Pollywog is a Minneapolis-based branding agency with a state-of-the-art naming process and the world's first patent-pending methodology for brand creation.
In a land of plenty, one in five American families can’t regularly afford to eat. Hunger lurks in the most surprising places in Minnesota–not only in depressed urban neighborhoods in the Twin Cities, but also in Duluth, Mankato and even Minnetonka.
For the next year, General Mills is helping to address the hunger crisis with a program to secure up to 15.6 million meals for needy families. It’s the corporation’s biggest charitable initiative since Box Tops for Education launched in 1996.
Here’s how it works: Consumers find a code printed on packages of more than 25 General Mills brands, including Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Totinos pizza, Bisquick and Betty Crocker muffin mixes. Each code entered at the program’s Web site provides five meals through Feeding America.
Working in tandem with Imagination Publishing, Pollywog led more than 30 General Mills team members through a process to name this important new program, Outnumber Hunger.
Look for it on specially marked packages of your favorite General Mills products. Then please do visit the site, enter the code and transform your purchase of one product into five meals to help Outnumber Hunger.
Ever since I adopted my first dog a few years ago, I’ve been an avid supporter and volunteer for the local Golden Retriever rescue organization, Retrieve a Golden of Minnesota (RAGOM). And whenever RAGOM needs help with branding, I gladly raise my hand.
A few years ago, Pollywog branded RAGOM’s annual fundraiser, Goldzilla. It has since grown into what may be the largest Golden Retriever event in the nation–the self-fulfilling prophecy behind its audacious name.
Recently, RAGOM asked us to brand another smaller fundraiser, a craft beer tasting and silent auction at Summit Brewery, with proceeds benefiting Golden Retriever rescue. For this project, I teamed up with freelance graphic designer Jennifer O’Brien, also a RAGOM volunteer, and together we created Stouts for Snouts.
When RAGOM introduced the brand and began promoting the event in social media, there was an immediate demand for tee shirts. Between tee shirt sales, the silent auction and admission fees, Stouts for Snouts raised almost $5,000 for needy Golden Retrievers in Minnesota.
With Stouts for Snouts, I was once again fortunate to work in that gratifying place where professional skills are committed to a personal cause.
Why yes, I do have a photo of my dogs. Thanks for asking! Chaz (left) is a purebred Golden Retriever I adopted from the Animal Humane Society. And Pippin, who was rescued by RAGOM, doesn’t have a drop of Golden in him. He’s a mix of Dachshund/Chow/Shar-Pei/Rat Terrier and many other breeds–a survivor of a hoarding situation, who had the good fortune of looking like a “mini-Golden.”
More than a year ago, Pollywog was approached by a Minnesota nonprofit organization with the generic and unwieldy name, Resources for Child Caring (RCC). Over its forty year history, RCC had grown from an agency that trained child care providers into Minnesota’s leading voice for early learning, but their brand had not kept up.
According to RCC, “Too many didn’t recognize our name, or confused us with others. In short, our brand was not working hard enough to help us achieve our mission, and that was not okay with us.”
For the next year, Pollywog worked closely with RCC management and key team leaders in every stage of the rebranding process: brand positioning, naming, tagline creation, domain name search and brokering, brand identity design, brand standards development, Web site design and top-level copywriting and brand voice.
We’re happy to announce that Resources for Child Caring is now:
“We chose a thought-provoking and provocative name that will call attention to the needs of Minnesota’s smallest children,” Executive Director Barb Yates said at the brand’s unveiling event. “Think Small captures our mindset, our passion, our call to action.”
Added Janet Bisbee, Director of Development, “It’s been a pleasure working with Pollywog. Our new agency name is powerful and unexpected. The genius of it is that it makes people want to know more. It opens an exciting conversation about ways we all can be more and do more for children.”
Recently, Pollywog had the privilege of speaking to design and technology students at Rasmussen College in Brooklyn Park, MN. Here is a recording of that 23-minute presentation.
In 1970, a small group of parents in Richfield, MN began meeting in a vacant commercial space to discuss the needs of suburban families that were not being met by more urban-centric programs. Their venue became their name: Storefront. Over time, they relocated, expanded and grew out of their name, yet continued to operate under it for 40 years.
