Jam With GOOD, SF Goodwill, ImproveSF and Adaptive Path

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If there are two things that San Francisco does better than any other city, it’s advocacy and technology. The City of San Francisco knows what its citizens care about and is combining the power of advocacy and technology with its online community platform, ImproveSF.

Residents of the city are encouraged to engage and participate on ImproveSF, from crowdsourcing the design of the public library card to addressing issues of homelessness. This Friday, ImproveSF, in partnership with GOOD, Adaptive Path and the SF Goodwill, is launching the “Improve SF Design Jam: Rags to Riches” where active citizens will collaborate to address the challenge question: What local jobs and start-ups could we create from textiles now going to waste?

On Friday, Sept. 6 from 5:30-8pm, SF Goodwill will host a reception at their headquarters on 86 11th Street (cross street Mission) to kick off the Design Jam. Representatives from ImproveSF, GOOD, Adaptive Path, Goodwill and ImproveSF, including San Francisco’s Chief Innovation Officer Jay Nath, will be in attendance. Register to attend.

On Saturday, Sept. 7 from 9am-3:30pm, Adaptive Path‘s offices (Pier One, Bay 2) will host the many minds who will collaborate to come up with the best solutions to this Challenge.

Think you’re up for the Challenge? Sign up at EventBrite and get your mind grapes going.

GOOD + Purina ONE Ask: How do Pets Make the World a Better Place?

GOOD + Purina ONE® are using the power of photography to change perceptions around shelter pets and to celebrate how pets–of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds–have inspired and changed lives across the globe, making the world a better place.

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The Picturing Pets challenge, launching Wednesday, July 31, 2013 at 12 p.m. PDT, calls all pet owners to celebrate pets by submitting a photo of your dog or cat along with a short description that shows how they make the world a better place. This is a step toward shifting negative perceptions about pets by picturing them in a new, positive light.

The pet owner of the winning photo will receive:

  • A feature on good.is with the winning photo and story
  • A year’s supply of Purina ONE® dog food
  • A pet photoshoot and photography training session with award-winning photographer Nanette Martin at an animal shelter of her choosing. Through her nonprofit organization, Shelter Me Photography, Martin has dedicated herself to teaching photography techniques so that photos of shelter pets reveal their true beauty and personality, greatly increasing their chances of finding a home.
  • $1,500 donation made on the winner’s behalf to one of the following recipient pet organizations of the winner’s choice: HALO Animal Rescue Uno por Uno, Animal Human Society Bound for Home, Cat Adoption Team Kitten Foster Program or Nebraska Humane Society Camp Kindness

Be a part of this positive movement: click here to enter your photo into the challenge!

The Challenge ends Wednesday, August 14 at 12pm PT so get those photos up!

The Best Summer Camp For Girls

Do you want to be your daughter’s hero? Then you’d best sign her up for the world-famous L.A. Derby Dolls‘ annual Junior Roller Derby Camp.

Even Kristen Stewart is a fan
Even Kristen Stewart is a fan

The Derby Dolls are local celebrities and have been featured in recent episodes of “The Bachelor,” “Bunheads,” “Bones,” and countless other TV shows. As a community-focused organization that is women-operated and women-owned, the Derby Dolls host health fairs, fundraisers and job fairs and were at the frontlines of the recent and successful campaign to elect their councilman and early champion, Eric Garcetti, to Mayor.

One of the coolest things that the Derby Dolls is their annual Summer Camp for girls ages 7-17. This year, from July 15 through July 19, camp attendees will be trained by some of the country’s best roller derby skaters and learn about teamwork, community, leadership and athleticism. Sound too hardcore? It’s not. The camp is organized by different skill levels (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced) and girls with no experience skating will learn how to roll on eight wheels.

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We’re proud to support the L.A. Derby Dolls in their efforts to make girls even more awesome. To sign your daughter up for the Junior Derby Summer Camp, visit http://juniors.derbydolls.com/summer-camp/ or email [email protected]

 

 

TapSense Helps You Get a Slice of Apple (Pie)

Ever wonder what 500 slices of apple pie looks like? On Wednesday, June 12 from 11am-2pm at Jillian’s across from the Moscone Center (HQ of WWDC), mobile marketers TapSense will be giving away 500 slices of apple pie, all in celebration of the launch of their new developer website, because TapSense helps developers gets a slice of Apple (pie).

