Lunchmeat Underpants
New Stuff and Inspiration
Changing the story for underprivileged kids.
There’s a crisis in American education that has been brewing for decades. More and more kids from low-income families are falling through the cracks. It’s a situation that no one denies and yet for the last 40 years the debate about how to solve it has raged on. These kids can’t wait for the bureaucrats and administrators to agree on a universal solution. They need help now.
That’s where ACE Scholarships comes in. They provide partial scholarships to low-income kids so they can go to the school that best fits their needs. And their approach is achieving incredible success. 90% of ACE Scholars graduate high school and 78% go on to college. You can’t argue with those numbers.
With this kind of success, ACE is poised to expand across the country. But like many organizations and brands on the verge of growth, they needed help crafting their story. They needed to make their message and brand even more compelling in order to attract a larger donor base. We helped them infuse emotion into their solid facts-based argument. And we also helped them change the way they told their story. ACE always began by telling people how they do it – with school choice, a politically charged idea that shuts down far too many potential donors. We helped them understand and communicate why they do it. ACE Scholarships exists to help change the story now, for kids from low-income families. This approach makes all the difference. It entices everyone to lean into the conversation to understand more.
ACE Scholarships has always had proof of their effect on kids’ lives. Now they have a way to communicate their brand and mission in a way that will attract a much larger set of donors.
Generation Z, we now dub you Generation Wild.
Kids today spend less time outdoors than any other generation.
In fact, they only spend an average of 4-7 minutes a day outside in unstructured play. While that does mean they’re doing a great job of keeping off our lawns, it’s not so great for their health and happiness. Our friends at Great Outdoors Colorado, an organization that builds parks and trails around the state, were brave enough to take on this tremendous challenge, and they called on us to help. They challenged us to do something that had never been done before: create a campaign that would inspire kids to want to trade their phones and tablets for rocks and stinkbugs.
So we devised a plan to change this generation of kids, to turn them from Generation Z, a generation known for being helplessly addicted to their devices, into Generation Wild, a generation known for loving nature and enjoying the outdoors.
In order to do this, we had to first get inside the heads of the people who run these kids’ lives: their moms. We conducted ethnographic research with moms from all different ethnicities, backgrounds, and income levels around the state. What we found was that moms connected their own memories and experiences to the outdoors and already understood all the benefits that being outside had for their kids. The issue was finding the time and energy to organize and encourage their kids to play outside. Their lives were already packed full of responsibilities and commitments. Practices. School events. Countless other activities. What they needed was some inspiration and a little bit of help reprioritizing outdoor playtime.
Our idea was to make life easy on moms and remind them that getting your kids to enjoy nature doesn’t require a trip to the mountains; it’s right outside your door. Plus, to get kids interested, we would show off just how fun the outdoors can be. We launched Generation Wild with an enticing bucket list of things to do outside called 100 Things to Do Before You’re 12. Because while there are millions of amazing things to do outside, there are 100 things that you’ve absolutely gotta try when you’re a kid. It was the perfect way to give kids a taste of how fun the outdoors can be and inspire a lifelong love of nature in them.
To introduce Generation Wild and 100 Things to Do Before You’re 12, we created an integrated statewide campaign. Since moms spend a lot of time in front of screens, we knew we would need a strong digital campaign to get our message out. We used a highly-targeted, cross-platform approach. We leveraged video, display, and social media on desktop and mobile to hit moms wherever they may be online and coupled that with data analysis and optimization to ensure we were reaching moms who are the most receptive to our messaging. By combining a strong digital effort with our billboards and bus shelters, we were able to drive higher awareness and improved recall.
With the help of artists from Belgium, Israel, Toronto, NYC, and right here in Colorado, we created seven 15-second TV spots. The first spot introduced Generation Wild and the other spots each highlighted a different task from the list.
We also put up billboards and interactive bus shelter installations that helped kids tick things off the list.
And of course, we hit parents where they are most, social media.
As it turned out, GOCO wasn’t the only organization that loved Generation Wild. We helped recruit more than 50 others to join the cause, including the U.S. Forest Service, The Nature Conservancy, REI, Cabela’s and Girl Scouts of Colorado.
After only a few days of launch, word is spreading. The campaign was has been featured on television news channels, Colorado Public Radio, the Denver Post, and more.
And moms are doing just what we thought they’d do, spreading the message among friends and family with hashtag, #100ThingsToDo. And we’ve had over 20,000 visits to the website in the first few weeks.
Learn more about the campaign at GenerationWild.com. Follow it on Facebook and find it on Instagram at @GenerationWildColorado.
Your move, Minecraft.
It didn’t rain every day in Denver this May. It just seemed like it.
People get why we should conserve water when we’re in a dry spell. But what do we tell them when it’s coming down in buckets?
We tell them an indisputable truth. How much water we get isn’t up to us, it’s up to nature. Water is a non-renewable resource we shouldn’t waste no matter what the weather.
We can’t make the stuff. But we can make that point. And to do it, we used almost 6,000 Legos, over 2,000 square inches of Blue Model Magic clay and 255 yards of string to create stuff that looks like water.
Artistic, yes. Thirst quenching, no.
It’s an urban art show, the first of its kind in Denver, on display in bus shelters throughout the city.
