Urbanization Project: New, Improved, and Easy to Understand
When we began working with Paul Romer and The Urbanization Project over a year ago, we we were charged with identifying and executing the most effective way(s) to communicate their game changing, yet nuanced ideas and work, from inside the halls of power, to the public squares beyond as they work to empower visionary prime ministers, mayors, and policy makers around the world.
Considering that 5 billion people will move into cities before this century is over, this moment in time represents a once in a species opportunity to speed up progress and dramatically improve the lives of generations to come. As a result, UP's work is consequential, timely, and complex, and we've been hard at work helping them make it accessible.
Today, we're so pleased to share the results of that work as UP's new website launches, complete with 17 videos we produced for them, leveraging our initial strategy work, and expressing it via web and video for a global audience to interact with.
The core of our approach to any big idea is the same: simplify without making simplistic, and we are proud of how succinctly UP is now able to introduce itself, via it's new website:
...and introductory video:
...and Charter Cities video:
Every piece of B-Roll was chosen specifically to illustrate a point, with the idea of not including anything gratuitous or flashy (simply not on brand for UP). So, if a piece of footage or soundbite didn't advance the narrative, it was left on the cutting room floor, resulting in precise videos with equally precise narratives and footage. Not the most exciting or fast paced videos we've ever produced, but certainly the most exacting when it comes to cramming in an incredible amount of specific information into a short period of time, without overwhelming the viewer.
A great comparison to see the evolution in messaging is between Paul's first TED talk and the Charter Cities video above.
In addition, given their global audience, the core videos can be viewed with subtitles in 6 languages, powered by dotsub's technology platform.
With the website, we had the opportunity to create an entirely new and sticky content ecosystem, with strategically integrated video content (i.e.: video FAQs as content deep dives), horizontal and vertical content navigation, and purposefully curated and featured content types. All of this was done to seamlessly emphasize the inter-connectivity of the work and content of UP's individual initiatives, so as to promote their holistic and markedly unique approach to urbanization.
The site works across all devices and screen sizes, bringing it's intuitive UX with it. But you be the judge...
Today we offer sincere congratulations to the whole team at The Urbanization Project, and look forward to seeing (and helping) The Urbanization Project leverage these assets and new public facing image to more efficiently communicate the very big, game changing ideas they exist to further, as they're just getting started. Stay tuned!
This project wouldn't have been possible without the skilled work of our truly talented collaborators, including:
