The Challenge
Fairbanks is a nonprofit alcohol and drug treatment center with an incredible mission: to inspire hope and resilience in those seeking recovery from addiction. Fairbanks’ annual Circle of Hope Dinner helps raise awareness and recognize individuals and organizations for their contributions to addiction treatment and recovery, while also celebrating inspiring stories of hope, transformation, and recovery.
Fairbanks came to SmallBox for something different – they wanted an inspiring video to celebrate and communicate the impact of their work – one that reflected the hope and optimism of the recovery community at Fairbanks and connected with the audience at the event in a meaningful, emotional way. We set out to create a video that would not only communicate the impact of Fairbank’s work, but also celebrate and engage their passionate, diverse recovery community.
Our Solution
Using Candy Chang’s public chalkboard murals as a springboard – we took over the Fairbanks lobby for three weeks, while staff and art students volunteered to help execute the idea and trusted our creative process. During initial ideation, we considered developing a mosaic of the faces of the recovery community at Fairbanks, creating a time-lapse journey of their history of hope, but that became too complicated too quickly.
Instead, we narrowed in on a much simpler concept, though we still had our work cut out for us. Our idea required the input of 70+ participants, approximately 400 – 500 custom-printed sticky notes and more than three weeks to film. We asked participants to share the impact that Fairbanks has had on their lives, by completing the statement: “Because of Fairbanks _________” on individual sticky notes covering a huge whiteboard. We then filmed the evolution of the board, as volunteers, staff, and people involved in the recovery community brought the story to life before our eyes.
SmallBox became an extension of the Fairbanks team. It was an enjoyable, collaborative, and rewarding experience.
– TY SPISAK, MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS AT FAIRBANKS
The Result