They’re eye catching. They’re getting talked about. And they’re helping demonstrate that even after 9 years, Sukle is still finding great ways to remind people to please, use only what you need.
Water Splash
Location: Colorado Blvd and Exposition Ave Denver, CO
Fiberglass and molding clay sculpture
Description: 30 packets of Crayola® Model Magic® affixed to a fiberglass mold.
Water Drop #2
Location: 9th and Lincoln Denver, CO
Post-it® notes on particle board
Description: 243 pink and 102 blue Post-it® notes.
Water Drop #1
Location: 21st and California Denver, CO
Embroidery thread on particle board.
Description: 7 different colors of embroidery thread and custom nails.
Rain Cloud
Location: 71st and Tower Road Denver, CO
LEGO® on particle board
Description: 7 different sizes of LEGOs totaling 5,000 in all.
Water Spray
Location: Arapahoe and Adams Centennial, CO
Sprinkler and embroidery thread on particle board.
Description: 75 individual strings in 3 layers, using 10 different colors, emerge from an actual sprinkler.
Glass of Water #1
Location: Kipling and Jewell Lakewood, CO
Stained wood on maple board
Description: Made from maple wood held together with wood glue.
Water Spigot
Location: Colorado Blvd and Virginia Ave Denver, CO
Knitted and crocheted yarn
Description: A 90-foot knitted stream of water made from 14 skeins of yarn on a crocheted background, emerging from an actual metal spigot.
Water Drop #3
Location: Kipling and Bowles Littleton, CO
Crushed aluminum cans on particle board and vinyl
Description: 123 cans attached with nails.
Waves
Location: Alameda and Pierce Lakewood, CO
Colored pencil sculpture on particle board.
Description: 17 different colors for a total of 1700 pencils, all sharped to the exact same length and attached with Gorilla Glue.
Glass of Water #2
Location: Kipling and Ken Caryl Littleton, CO
Post-it® notes on particle board
Description: 345 Post-it® notes used, blue, dark blue, yellow
OBIEs
We’re happy to announce we were featured in the OBIEs again this year. Both our Wyoming Department of Health and Cheyenne Mountain Zoo campaigns were included, and we’re proud to have our work recognized alongside some of the best agencies’ in the US. The OBIE Awards recognize creative excellence in out of home advertising and is the oldest awards program in the advertising industry. For more than 120 years, the association has been dedicated to leading and uniting a responsible outdoor advertising industry that is committed to serving the needs of advertisers, consumers, and communities.
We’d just like to take a minute and thank the Wyoming Department of Health and the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. They’re great clients and we love working with them to create award winning stuff. Over the years, we’ve been lucky enough to improve the health of Wyoming by featuring programs like smoking cessation, threw with chew and alcohol and drug related initiatives. We’ve also had a lot of fun spreading the word about the amazing and unique zoo experience the folks at CMZ are bringing to Colorado Springs. Thanks for the opportunity to work with you guys.
Mile High Youth Corps
Then, we had our interns for the spring (the fabulously aforementioned Greg Jesse and Jamie Howe) come in and finish up the production of the “What did you build today” campaign for the Mile High Youth Corps. The idea was to let the public know that MHYC not only helped youths in our community, but that they actually helped to benefit the physical community itself, as well. They plant trees, build trails, help repair homes, create parks- and the list goes on and on. They are building the community, literally.
We think Greg and Jamie did a fantastic job, and we’re quite proud of the work they produced, and are excited to get this work out there- so stay tuned and look for it in your area.
The Heist
People that shop at Goodwill already know this – you can get awesomely cool stuff for next to nothing. We’re talking name brand, never used or barely used stuff. We captured the feeling of finding something special at Goodwill with this stylish new spot.
Wilderness Kicked, Thanks to CGI
How do you connect with a niche audience of elite backcountry enthusiasts? You talk to Matt. Matt is Sukle’s in-house CGI expert.
For the 2012 Scarpa campaign, we asked Matt to create 3 of the world’s premier mountains for backcountry destinations in CGI. Oh, and make them appear to be made of sand, dwindling away, moment by moment, in an hourglass. No problem. He started by collecting data on the actual peaks. Multiple data points on longitude, latitude, altitude and slope of each mountain gave him a rough start. Then he masterfully filled in the details. (Matt watched a lot of Bob Ross as a kid.) You can watch his progress in the video above.
Why an hourglass?
The average life contains 26,320 days. If your preference is to spend as many of the remaining ones as possible in lonely territory with just you and the mountain, then you’re part of an elite group of crazies. Aka, Scarpa fans. For backcountry athletes, it’s not about quantity. It’s about quality. They’d rather spend the whole day trudging up to the top of a mountain for one glorious ride than repeat the same predictable, crowded run.
The hourglass concept acknowledges that there are only so many opportunities in life to make those memorable runs. By showing the precious sand running out, we connected the Scarpa brand with their passion for the sport. We didn’t use ad space to talk about the stats on a particular product, even though there is plenty to brag about there. The retail folks do a good job of that. Our goal was to speak to what makes them different from the average weekender Joe or Jane. So the next time they’re in a spot to choose a new boot, they’ll know Scarpa gets it.