New Orleans Will Save Us is a philosophy—a mantra that takes the misperception that NOLA needs to be saved and flips it on its head to inspire the city, and even the country. We believe a message this big should be proved. That’s what The Urban Laboratory does.

The Urban Laboratory harnesses the characteristics of the city and it’s people, pairing them with some of today’s technology to help facilitate all the projects the people of New Orleans wish to accomplish.

The Urban Laboratory is a smart use of crowd-sourcing. It’s similar to Kickstarter.com, but not only does this platform help people get their dream projects started, it encourages continuous collaboration from start to finish.

The Urban Laboratory hosts active projects that people in NOLA want to complete. These projects could be anything—an idea for a local business, a school, a park…anything.

The site allows users to browse through projects going on throughout the community, click into them to learn more, and then begin contributing. Users contribute their ideas, their feedback, and possibly financial backing. Each project is broken into stages to make it more actionable. Each stage has it’s own countdown clock to show users how much time is available to contribute. Users vote on ideas, submit their own, and wait for the clock to count down to 0. When that happens, it’s on to the next stage of development. The site supports people throughout the community to get involved and even holds a place for each project to have a Launch Partner, an organization that already exists in NOLA. The Launch Partner offers expertise as well as financial backing to get projects off the ground.

One of the key benefits of a platform like this is the accountability involved and the potential to expedite the continuing process to rebuild and perhaps reinvent New Orleans.





Google the Mantra
To engage the city in this rebirth, we created a campaign for The Urban Laboratory that encourages resident involvement beyond rebuilding.

The site hosts 10sec. videos that capture the essence of the new New Orleans. Videos are categorized by one of the ten characteristics, and highlight local businesses, people, and culture. After watching a video. visitors are asked to add their own. After uploading a video, visitors are mailed a personalized RFID-enables t-shirt and key chain which would interact with billboards and bus stops that are enabled to communicate a personal message.








"Watching your video and reading over the presentation, its is inspiring to see when people from outside our city just "get it." THANK YOU, for helping to spread our NOLA Gospel. For helping change the perception of this city from negative to positive. For being a part of the re-emergence of a brand cherished round the world: The City of New Orleans."
- Abhi Bhansali, Bond PR & Brand Strategy

*My team had the honor of presenting this idea to the guys at the Trumpet Group, as well as other thought leaders down in New Orleans.

Credits:
Kendall Beveridge | Creative Brand Manager
Melissa Cabral | Communications Strategist
Sarah Daily | Copywriter
Brad Getty | Copywriter
Alyssa Collis | Art Director
Jacob Abernathy | Creative Technologist









OTHER WORK