Nor-Cal Think Pink is a non-profit 501(c)(3), volunteer-driven community organization dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of early detection in the fight against breast cancer. Think Pink was started by a small group of healthcare professionals in Redding, California in 1997 and in 2011 celebrated its 15-year anniversary.

I believe it was in 2007 when Melody Christenson, one of the founding members of Nor-Cal Think Pink communicated with us about an idea to light the Sundial Bridge in pink as part of the annual Think Pink Day. Immediately we thought this was an incredible marketing opportunity, both to further promote Think Pink’s within the community, but also draw more attention to these efforts from beyond the immediate vicinity of Redding. We were dumbfounded when this idea was rejected by the “powers that be.”

Fast-forward to 2009, and with some changes in leadership, the idea came up again in discussions with Melody and with her and Nor-Cal Think Pink’s approval, Abra embarked on a series of efforts to present the Pink Sundial Bridge event to decision-makers at the City of Redding along with Nor-Cal Think Pink’s then President Nichole Wilder and Dr. Michael Figueroa, another one of Nor-Cal Think Pink’s founding members. Although resistant at first, the event was ultimately approved by the City and Redding celebrated the first Pink Sundial Bridge on Think Pink Day, October 2009.

To support promotion of the event, Abra donated a complete redesign of the website. We also set up social media, including Nor-Cal Think Pink’s Facebook page and Twitter accounts. We were able to grow followers of these accounts to over 1000 by the event.

We also created a photo module that allowed people who attended the event to upload photos of the Pink Sundial Bridge. This feature was a great success – with 250 photos loaded – that created a way to connect with people who attended the event beyond the event itself.

Through this module we created an ongoing interaction with members of the community, both by having the ability for them to participate in the website and by having contests where people could vote on their favorite photos.

Winning photos were featured in a North State Parent magazine.

Abra also has donated graphic design services to Nor-Cal Think Pink as well.

We are very excited that in 2011, the City of Redding approved the Pink Sundial Bridge event for the next 5 years. With people showing up dressed as Stormtroopers sporting pink ribbons and bicycles lit in pink, it was clear at the 2nd Pink lighting event in 2010 that the community was embracing the Pink Sundial as an event of its own.

Looking forward to seeing how the Pink Sundial evolves in the future.

The Think Pink redesign included:
– complete overhaul of design to improve design and architecture of the Think Pink website
– improved content and organization of the site
– addition of more features for visitors to connect with Nor-Cal Think Pink such as email list, Facebook, and Twitter.
– adding online donations form
– adding View/Share module so people who attended the pink lighting of Santiago Calatrava’s Sundial Bridge on Think Pink Day could upload their own photos of the event.
– improved search engine friendliness

About Think Pink

Nor-Cal Think Pink is a community effort to promote breast cancer awareness. Early detection is the best defense against breast cancer – when caught and treated early, breast cancer has a 97% cure rate.

Pink Sundial Bridge Photos

Responses to the video section is less than I had hoped but still includes some pieces that help document the event:

Pink Sundial Bridge Videos

The Pink Sundial View/Share created a nice ongoing piece that will capture and continue to document this event. I am hoping to develop more marketing elements that will continue the dialogue between Nor-Cal Think Pink and their audience.

On Think Pink Day, 10/15/2009, Nor-Cal Think Pink will be lighting the Sundial Bridge in Redding, CA in pink lights – with the help of Morpheus Lights – as part of their incredible efforts to raise awareness of breast cancer and the importance of early detection . The pink lighting of the Sundial Bridge will also include pink refreshments, live music, and a talk by Nor-Cal Think Pink organizers and breast cancer survivors.

So why does a marketing agency include Web Applications as one of their service lines?
When we received approval to light the Sundial Bridge in pink, I knew we would get a lot of great attention to Think Pink’s cause in the local area and hopefully the region.

But I wanted to take this local event and find a way to get more exposure from it. That is when I came with the concept of the Pink Sundial Bridge View/Share Web App.

The concept goes like this: the Pink Sundial Bridge event will draw a lot of people who will be taking photos and videos of the event. Naturally, afterward they will proceed to a variety of photo-sharing and video-sharing resources (flickr, youtube, etc) to upload and share those images.

It is my hope that be creating and publicizing a dedicated sharing site for this event, we will be able to capture a bulk of these photos and videos that would otherwise be drawing attention elsewhere. Nor-Cal Think Pink’s Sundial Bridge View/Share will hopefully also eclipse these other sites by creating a uniquely focused collection of all of these still and moving pink images in one place.

The benefits of the system are:
1) I believe it will actually create a unique, fun experience for the people sharing images and video vs. if they were just dumping them into the mass of photos and videos on all the other site. They will actually be participating in the creation of an online public art piece.

2) It will draw more people in contact with Nor-Cal Think Pink and their breast cancer awareness messages for multiple audiences:
– those who want to see the images of the pink Sundial Bridge
– those who want to share their images and videos of the pink Sundial Bridge
– friends and relatives of people who upload to the site who then refer people to the site.

In addition to expanding Nor-Cal Think Pink’s message to more people locally and regionally, it hopefully opens up our message to a potentially national and maybe even international audience.

3) An essential piece of the strategy behind the site is in addition to the larger audience we seek to create, the web site now gives us more of an opportunity to create ongoing dialogue with these visitors. Most of Nor-Cal Think Pink’s efforts center on Breast Cancer Awareness Month every October and specifically the activities of Think Pink Day. Through this enhanced website, we are seeking to create an enticing feature to draw in people regularly, create a relationship, and have an opportunity to create a consistent communication of the opportunity we all have to save lives by helping people take the actions that can lead to early detection of breast cancer.