The February REBUS event was hosted by TOKY Branding and Design, in their new offices. For the second month in a row, there were over 50 attendees at the event. The TOKY staff collaborated and delivered a 'hands on" event that not only celebrated the virtues of creatively contributing to the community we live in, but utilized REBUS to contribute over 50 hand made Valentines for a local charity.
Eric Thoelke, Jeff Insco and others TOKY staffers proudly showed a new way to think about an old topic (using marketing for the benefit of the community). They presented some of their work over the past year for area charities, non-profits and the St. Louis Community. Projects like "Art Fix" an art auction benefiting Rebuilding Together, "Art the Vote" a Statewide get out the vote effort, and their efforts for "A Tasteful Affair" for St. Louis' Food Outreach, of which the REBUS Valentines were a contribution. Cjeck out some of those Valentines . . . they're really pretty impressive!
The TOKY presentation was unusual and refreshing because they didn't talk about their highly regarded work for clients. Instead, by showing how effective creative marketing can be for those causes of interest and social responsibility, they gave every attendee something to think about. Frankly, TOKY did more than that. I think they inspired the attendees to find ways to contribute to those charities and non-profits of interest to themselves and/or their employers. It was exciting. It was beyond the normal response to REBUS hosts.
The presentation showed how powerful strategic thinking, backed up by powerful creative can positively effect outcomes . . . whether for a national client brand, or the neighborhood non-profit. The effort can be relatively inexpensive, yet powerfully effective. In short, there are no excuses for more agencies and individual creatives to find ways to give back.
The pro bono arm of REBUS, fREBUS is doing just that in its own way. Over the past two years, fREBUS has utilized the volunteer efforts of almost 60 young professionals to give back over $50,000.00 in deliverables to St. Louis non-profits. Check out fREBUS to find out more, and perhaps contribute. The effort to help support St. Louis non-profits is continuing, and growing!
The next REBUS event will be held at Rob Grimm Photography on Tuesday evening March 10th, starting at 6:00 PM. The topic will be "What To Expect When You are Expecting A Photo Shoot". I hope to see you there!