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Not only will apple pies be slung, but TapSense will also give away 10 Sony MDR-V55 DJ-style headphones to the first ten pie recipients, and 25o t-shirts. Plus, one lucky winner can check under their plate to see if he/she has the “Golden Ticket” which will win them an iPad Mini, courtesy of TapSense.

TapSense is going freebie-crazy by also offering the first 20 developers to sign up for their new developer SDK $10 eCPM. So if you’re a developer, sign up and get your $10 eCPM and come on down to Jillian’s on June 12 for your slice of Apple (pie). Make sure you RSVP and have your WWDC badge on hand.

Oh, and we didn’t even mention TapSense’s Twitter/Instagram/Vine giveaway, where anyone who takes a SFW picture or Vine with an apple and uses #SliceOfApple until 6/14 can also win an iPad Mini. Just think of TapSense as the Oprah of mobile marketing – you get an apple pie and you get an apple pie and YOU GET AN APPLE PIE!See you at Jillian’s!

 

The Chuck Rivers Show

Who is Chuck Rivers? Imagine if Johnny Carson and Mike Douglas had a bourbon-sipping, chain-smokin, man’s man love child.

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Nostalgic for the days when talk show hosts really did rule the world (those guys would have eaten Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon for breakfast, lunch and dinner), “The Chuck Rivers Show” is the brainchild of filmmaker William “Billy” Butler, embodied by the ridiculously funny actor and Groundlings alum Laird Macintosh.

Featuring live dancers and a full band, “The Chuck Rivers Show” is a new live comedy theater show, a hilarious love letter to the ’70’s, a time when Calgon was considered an “ancient Chinese secret.” Chuck Rivers  is a popular talk show host in 1975, at the peak of his popularity, and you get a ticket to his live show as he entertains guests both famous (Ann Margret) and unusual (back to that ole Calgon). Some of the funniest comedians in the business, like Wendi McLendon-Covey (“Bridesmaids”) and Mindy Sterling (“Austin Powers”), portray Chuck’s guests. Rotating stars make every show fresh, almost like you just bathed with Calgon.

“The Chuck Rivers Show” debuted to a two-night, sold-out performance in King King in April, was invited to perform at the 2nd Annual Groundlings Comedy Festival in May, and will now be performing five shows through June at King King. Ticket information for the shows, which kick off Thursday, June 6 at 8:00pm, is here. You can also find Chuck Rivers on Facebook.

Be sure to check out one (or all) of the five shows at King King. Now take me away, Chuck Rivers!

If you are a member of the press and would like a press pass for any of the shows, please email katy(at)bethechangepr.com

 

All the GOOD Things

If you’ve got a great idea to solve one of the world’s many many many problems but don’t know what to do with that idea, turn your browser to http://startsomethingthatmatters.maker.good.is and enter for a chance to win a $50,000 prize from GOOD and TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie.

Mycoskie perfectly embodies starting something that matters. The social entrepreneur has built quite the charitable shoe empire with his popular “one for one” business model that values philanthropy over profits. Mycoskie is proof that you don’t have to be ruthless to be successful, and that giving really is good business. He’s taking all of the profits from the sales of his best-selling book and throwing it back into the good karma universe.

GOOD and its CEO and founder, Ben Goldhirsh, is cut from the same social entrepreneurial cloth as Mycoskie. The online community platform for “people who give a damn” has provided countless opportunities for others who share the same values. While GOOD has been a sounding board and resource for people who simply wish to do their part in making the world a better place, it’s also been an excellent source of opportunities for people who want to be the next Blake Mycoskie or Ben Goldhirsh.

With the launch of the Start Something That Matters Challenge, any U.S. resident with a business idea that benefits the world can win $50,000 to help jump-start that business. The Challenge is open until May 17 so start thinking with your heart and your dollars.

In addition to the Start Something That Matters Challenge, GOOD also recently launched the Global Neighborhood Challenge, an excellent opportunity for five global recipients to win a “pop-up fellowship” at GOOD’s Los Angeles headquarters. That includes the all-expenses paid trip (especially enticing if you live in, say, Brazil) and the opportunity to learn from the do-gooders at GOOD, who can help you expand your community idea into a scalable one that will work just as well in Nigeria as it would in Denver.

Now you have no excuse not to do some good.

Sight and Sound

When HP kicked off their worldwide campaign for their sweet new Envy 27 monitors, featuring Beats by Dre Audio, they wisely turned to visual effects house (and Change Communications client) Rogues Gallery. The visual wizards at Rogues, who have experience with pre and post production, in addition to live effects and computer graphics (CG), created this stunner:

Check out the writeup in Animation World Network and SHOOT Online.

