BLOOM was honored to support the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention in its first-annual National Day of Prayer for Faith, Hope, & Life. In conjunction with National Suicide Prevention Month (September), the organization invited all faith communities across the nation to “pledge to pray” for those whose lives have been touched by suicide. BLOOM executed a Facebook ad campaign to help drive traffic to Action Alliance's web site and complement Action Alliance's other promotions.

Working with the Action Alliance's requested branding guidelines and campaign graphics, BLOOM created three ad creative templates and tested them in eight different audience groups targeted for interests and behavior aligned with the campaign message. Shifting investment to the best-performing creative and audience combinations, the campaign helped Action Alliance more than double its rate of "pledge to pray" sign-ups. The ads achieved competitive click-through-rates and hearty engagement from the target audience. 

Following the 2012 passing of its charismatic founder, Charles Colson, Prison Fellowship needed a moving-forward strategy that would help it evolve from a personality-driven niche into a national, mission-driven brand. With the life-saving purpose to help restore the incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, and their families, Prison Fellowship played a timely and critical role in the lives of more than 60 million Americans with a criminal record. Moreover, the organization was approaching its fortieth anniversary and had an opportunity to cast a clear and compelling vision for its next generation.

Under the marketing leadership of BLOOM's founder and president Sara Marlin, Prison Fellowship clarified its mission, vision, and values. Then the team developed a "branded house" strategy that would position Prison Fellowship as a powerful master brand strengthened by well-known ministry sub-brands, including Angel Tree, the popular program that delivers Christmas presents to children on behalf of their incarcerated parents.

A redefined brand identity emphasized the brand's core emotional and functional benefits of hope and new opportunity, and the core brand experience of restoration. With a new visual identity and messaging guide designed to clearly convey these brand promises and resonate with today's audiences, the organization introduced its updated brand as part of its fortieth anniversary kickoff. Prison Fellowship enjoyed a smooth brand introduction that was enthusiastically received by both its traditional followers and new target audiences, resulting in increased visibility, favor, and engagement for the organization.

Founded in the late 1970s, Reston Presbyterian Church over the years cultivated a small but tight-knit community of highly engaged members with a strong sense of stewardship. Following the departure of its head pastor, the DC-area church languished for a few years. But with a young visionary pastor taking the helm in 2014, the church quickly reenergized its long-time stalwarts and attracted new visitors. Shifting from "maintenance mode" to "growth mode" required a new communications approach that brought the church contemporary relevance while guarding against faddy church trends that could bely this unique church family's down-to-earth style. Enter BLOOM.  

First, a visual identity was needed that communicated the church's friendly and welcoming, yet form-meets-function approach. The church required a timeless look that would both convey its grounded nature and hint at an exciting future that included plans for a new sanctuary and facilities. BLOOM recommended an earthy palette (think, L.L. Bean) to convey some key church brand attributes: reliable, down-to-earth, warm, and welcoming. For a new logo design, the team found inspiration in the future building's architectural plans, and created an icon that represented the new sanctuary's actual entrance tower. The logo's usage of the new palette's grey and green colors represented the church's strong foundation and historical reliability married to its vitality and palpable momentum. Applying a new design system across all materials helped better communicate the church's unique strengths and present a unified look to its community.

BLOOM then tackled the church's digital properties. A congregational survey revealed that the majority of recent newcomers had found the church by doing a Google search. Yet the web site was bogged down with an old infrastructure, dated user experience, and copy-dense pages with few images.  BLOOM helped the church build an entirely new Wordpress-based site featuring a clean modern design and new photography of its church community, and then reenergized its Facebook page with more frequent content, inspiring news, and appealing images. In the first four months, the church enjoyed year-over-year increase in sessions (+13%), average session duration (+34%), and a huge increase in returning visits. Meanwhile, with more strategic content on Facebook, posts achieved 84% higher average reach and its contribution to total site visits more than doubled.

Since 1969 the Vicente Ferrer Foundation (VFF) has worked tirelessly to improve the lives of the poor in rural India, particularly among the most marginalized populations. With the philosophy to provide "a hand up, not a handout," the organization brings tools that help communities work together toward sustainable solutions. Over the decades, VFF has empowered millions of Indians through better access to education, job skills, safe housing, critical infrastructure, health care, business loans, and other resources.

While the Vicente Ferrer Foundation is a top brand in Spain, the birthplace of its founder, VFF USA was created in 2015 in a market unfamiliar with its impressive legacy.  Facing the challenge to express nearly 50 years of outcomes to a vast audience of potential supporters, VFF sought assistance from BLOOM to create compelling content for its marketing channels. 

A key part of the content strategy was to overcome prevailing American perceptions about India, which the media and popular culture often present in bleak ways. Instead, content centered on positive narratives showing how simple solutions could empower individuals for a new future. Stories showcased how a $50 bike can help a child get to a remote school; how a micro-loan helps a widow or a disabled woman start a small business; and how a community well frees women and children to pursue jobs and education.

BLOOM was honored to come alongside this life-changing mission with the power of story-telling.

They say a cobbler's children has no shoes. As a team of brand enthusiasts, it was imperative that BLOOM have a strong brand platform and identity that would engage our target audiences and authentically express our personality.

With the brand promise of thriving, BLOOM has a visual identity made up of vibrant colors that evoke the colors seen in—and that contribute to—a flourishing garden environment: from earth, to various plants in blossom, to golden sunlight and spring rain. The tulip leaf shape that graces our logo is used as a design element either alone or as part of a flower motif to represent the blossoming results we bring to our clients. Meanwhile, our frequent use of squares represents the flexibility of our team and approach as building blocks to bring tailored services to each engagement. We also tend to use white backgrounds and black text, along with a combination of sans serif and typewriter-esque fonts, to help us communicate an authenticity and candor. The warm vibrancy of our bright color palette represents our creative energy at work complemented by a handwriting-like accent font that conveys our personal touch.

All this is presented with a voice that is clear, pragmatic, and optimistic, reflecting the excitement we have about the potential of each of our clients and the practical help we bring for beautiful and healthy results.