CopperMoon Blog

 

http://www.firstnationswebsites.ca/

Do you want to know:

  • How many First Nations have a web presence?
  • How often they update their websites?
  • How many are using social media?

Jeff Ward and his wife over at Animikii put a lot of work into answering these questions after finding no reliable data on the subject. They're kind enough to share their research, and have made it available here:

http://www.firstnationswebsites.ca/

Thanks Jeff!

Posted December 1, 2011 by Jacob Beaton 
 

Job Posting: Communications Officer, Westbank

Click here to download:
Job Posting - Communication Officer 2011.pdf (104 KB)
(download)

Posted November 30, 2011 by Jacob Beaton 
 

One of the best stories about marketing and selling

Imagine a university professor of marketing who travels to Turkey on vacation, and promises to himself that he won't buy a rug… and then 4 hours after arriving find himself shaking a salesman's hand and buying one!

This is a great true story that guides us through all the "rules" of marketing and persuasion. Thanks to Jeff for the link.

http://academicbiz.typepad.com/piloted/2007/01/what_i_learned_.html

Posted November 28, 2011 by Jacob Beaton 
 

Communications, Branding, Marketing, and Social Media Workshop

My workshop and presentation was VERY well received at CANDO this year, and I wanted to make it available to everyone. It is a very important presentation that will bring you up-to-speed in communications, marketing, branding, and social media in a very short time frame.

The video is low quality, but you can download the high quality PDF right here:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1509196/downloads/CANDO%20Pres%20v1%20jb%20copy.pdf

All the Best,

Jacob

Posted November 23, 2011 by Jacob Beaton 
 

Sts'ailes Success Story

We've done a lot of work rebranding First Nations organizations over the years. One of the biggest challenges is not the design work, it is actually seeing our clients start communicating regularly and well after the bulk of the work is done. Sts'ailes (formerly Chehalis) is a small reserve that has gone through some amazing growth over the last couple years. We did a large project for them, and were thrilled to be working with empowered youth at the Band who wholeheartedly embraced communication.

Here is a recent newsletter that came out of their office, compiled by one of their young staff. I'm thrilled to see how well they are using the tools, new brands, and sub-brands and adapting them to their needs. Check out their November newsletter!

jb

Click here to download:
November 2011 Final.pdf (8.1 MB)
(download)

Posted November 23, 2011 by Jacob Beaton 
 

RFPs Designed to Fail

There are a lot of reasons why we don't respond to RFPs, but this is the #1 reason:

  1. The issuer of the RFP has already chosen someone to do the work, and issues the RFP purely to go through the motions. When getting sucked into responding to an RFP, you literally waste days of your time and thousands of dollars responding to a pre-decided contest.

Almost 2 years ago CopperMoon was certified as an Aboriginal supplier, and therefore privy to "aboriginal set-aside" work from the federal government.

The idea is that aboriginal companies face a huge uphill battle against entrenched, well resourced and well networked non-native companies, and therefore need a leg-up through competitions that only native companies, or companies with 33% native staff, can bid on and win. Sounds great, right? Work should be rolling in the door, right?

I've been certified for 2 years and haven't seen one RFP that isn't designed for one company to win. In other words, the aboriginal set-asides, as with so many RFP processes, are pre-decided competitions. The books are cooked. The game thrown. Here's an example that prompted me to write this blog entry:

http://www.merx.com/

Here's the goal of the project, which has a budget of $100,000 - 250,000:
"Development and delivery of a youth video contest targeted to First Nations and Inuit university film/broadcast/production students. The videos produced for the contest will include content and messaging which support the strategic program priorities for both the immunization and environmental health awareness campaigns."

The project includes web development, and a lot of cool stuff that made me think right away about the many brilliant young aboriginal videographers, designers, and editors who would be perfect for this project.

Check out the "Mandatory Requirements" - in plain english, what you need to bid on the project:

#1) You need to be an aboriginal organization. Check. So far, so good.
#2) "The supplier must be a national television network broadcaster reaching the First Nations and Inuit population across Canada, through programming specifically intended and designed for First Nations and Inuit." So, APTN?

It turns out this is money designed for APTN, and no one else. Well, at least they didn't hide it and waste my time with writing a proposal. I can't help but feel saddened though that the brilliant aboriginal media companies out there who would do an AWESOME job at this, and do a lot more for the money than APTN, don't even have a shot.

I'll wrap up with an e-mail I sent voicing my concerns about another aboriginal set-aside that had similar requirements than seemed to suit only one company in Canada:

Dear Ms. Brockington,

I am writing to you with some concerns about this GEM project RFP. It appears that the mandatory requirements have set up the set-aside RFP to fail, or at the very best encourage an application from a specific agency or firm.

It is most unfortunate that our company, CopperMoon, will likely not be submitting a proposal for the NRCan's GEM project.

