Giving Back in Creative Ways

Each year, Rivers Agency partners with nonprofit organizations to create promotional campaigns that may involve a combination of public relations, marketing and design services.  This is a great opportunity for us to give back to our neighbors, maximize our creativity and network with community members—all for a great cause.

When we work through a creative process with a nonprofit, we’ve found there are common themes that emerge when promoting nonprofit work:

Prioritize: When working for nonprofit, there are often many needs that the organization is seeking to address. Be clear about the objectives of a single campaign and address each issue one step at a time. Muddled messaging can reduce the effectiveness of a campaign.

Play to your audience: It’s a true pleasure to work with a client that is offering real solutions to social or environmental issues. The content of these campaigns makes it easy to communicate an organization’s goals with passion. Creating emotive and compelling creative is of paramount importance to drive interest and garner support.

Work efficiently and effectively: Nonprofits often work on limited budgets, which means efficiency is a high priority. This theme carries through in our for-profit work as well, but working in the non-profit world allows us to push ourselves to become more efficient while maintaining a high standard of quality in our product.

This year, Rivers has partnered with the Goathouse Refuge, a sanctuary in Pittsboro that houses nearly 200 abandoned or injured cats, and has seen skyrocketing demand in this economic turbulence. Through close collaboration with Siglinda Scarpa, world-renowned artist and proprietor of the Refuge, we have created a campaign to boost adoption numbers and raise funds for the organization.

Most recently, our public relations and design teams helped organize and promote a Spring Art Show at the refuge that raised over $10,000, no small feat for this volunteer-run organization!

Rivers Agency Provides Full Complement of Services During High Point Furniture Market

At Rivers Agency, we pride ourselves on providing customers with exceptional design, advertising and public relations services. Rivers Agency’s work during the 2008 High Point Market was no exception. Preparing fully for fall 2008 events took careful planning and consultation with our clients.

Weeks in advance, Rivers Agency staff was busy creating artwork for showroom invitations, refining lists of prospective market-goers and targeting new audiences. Rivers Agency design staff conducted site visits to help our clients plan showroom layouts that were ideal for both visitor flow and collection highlighting, and several billboards and digital marquis designs were executed for prominent display near High Point’s Market Square.

Our public relations department worked closely with clients to determine which products would be featured during market, creating persuasive descriptions of fabrics, carpets and furniture frames to include in market press releases and press kits.

Before we knew it, High Point market had arrived and we were on site to conduct guided media tours through showrooms and to make sure that all of the details came together exactly as planned. Each publication editor or reporter received a personal invitation to view client products on display and were taken through the latest collections of interest to their readership.

We’re proud to report that despite the uncertain economic conditions, both of our High Point market clients, Capel and Taylor King, saw steady sales this year. Our High Point post-market follow-up is almost complete, but the next market is just around the corner – and we’ll be ready for it!