Last year, Storefront asked Pollywog to help them develop a new name and brand identity to more clearly communicate the value of what they bring to the community–comprehensive and effective mental health treatment, intervention and education that can transform lives.
Animal welfare advocates agree: The best way to reduce the heartbreaking volume of animals euthanized by overcrowded shelters is to prevent unwanted litters.
But when times are tough, a lot of pet owners can’t afford to neuter their animals, which ultimately results in more unwanted litters.
To address this problem, the Animal Humane Society (AHS), the leading animal welfare organization in the Midwest, teamed up with a local veterinarian to introduce a subsidized spay/neuter service for low-income pet owners, delivered by way of two mobile surgical units. Pet owners can sterilize their dog, cat or rabbit for a fee ranging from $35-$100–a substantial discount over regular veterinary costs.
AHS asked Pollywog to lead the naming of this new service. Because sterilization surgery is key to saving more animals–and because the service is made possible through the generous donations of strangers–we recommended “Kindest Cut.”
Logo and brand identity were created by our friends at Sussner Design.
We count it a privilege to work on such an important cause and look forward to partnering with the Animal Humane Society on future projects.
Mired in a series of budget cuts, union issues, declining enrollment and a persistent and staggering gap in achievement between student groups, the Sprockets “power name” provides a very strong platform and hopeful ray of sunshine that the strife-ridden local education environment can use as a flash-point to spark a fresh approach to things.
Let’s hope that in addition to engaging and inspiring struggling students in our urban education environment, the vibrant, value-add of the Sprockets brand can give a much-needed extra-curricular boost to the tone and essence of the struggling district leadership as well.
Katherine Emmonds is a Minneapolis-based writer who specializes in civic engagement, education, science, the arts, innovation and creativity. Thanks for the kind words, Katherine!
You can read the rest of Katherine’s blog post here.
How do you increase high school graduation rates by more than 90%? Get kids to keep learning, even when they’re not in school.
And how do you do that? By offering them such a wide range of learning opportunities, they can fill their out-of-school time with activities they love–and in so doing, find out what they’re really good at.
That’s the idea behind a new initiative from the City of Saint Paul. The program coordinates the city’s many existing resources to offer kids hundreds of free or low-cost activities and programs, from art to basketball to reading to music to math tutoring.
Key to the initiative’s success was its brand, which had to be youthful (but not too young), fun (but not flippant), and somehow communicate the idea of an interconnected network (without being complicated).
Pollywog led a diverse group of influencers and decision-makers–including the Mayor’s Office, school board, library system, parks and recreation department, Youth Commission and students themselves–through the branding process to give this innovative program the energetic, youthful name it deserved, along with an aspirational tagline.
Pollywog founders John Stucker and Devon Thomas Treadwell appeared this week on Business Radio AM1570′s Peter McClellan Show. Among the topics covered: What makes a brand name powerful? And why does today’s competitive market require a new approach to naming and branding?
Sales are brisk for Pollywog-named Scent of the Missing, a new memoir by Susannah Charleson, named by Pollywog and released this month by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Scent of the Missing chronicles the author’s adventures with her golden retriever as members of a Texas-based canine search and rescue team.
Since the book’s release on April 13, Susannah and Puzzle have been making the media rounds, talking to reporters curious about the inner workings of canine search and rescue and remarkable abilities of SAR dogs. Susannah says, “Across a baker’s dozen interviews in the past 10 days, I have been called Suzanne Charleson, Susannah Carlson, Susannah Charleston, and Shewanna Charleson. That said, the book’s title has always been correct.”
Canine search and rescue is a fascinating subject that appeals to a wide swath of readers, and the writing itself is top-notch. But we also know that the book’s title has helped propel its success: We learned that Houghton insiders, when presented with a list of upcoming books to peruse on their Kindles, selected Scent of the Missing because the title intrigued them.
Here’s how it works: Consumers find a code printed on packages of more than 25 General Mills brands, including Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Totinos pizza, Bisquick and Betty Crocker muffin mixes. Each code entered at the program’s Web site provides five meals through Feeding America.