The mandatory requirement, M4, within the RFP makes it impossible for our company to qualify although we are a successful, award winning, Aboriginal-owned, staffed, and operated, full-service, communications company. Its seems very odd to have such strict requirements, when many communications, design, and advertising agencies frequently land new projects in geographic areas where they have no prior experience and they do very well. If we were required to have previous experience with every new client we landed, the business would have failed because no one would have given us the chance. Isn't it the point of Aboriginal Set-Aside to support aboriginal businesses and give them opportunities and chances? This ridiculous requirement runs completely counter to this intent.

In my opinion, the mandatory requirement should focus on the experience required: working with Aboriginal groups in a communications and marketing capacity. In our case, we have experience working with many First Nations including the Taku River Tlingit in northern BC (an acclaimed community planning and communications plan project funded by the DIA) and the Alaska Highway Pipeline Coalition in the Yukon (community consultation strategy), and the Aboriginal leadership program at Yukon College (for parks canada).

I invite you to view our portfolio at: http://www.coppermoon.ca/portfolio

For over 10 years we have completed a variety of communication related assignments from designing websites and promotional materials to campaigns and marketing strategies with First Nation communities, Aboriginal organizations both new and existing, governments as well as non-Aboriginal companies. CopperMoon has become well-known not only in British Columbia but across Canada for our work. In addition to our professionalism and commitment to bettering opportunities for Aboriginal peoples, what makes us unique is our sensitivity around Aboriginal issues, our knowledge of our people's history and struggles and, most importantly, our staff's inherent respect for cultural protocols, all qualities essential especially for a project of this magnitude within northern communities. 

We are greatly disappointed that we may not have an opportunity to respond to your RFP and feel that it is most unfortunate that this mandatory requirement eliminates firms such as ours.

In closing I believe that the aboriginal set-aside project is worthy and needed. When it works, it helps propel Aboriginal businesses forward. I look forward to receiving more RFPs that hopefully we, along with other aboriginal companies, will be eligible to bid on.

Sincerely,

Jacob Beaton
CopperMoon

Posted November 23, 2011 by Jacob Beaton 
 

CANDO Workshop A Success

Just finished our workshop at the CANDO conference here in Vancouver. It was a packed room and the presentation went really well!

(Slides from the workshop are attached)

We received a lot of attention at our booth as well, and gave out most of our portfolio books.

Thanks everyone for your support!

Click here to download:
CANDO_Pres_v1_jb_copy.pdf (14.32 MB)
(download)
Img_8522
 

Posted November 10, 2011 by Jacob Beaton 
 

HaiCo Website Lauch

Hello Everyone

We're very excited to announce the launch of the Haida Enterprise Corporation (HaiCo)'s new website www.haico.ca.

The Haida House of Assembly, through the Haida Independence Project, approved the creation of HaiCo as a National Corporation in to manage, grow and govern the business enterprises of the Haida Nation with the goal of developing a sustainable economy on Haida Gwaii to generate revenue to attain financial independence and to improve the quality of life for the collective benefit of the Haida people.

This website was designed with the intent of keeping the Haida nation informed on news and events for HaiCo as well as current job opportunities.

Working on this project meant a lot personally to me, as it was the first chance I have had to work with my own nation.

Haaw'a to all of the community members who completed our survey and provided us with photos to use in the banner on the site.

Looking forward to everyone's feedback.

Thanks so much,
Juli

Posted November 2, 2011 by Juli Holloway 
 

NEBCE Promo Materials

We just completed a rush job project for our good client NEBCE (National Energy Centre for Business Excellence). We seem to have a love-hate relationship with rush jobs because we know we're going to be hard at work till the job gets done, we're always so pleased with the results and love just being able to crank out some fantastic designs that meet our client's needs.

NEBCE is an program provided by the Indian Resource Council that works with Oil & Gas producing First Nations. They provide many great services to assist First Nations in Oil & Gas. They also maintain a strong network within the  Oil & Gas.

The materials we provided for them were for upcoming presentations and trade shows. We created 3 tradeshow displays, designed to work together or independently, a booklet that highlights their services, and folders & postcards designed for each of their audiences (Industry & First Nations).

Check them out and let us know what you think!

(download)
Click here to download:
NEBCE_booklet_final.pdf (1.93 MB)
(download)

Posted October 24, 2011 by Juli Holloway 
 

Our First Ever Displays!

We did our first ever displays this summer, and I finally picked them up and assembled them. WOW. So pleased with how they turned out! 

They were a huge creative CM collaboration, with almost our entire team from last year and this year involved. The text was drawn from our retreat last fall, and both Chris Chong, Freyja Barnwell and I were involved with the art direction and design. Juli tells me that getting the text right for the displays was the hardest copy job of her life so far, and the west coast artwork was custom done by my uncle Roy Henry Vickers to suit the displays.

We'll be showing them off at CANDO in a couple weeks, and I so look forward to it!

Jacob

(download)

Posted October 21, 2011 by Jacob Beaton