Contact Rogues Gallery if you require more than just photoshopping your cat into all of your vacation photos.

 

 

Calling All Youth Focused Non-Profits To Enter In The Give For Youth Challenge!

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Organizations that prepare young men and women for the future with interview workshops, SAT practice tests, mentorship, entrepreneurship programs, and college prep courses are doing their part to make the world a little better by nurturing better people, but it’s not easy (or cheap). These nonprofits that help America’s young have an uphill battle raising funds and awareness. Where do they go when they need both? Enter Microsoft and GOOD.

Microsoft and GOOD are calling all U.S.-based 501(c)(3) non-profits to enter the Give For Youth Challenge. If you know an inspiring non-profit with micro projects that empowers young people to realize their potential, you can nominate them from January 7th to February 1st(noon PST) or encourage them to submit themselves directly.

After the nomination period, 20 non-profits will be chosen by community votes to move onto the voting round. These 20 will have the opportunity to participate on the Give For Youth micro-giving portal, where they can raise funds and matching grants from Microsoft, up to $100,000 across all non-profits.

Change Communications is excited to be working with GOOD and hoping to see some amazing entries on the Give For Youth site. Additional information about the challenge can be found here: http://www.good.is/posts/good-maker-challenge-support-the-dreams-of-young-people-with-crowd-funding-opportunities

A Wicked Good Marketing Plan

When beloved actress Brittany Murphy died tragically and unexpectedly three years ago, producers of the last film she shot were left in limbo. Once the shock wears off, how do you market a film when your biggest star won’t be doing interviews and walking the red carpet?

After finishing the film in an extended post-production process, the producers of “Something Wicked” have finally decided to tackle this issue and give fans of the late actress one last opportunity to see the star on the big screen. The film is now being shopped to distributors. Media interest in “Something Wicked” was predictably strong, with articles appearing in USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, CNN and Yahoo! Movies, among others. Producer Joe Colleran spoke with Bloomberg BusinessWeek about the process of marketing a movie when it’s surrounded by a tragedy. The film stars several up-and-coming actors, including “One Tree Hill’s” Shantel VanSanten and “Pretty Little Liars” and “Once Upon a Time’s” Julian Morris. The thriller about young love gone terribly wrong features superb performances from the young stars, lending the film depth and energy and giving fans more to celebrate.

Ultimately, as Colleran points out, the film has to stand on its own merits, and not exploit the loss of a key participant. While Murphy’s fans will surely be satisfied, they’ll also be seeing a film that she, and they, can be proud of. Change Communications is excited to be working with the producers of “Something Wicked” and seeing the title on the marquee. While distribution is currently being secured, fans can visit the official “Something Wicked” Facebook fan page to stay updated and see exclusive photos, videos and more.

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A Panda Eating a Hot Dog

This was one of the first phrases we entered when we began playing our client, Kihon Games‘, latest game “SketchPhrase.”

The person who got our phrase did a fairly admirable job with it, but by the end of the game, our cute little phrase ended up looking like Michael Jackson circa “Thriller” wearing a piano on his head and riding a pony.

Such is the joy of “SketchPhrase.”

Back in my day, when a fax machine was considered revelatory and we didn’t have iPads and Nintendo Wiis to tide us over, we used to play the ole game of telephone. You know, where you whisper one thing into someone’s ear, and they whisper it back into someone else’s, and by the end of it, an outlandish rumor is now ready to be circulated. “SketchPhrase” takes this concept of telephone and plops it into a reimagined social drawing game for iOS devices.

Drawing games are fun, but drawing games with your friends are even funner, and drawing games with your friends where you all end up creating some Frankenstein of a comic just because you wanted someone to draw a panda eating a hot dog is the absolute funnest. And yeah, we know funner is not a real word but neither is IDGAF and we’ll still use it.

Kihon Games had been hard at work on “SketchPhrase” while simultaneously putting the finishing touches on their year-long masterpiece, “Dojo Danger.” “Dojo Danger” is aimed for an early January 2013 release. The two games have different genres but share the exact same formula as Kihon’s first game, “Baby Monkey (Going Backwards on a Pig).” And that’s to be the funnest game possible.

Go download “SketchPhrase” for free at the iTunes Store, check out what 148Apps and Appolicious have to say about it, and send us your drawings on Twitter (use #SketchPhrase).

p.s. If you watch the Parry Gripp-created trailer for the game, we guarantee you will not stop singing “SketchPhrase” while you’re playing the game, which may or may not hinder your abilities.