The Trade Institute of Pittsburgh (TIP) is a non-profit building trade training school dedicated to providing opportunities for individuals with barriers to employment.
CHALLENGE
TIP was busy helping its students rebuild their lives and needed someone to help tell their story.
SOLUTION
We rebuilt their social media and marketing strategy, as well as supported the organization’s fundraising efforts.
ReSULTS
Beyond a new look, brand strategy and website, our Brick by Brick giving strategy helped TIP raise more than $24,000 in just under ten days.
TIP engages returning citizens to meet a growing need for skilled workers across the trades as the older generation of workers retires.
Pittsburgh’s Annual Day of Giving is a day focused on charitable giving to local non-profits. The big challenge? Standing out. Since every non-profit is competing for eyeballs, social media space and dollars, it can be quite a problem for non-profits.
We decided we could skip the day and tell our story over the course of ten days with a matching donation campaign. Our goals was to fund two scholarships for students. We funded three in just ten days.
Pittsburgh Pickle was started by three brothers out to create the perfect pickle. To this day, they pack each jar by hand to ensure a higher level of quality and to honor Pittsburgh’s hardworking steeltown heritage.
CHALLENGE
One of the brand’s biggest goals was to be served at THE Pittsburgh restaurant — Primanti Brothers.
The nationally recognized Picklesburgh event was the perfect place to get the word out.
SOLUTION
We created a social teaser campaign leading up to Picklesburgh, the world’s largest pickle festival (yes, Pittsburgh is weird. And yes, Pittsburgh is awesome).
In a few short hours we held blind taste tests, pitting Pittsburgh Pickle’s product against the commodity brands used by Primanti’s.
The crowd’s overwhelming endorsement of the Pittsburgh Pickle cukes was shown with 1,300+ public signatures on a love letter to Primanti’s.
RESULTS
Thousands of signatures on a love letter to Primanti’s.
Thousands of new tasters who tried Pittsburgh Pickle for the first time.
Oh, and Primanti’s is in discussions with the brand to feature their cukes.
In a short time with a tight budget, we got them the recognition and meeting that they were looking for.
Allegheny CleanWays has been instrumental in engaging and partnering with community groups to remove dumps and debris from vacant lots, greenways, streets and riverbanks. But they were seeking to rebrand, as people often believed that they were a city organization tasked with cleanup.
CHALLENGE
Allegheny CleanWays government-style logo and voice made the organization feel like a stuffy County entity that didn’t have any fun. More importantly, it made volunteers and donors assume that they didn’t need any support.
RESULTS
We repositioned Allegheny CleanWays for the future, setting them up as ‘CleanUp Artists’ that transform littered areas into blank canvases ready for revitalization.
QUOTE
“Oyster helped us better showcase the work we are doing and stand out from the crowd.”
– Myrna Newman, Executive Director
Before
After
Struggling to drag a waterlogged couch out of the Ohio River?
Taking care of an illegal dumpsite in someone else’s neighborhood?
Or taking out the tires and trash that no one else will?
Yeah, it’s not for everyone.
What is for everyone are the results of what we do – educating so that we have a cleaner community in the future and actually removing trash from neighborhoods throughout Allegheny County – is for everyone.
Some artists look at a blank canvas and think about what could be.
We look at a messy dump site and think the same thing.
We return it to as close to a blank slate as possible, so that great things can happen.