Posts Tagged :

marketing makeover

New Buzz stars Saint Francis Service Dogs 900 670 Michael Hemphill

New Buzz stars Saint Francis Service Dogs

As originally broadcast Sept. 21, 2022, on Blue Ridge PBS …

For more than 150 Virginians with disabilities, dogs are not only best friends, they literally make life meaningful and possible.

Since 1996, Saint Francis Service Dogs has provided incredibly trained four-legged caregivers that assist in daily living for families confronting autism, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, rheumatoid arthritis, brain injuries, amputations and paralysis.

Lesser known is the fact that these dogs also provide service to inmates at Bland Correctional Center who help raise and care for them through a prison puppy program. And they provide comfort and calming in facilities throughout Virginia, namely Blue Ridge Autism and Achievement Center.

Dog-lover and marketing maven Carrie Cousins, director of marketing at LeadPoint Digital, returns to BUZZ to help Saint Francis Service Dogs enhance its popular “Barks & Rec” fundraiser. 

Please join us in thanking these sponsors for making this episode possible:

BUZZ Season 3 premier features Grandin Theatre Film Lab 900 504 Michael Hemphill

BUZZ Season 3 premier features Grandin Theatre Film Lab

As originally broadcast August 10, 2022, on Blue Ridge PBS …

Since 2016, Grandin Theatre’s Film Lab has provided an after-school program for high school students eager to learn how to make movies.

But dozens of films later — some of which have received EMMY awards and been screened in festivals around the world — and the Film Lab remains somewhat unknown despite the fact it’s earned its own red-carpet treatment.

Using Film Lab’s own tools and talents, BUZZ seeks to shine a spotlight on this amazing program with a special hour-long episode that launches of our third season on Blue Ridge PBS.

Buzz4Good Radio Hour talks Gun Control Nonprofits 1024 617 Michael Hemphill

Buzz4Good Radio Hour talks Gun Control Nonprofits

As a professor in Norris Hall, Catherine Koebel’s father would have been a victim of Virginia Tech’s 2007 mass shooting had his class started an hour earlier. Brenda Hale wasn’t as lucky: when she was a little girl, her father fatally shot her mother.

Listen to Buzz4Good

Now both have teamed up to launch an aspiring nonprofit – Groceries Not Guns – that seeks to stem this cycle of death one household at a time. Groceries Not Guns, along with the Roanoke chapter of the NAACP and Roanoke Quaker Meeting, is coordinating a buyback on June 25.  

While mass shootings like the tragedy in Uvalde, Texas receive a lot of media attention, they comprise just a fraction of the 45,000+ gun deaths – suicides, inner city homicides and accidental shootings – occurring each year in our country.

Such killings are just part of living in the United States.

Listen to BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill‘s conversation with the leaders of these organizations.

Also in this episode … a sneak peek at an upcoming BUZZ TV show episode featuring Brain Injury Services of Southwest Virginia.

Are you a nonprofit with an event that we could help promote? Or a marketing problem we could help fix? Contact us and we’ll share on an upcoming episode.

BUZZ Premier Party featuring Roanoke Arts Pop! 900 506 Michael Hemphill

BUZZ Premier Party featuring Roanoke Arts Pop!

Join us for a free special evening that highlights the Roanoke Valley’s arts and cultural organizations that collaborated March 4-6 for the amazing ROANOKE ARTS POP!

BUZZ first featured this arts extravaganza on Feb. 23 on Blue Ridge PBS. In this episode we previewed the weekend-long event coordinated by the Taubman Museum, the nonprofits eager to resume in-person performances and exhibits, and the marketing professionals at LeadPoint Digital who worked to give arts in Roanoke more “buzz.” 

On March 23, we invite you to a community Watch Party when Blue Ridge PBS broadcasts our newest episode showcasing the 32 organizations that participated in Roanoke Arts Pop! 

Watch Party on July 27

Name
  • 6:00 pm – Doors open (beer, wine, soft drinks and concessions available for purchase)
  • 6:30 pm – Encore showing of our Feb. 23 episode
  • 7:00 pm – Blue Ridge PBS premier of our new episode

These two shows are part of a 6-episode series that BUZZ is producing in 2022 – in partnership with the Roanoke Cultural Endowment and City of Roanoke – revolving around a collective arts and cultural marketing initiative for the Roanoke Valley. 

We thank Freedom First Credit Union for helping sponsor these episodes!

Episode 12 revisits Mill Mountain Zoo & EastMont Community Foundation 1024 576 Michael Hemphill

Episode 12 revisits Mill Mountain Zoo & EastMont Community Foundation

As originally broadcast June 16, 2021, on Blue Ridge PBS …

In 2020 BUZZ featured two nonprofits in dire need of a marketing makeover: Mill Mountain Zoo (Episode 3) and Mountain Valley Charitable Foundation (Episode 7).

Mill Mountain Zoo in Roanoke, Va., wondered if the word “zoo” had too negative a stereotype … nor best captured its mission and vision.

Meanwhile in Montgomery County, Va, Mountain Valley Charitable Foundation wondered if its name accurately described the community it served … after all there are lots of mountains and valleys.

Thankfully, marketing specialist Wordsprint was willing to provide pro bono rebranding for both organizations. In Episode 12, we revisit these nonprofits to see how they’ve incorporated Wordsprint’s marketing makeovers to help them achieve more … buzz!

BUZZ is a program of AAF Roanoke and is sponsored in part by the Virginia Film Office – VIRGINIA IS FOR FILM LOVERS.