness areas, it would create one of the largest motor-free wilderness areas in the country. SmartMeme Studios worked with The Adirondack Council and their partners to brand the campaign as “Be Wild New York”, and develop a website www.
6 January 0001
Bring the Salmon Home! (2004-2020) In 2004, SmartMeme Studios was brought into the Klamath dam removal campaign to facilitate a process of cross-cultural alliance building in California’s Klamath River basin. This campaign united four tribal governments, commercial fishing groups, and environmentalists in an effort to remove dams and restore extinct salmon species to the upper basin. Almost a hundred years ago the Klamath River was once the third largest producer of salmon on the West Coast, but four dams have since blocked salmon and steelhead from reaching the more than 300 miles of historic habitat, causing toxic algae outbreaks that have adversely impacted water quality.
6 January 0001
Bring the Salmon Home! (2020-present) In 2020 SmartMeme Studios helped organize a coalition of over one hundred environmental organizations to pressure Warren Buffet to get back on track with dam removal after Berkshire Hathaway pulled out of the deal. We placed digital and print ads in multiple markets using a fish bowling strategy to reach Warren Buffet and Berkshire executives. The campaign was a success, and in his response, Warren Buffett parroted language from the full-page print ads.
6 January 0001
Coal-Free Generation This billboard and transit ad was designed in conjunction with a new website. The frame of “Coal-free Generation” was used to launch the branding of an alliance of advocacy organizations funded to contest coal extraction in Pennsylvania’s Appalachian region. The ad campaign was launched during the G20 summit in Pittsburgh and created significant interest in the campaign. The “coal free” meme was picked up by alliance partners soon after our strategic messaging document was released in May of that year.
6 January 0001
Exxpose Exxon SmartMeme Studios partnered with the climate activists that helped break the story of corruption inside the world’s largest private oil company, ExxonMobil. These activists and organizations formed the coalition ExxposeExxon and worked to uncover how Exxon was funneling money into organizations that were denying the urgency of global warming. Exxon was also found to be funding front groups and think tanks that mislead the public about global warming and delayed crucial action that could have helped avert the more dire impacts of climate change being felt today.
6 January 0001
Multilingual Examples SmartMeme Studios has created numerous projects where multiple languages have been required to communicate a single message to diverse audiences.
6 January 0001
The New York Water Rangers SmartMeme Studios has been at the forefront of defending New York from hydrofracking (dirty natural gas drilling) working with the statewide non-profit The Environmental Advocates of New York (EANY). Working with a coalition of environmental organizations and celebrities such as actress Blythe Danner, SmartMeme Studios developed the branding for a statewide anti-fracking campaign. A key goal for branding the campaign was that it needed to be multi-dimensional—not only engaging activists with a temporary cause but also create something that would remain as a viable network in the wake of a future victory.
6 January 0001
No Impunity Strategic Framing Recommendations In 2012 SmartMeme Studios developed a preliminary memo on message framing for a potential no impunity campaign that was in development for Transparency International. In the document “No Impunity Strategic Framing Recommendations” we explored four broad narrative frames for solutions to impunity. The goal of the document was to make an early assessment, identifying some potential narrative frames for further development by TI for a no impunity campaign.
6 January 0001
Playing with Matches This ad ran in USA Today as part of a “fishbowling” strategy to target the cosmetics industry leaders during their annual cosmetics conference in Manhattan, NY in 2004. USA Today was the newspaper delivered to the hotel room doorsteps of all conference attendees. In conjunction with activists attending the conference, this ad created immediate buzz and discussion throughout the conference. The three companies targeted in the ad responded quickly.
6 January 0001
Power Responsibly Starting in 2017, SmartMeme Studios worked with the Hydropower Reform Coalition (HRC) to develop a digital advocacy campaign that launched in 2018 to geo-target congressional lawmakers with the message that hydropower is not a “clean” technology and thus should not be designated as “green energy”. HRC is a coalition of 167 environmental organizations nationwide. HRC wanted to develop messaging and a nationwide digital campaign that fit their budget, and could reach key decision makers who are in the process of crafting hydropower and energy policy within the Trump administration.
6 January 0001
Protect Our Waters When the Nestle Corporation tried to build (what was to be) the nation’s largest bottled water plant in McCloud California, grassroots organizations banded together to protect the ecological, cultural and economic integrity of Mt. Shasta’s unique headwater areas for future generations. SmartMeme Studios developed the name and brand identity for this new coalition: Protect Our Waters. The identity was built around our signature story-based strategy approach that identified the need to reach and encompass the ranching community as one key component for victory.
6 January 0001
Reconnect Klamath Under the leadership of Sustainable Northwest, Klamath River dam removal advocates worked with SmartMeme Studios again in 2019 to help build a big-tent coalition and campaign brand to see the Klamath River dam removal process through to the end. “Reconnect Klamath” catalyzed support from local communities and stakeholders via an economic framework that evoked the shared historical legacy of resistance to federal intervention in the region, which had forced the dam on the historic agricultural pioneer communities who had originally resisted it, along with Native communities.
6 January 0001
Squaxin Island Tourism and Squaxin Island Museum Library and Research Center SmartMeme Studios has worked with the Squaxin Island Museum Library and Research Center (MLRC) under retainer with Squaxin Island Tourism since 2016, providing marketing and collateral materials for the museum, indigenous cultural events, as well as tourism collateral and trade shows. We began in 2016 by leveraging the museum’s traditional print and radio marketing with modern geo-targeted digital ad campaigns and other digital promotional content - bringing the museum into the current digital marketing era.
6 January 0001
Turn the Tables on the Food Crisis In order for a brand to effectively reach an intended audience, it must be ’framed’ in an engaging manner, but also be framed ‘loosely’ enough to overcome any audience obstacles such as culture and language. Depending on which target audience the branding is being promoted to, the framing of the brand will need to shift. Thus, different audiences will require different frames. An example of this is the frame and visual meme for a global campaign we developed for the promotion of the global food sovereignty concept “think global, eat local” for the US Food Sovereignty Alliance.
6 January 0001
We Love New York In New York, SmartMeme Studios helped a coalition of statewide environmental organizations brand the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF). This is a multimillion-dollar fund established 20 years ago intended to protect air and water quality as well as providing funding for zoos and parks. SmartMeme Studios was contracted to brand the EPF in 2008. Previously the fund was slashed almost in half, and with the financial crisis of America’s Great Recession just getting started, the EPF was on the chopping block because New York was over $10 billion in debt.