Organization Launch

Projects begin in all kinds of interesting ways. Our latest, a commercial PSA & website for Hamilton organization ‘Tastebuds’ evolved out of a conversation Double…

About This Project

Projects begin in all kinds of interesting ways. Our latest, a commercial PSA & website for Hamilton organization ‘Tastebuds’ evolved out of a conversation Double Barrel had with board director Deirdre Pike.

‘We were just chatting over lunch – and it came up that Deirdre was a part of this great Hamilton organization that feeds 23,000 kids a day,’ says Double Barrel’s Roz Mugford. ‘She mentioned the snack carts that they used and I realized – my son eats off that cart every day. In this really six-degrees-of-separation way – Deirdre’s organization was helping me.’

From there, the team at Double Barrel worked alongside what was then known as ‘Hamilton Partners in Nutrition’.  The goal? To create a video that would increase knowledge about health and nutrition in a fun, easily digestible message.  Deirdre wanted to reach out to a broad audience – schools that may need the program, funders who provide the dollars to keep it going and parents who, through awareness of the organization, could request that a snack program be implemented at their child’s school.

But as is often the case with so many not-for-profits, Deirdre’s organization had outgrown its original name, and website. ‘Hamilton Partners in Nutrition’ did not fit the goal of being accessible and understandable to schools, parents and kids alike. Double Barrel reached out to our friends at Kitestring Creative to join in the process and develop a new brand, while Dale Mugford of BraveNewCode created a website that would seamlessly envelop the new video, values and messaging. Rounding out the dream team was Canadian comedienne Diana Frances who wrote and starred in the 30 second commercial.

“Tastebuds” was born.

Stylistically, this video piece is proof that you don’t need a long documentary to get your message across. A light hearted, humourous approach tossed around with a simplified ‘just the facts’ script created the perfect web & broadcast commercial. One that will be viewed many more times than a serious, ponderous doc. Plus, it appeals to adults and children alike.

That said, this process illuminated one simple fact of video production –  in order to create truly great video, you need to be crystal clear on your brand and one-hundred percent solid on messaging.

‘We saw the site that currently existed and knew they needed more than a video,’ says Roz. ‘We didn’t want to just create a video based on what they had – we wanted to help them really reface, come up with a fresh look & feel that would make it clear to Hamiltonians – this is an amazing organization doing great work.’