Make Believe was principal communications agency leading strategy, creative, branding, messaging, and online work for The Greens’ Federal election campaign. We also worked closely with Adam Bandt on his grassroots campaign in Melbourne - and are now focused on supporting the The Greens’ Victorian State election effort.

It was time for The Greens to show themselves as a modern, progressive and accessible alternative to the increasingly homogenous political choices.

Make Believe:

Rebranded the party for the campaign including with a new logo, making it feel more accessible

Reworked the website, greens.org.au, to tell the story of the Greens in a more compelling way, and invite people in to be part of it

Developed all marketing and campaign collateral

Engaged in research and developed core messaging

Provided advice and training on online/offline organising strategy to best build and engage the grassroots movement of Greens volunteers –esp. in Victoria and the Melbourne campaign

Created more than 100 deliverables including national print and magazine advertising, an extensive outdoor billboard & poster campaign, social media, and television advertising etc

Check out a portfolio of Make Believe’s earlier public work for The Greens [pdf].
[Post-election update coming soon].

The Australian Conservation Foundation approached Make Believe to assist with a billboard and newspaper advertising campaign in Ferguson’s local electorate to give voice to Muckaty’s traditional owners. The advertising explained to residents: “He Won’t Listen To Us But He Answers to You”.

ACF raised more than enough money to put up the billboard and is developing a range of activities to ramp up the pressure over the ill-considered decision over coming months.

Muckaty’s traditional owners visit the billboard in Melbourne

Make Believe was commissioned to develop and execute a creative concept highlighting how antithetical corporate killing of whales would be in 2010. Avaaz put Make Believe’s creative to its membership and called for donations - raising enought to plaster the streets of Morroco with street flags and billboards - and purchase front page newspaper advertising in the European Financial Times  (handily given out free to all delegates).

On June 28th 2010, talks to lift the ban collapsed and it remains in force, saving thousands of whales from slaughter.

An indoor poster, one of many.

At the Agadir airport .

Australia’s largest development coalition, Make Poverty History, engaged Make Believe to support their campaign for an “Act to End Poverty” to be passed by the Federal Parliament. This Act would unite all Australians - and be a powerful symbol to demonstrate that there is a critical mass of the community who believe that we can make poverty history.

In a matter of days, Make Believe created a campaign microsite and online petition — with a dynamic design, compelling messaging and integration with MPH’s Salsa CRM system on the backend. We also created a range of supporting materials including a sticker, poster and postcard - as well as offline petition sign-up sheets.

Finally, Make Believe’s creative team developed concepts for a visually-powerful event on the lawns of Parliament House that will be the culmination of the Make Poverty History roadtrip in Canberra, coordinated by MPH partner The Oaktree Foundation

The portal, built using a Drupal Content Management System (with thanks to our friends at Funke) includes a sophisicated log-in area tracking personal preferences and site activity, a complex resource-ordering/shopping cart system, and a non-linear site structure with content categorised according to the ACEL “Leadership Capability Framework”.

With diverse types of users - from schools to individual teachers, the site presented numerous information architecture challenges. Make Believe also worked with ACEL to produce printed versions of the Leadership Framework, as well as leading a review of the ACEL logo.

Make Believe worked with FYA to devise a survey asking students “Are you more than your marks?”. An snazzy flash based website was complemented by a Facebook application (both developed together with our friends at Circul8), and Facebook advertising was used to drive traffic and interest.

So far more than 5,000 students have taken part in the survey.

Make Believe was approached to coordinate the “Avaaz Action Factory”, a crack multinational team of campaigning specialists that would organise daily media stunts, photo opportunities and events on the ground in Copenhagen, Denmark - as well as at pre-meetings in Barcelona, Spain. Make Believe worked with co-coordinator Josh Lynch, to recruit the team - and then organised logistics, accommodation, travel, and training for the group on the special context of working in UN meetings.

Each day of the Barcelona and Copenhagen meetings, the Action Factory generated timely and cut-through stunts that captured the imagination of the world media, who used vision/visuals of the Avaaz actions to complement - and frame - their stories on the Climate Summit. On the ground, Make Believe coordinated the Action Factory’s collaboration with major international organisations, and events such as a candlelight vigil with Mary Robinson and Desmond Tutu.

To encourage people to postpone all those “one last thing” tasks, emails and late meetings, and leave work on time for a change - the Australia Institute has worked with Make Believe to launch Go Home On Time Day 2009, November 25.

The simple and fun website lets visitors register for a “leave pass” and also invite hard-working friends & colleagues to also go home on time.

Complementing the site is a Facebook Fan page and advertising strategy.

Queensland’s union movement could see the March 2009 State Election shaping up as a difficult contest. The Liberal National Party was gaining in the polls - and had threatened to slash spending and public sector jobs.

Just three weeks until the election would be called, Make Believe was approached to conceive and deliver a suite of online, paid media and public relations initiatives to ensure union members’ interests were effectively represented – and that the 12,000 potential job cuts would become a central issue of the election.

Working for both the Queensland Public Sector Union and the Queensland Council of Unions, we were tasked with delivering complementary creative approaches related to their respective positioning.

- Three TVCs, two websites, a flash game, social networking, online and print advertising, stunts and on-site logistical support

- On time delivery

- Messaging that became central to the Labor campaign victory, based entirely on instinct (as we had no time and very limited access to message research/testing)

- Contributed to the victory of Australia’s first popularly-elected female Premier; Springborg now finds himself “de-necessary”

Update: Read the report!

The Fair Trade Association of Australia & NZ came to Make Believe with a clear brief: create an online campaign enabling people to pledge to spend $2/day on Fair Trade products.

The campaign would clearly articulate the message that a Fairtrade purchase helps reduce poverty, and encourage people warm to the idea of buying to actually do so.

Working with a very limited budget, Make Believe planned and project managed a simple and immersive website experience.

Featuring a video from The Global Poverty Project, a simple call to action, information on partner groups, and a strong focus on viral sharing through email referral and Facebook Connect, the site seeks to personalise the developing world farmers behind the Fairtrade label.

The site’s design and functionality, including an email marketing engine, was beautifully delivered by our friends at Circul8.