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.

Over the next three years, SmartMeme Studios successfully elevated the EPF through branding and effective marketing to be a key issue in budget discussions, though it represented less than 1⁄10 of a percent of the overall budget. Not only was it saved from being cut, but in 2013 our efforts helped to achieve a budget increase of $19 million even though New York was still in a financial crisis. Our campaign “Protecting NY One Buck/Clam/etc. At A Time” highlighted that “every dollar put into the EPF returns seven more”. Examples of this victory are at KeepProtectingNY.com