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TheBuzz Erika Engle |
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Friends in deed
Big Brothers Big Sisters gets help from
others in improving the way it spreads its message
BIG Brothers Big Sisters of Honolulu is on the move to increase its visibility. It is not exactly a secret organization that nobody knows about, right?
The organization, like its counterparts around the nation, matches 6- to 16-year-old children, usually from single-parent homes, with adults who volunteer a few hours a month to mentor, entertain or just hang out with the kids.
Everybody knows that, don't they?
"We have really high name recognition," said Dennis Brown, president and chief executive officer. However, a survey revealed that only about 9 percent of the population understands what the organization does.
Brown often hears, "You guys call me for clothes all the time."
Clothing solicitation and pickup is one of the organization's largest sources of revenue, but it's been declining during the last couple of years, he said. Competition for donated goods has increased. "They're all worthy causes, but if people really knew who we are and what we do, maybe there's a certain percentage of people that really want to help kids," Brown said.
In looking at ways to rebuild revenue, Big Brothers Big Sisters engaged marketing man Marty Schiller, who pointed out that the organization's trucks "really don't say anything about what we do and who we are," Brown said.
Emblazoning the trucks -- its moving billboards -- with pictures of little brothers and little sisters with big brothers and big sisters represented "probably the best way to make an impact and let people know," Brown said. "They're not models. They're our actual Bigs and Littles."
One of the photos is of Brown and his son.
"I was the first little brother served by this agency 41 years ago," he said. It only served boys in 1963, but in 1979 Big Brothers merged with Hawaii Big Sisters.
Schiller clients Big Brothers Big Sisters and Robo-Art Hawaii were introduced. Robo-Art applies large-format graphics to surfaces with a special inkjet printer.
Robo-Art Operations Manager Alex Cho was a Big Brother back in his college days. The company gave the organization a deeply discounted rate for the project.
Photographer Lew Harrington was tapped to take the pictures. Hirasaki-Nakagawa design was chosen to combine the photos with graphics for Robo-Art to paint onto the trucks.
Mobile Fleet Images in Mapunapuna is applying a clear-coat finish over the newly imaged trucks.
Craig Hirasaki and Darren Nakagawa "have been very active in putting the project together," said Cho. Kalani and Joni Wong of Mobile Fleet have a huge shop and don't need the work, "but they know it's a good cause," he said. The couple has worked late into the evening or on weekends to accommodate the truck project, he said.
Three trucks are now on the road, Cho said.
Increased visibility, awareness and donations are the immediate goal of the new imaging on the trucks, but Brown hopes the impact will ripple out, to increase the numbers of volunteer Bigs, enrolled Littles and the organization's fund raising. Images used on the trucks will be incorporated into the Web site at www.bigshonolulu.org, which is being rebuilt to accommodate online credit-card donations.
The new Big Brothers Big Sisters tag line, arrived at through market research and surveys is, "Helping children become responsible adults."
Its goal is to serve 1,000 children a year by 2007.