New TV concept connecting nonprofits with marketing help aims high.
What if a nonprofit in need of a new website and logo and a few 30-second ads were paired with a top-notch advertising agency willing to do the work for free?
There’d be some hand-wringing over how to get across a complex organization’s mission in a mere phrase. There’d be business types whose eyes grow wide hearing about the incredible work done with few resources. There’d be tears. And a lot of thank yous and hugs and new friendships.
In short, there’d be a swirl of emotions that — if captured on camera — would make for some pretty good TV.
At least that’s what Michael Hemphill is hoping.
Hemphill, along with former TV journalist Becky Freemal, pro-football-star-turned-marketing-guru Kevin Jones, B2C Enterprises founder and president Bruce Bryan and dozens of others have spent months working to bring a new TV concept to life.
Billed as “Shark Tank” meets “Extreme Makeover,” the show would simultaneously tell the story of a nonprofit — the work they do and why it matters — while documenting a marketing team’s process of deciding how best to communicate the group’s mission to the world. The two threads weave together when the marketing campaign is revealed to the nonprofit. Gratitude, joy and surprise spill across the screen. The show’s creators are banking on that feel-good moment to keep viewers hooked.
“It just seems like the kind of TV I wish we had more of, the kind of conversations I wish we had more of,” says Hemphill, the creative force behind “Buzz,” the name for the new show.
Despite the hundreds of hours that have gone into launching the “Buzz” brand and creating the pilot episode, the project still stands at the starting line.
Hemphill is hoping that — a la Black Dog Salvage’s reality TV show “Salvage Dawgs” — the “Buzz” pilot will pique the interest of a cable channel or streaming service looking for original programming.
“In my dreams I see it as a locally-created national show,” Hemphill explains. “Every part of the country has a Rescue Misson-type organization, they have museums and theaters,” he says. “The stories that we’re going to be telling can resonate anywhere in the U.S.”
Hemphill, the marketing and development director at Roanoke Catholic School, has built a career working for various nonprofits. He says the idea for “Buzz” came to him when, as development and marketing director for the Science Museum of Western Virginia, he was paired with a team of advertisers who donated their time to promote a museum fundraiser. That was seven years ago.
At the start of 2019, Hemphill began talking to the many players that would come together to create “Buzz.” The pilot episode was filmed by Blacksburg-based Click & Pledge Foundation. The creative team chose Healing Strides in Boones Mill, an equine therapy facility serving a diverse population, as the nonprofit to be featured.
Tuesday night, the first episode premiered at The Grandin Theatre to hearty applause and hoots of approval from an audience of more than 200.
At a question-and-answer session following the pilot, viewers asked: What can we do to help Healing Strides? And: How can we make this TV show succeed so other nonprofits can be helped, too?
Hemphill says he has a few leads. A second episode is also in the works — this time with a not-yet-named Blacksburg nonprofit that would connect with Kevin Jones’s marketing firm Joba Design. One task for the future: Try to put a price tag on what each episode costs.
“Whatever happens, I feel like we did it. We made it,” said Becky Freemal, director of communication and marketing for the Pamplin College of Business. She meant that the new website and logo and ad campaign now exist to help Healing Strides, regardless of whether the project is repeated.
To which Carol Young, Healing Strides CEO nodded. And beamed a huge smile.
To learn more about “Buzz” and see the trailer, head to www.buzz4good.com.
About the Writer:
Christina Nifong is a writer with a decades-long career profiling interesting people, places and ideas. She’s also a committed locavore and mother to three kids, four chickens and one very sweet kitty. Find more of her work at christinanifong.com.
