Branding
CASE STUDY
CALinnovates
CALinnovates is a nonpartisan coalition of tech companies, founders, funders, and nonprofits determined to make the new economy a reality. CALinno came to LGND ready to supercharge their survey on net neutrality by transforming polling insights into a digital storytelling experience.
Digital Storytelling
Illustrations & Infographics
Video
MISSION
Although development began over a half century ago, the internet was primarily used as a government and academic research hub for several decades. However, that changed when Congress opened it to privatization in the 1990s. Since then the number of internet users has exploded across the globe, rapidly becoming the most powerful economic engine and platform for innovation the world has ever seen. Unfortunately, changes to America's internet policy have been shortsighted in recent years, ping-ponging based on the views of incoming presidential administrations. This brings uncertainty to an industry still in its infancy, threatening its long-term stability.
The challenge from a digital storytelling perspective was to present the results of the survey—which show that the American people favor a permanent solution to net neutrality—in a visual framework that made the stakes clear and avoided the emotionally-charged tactics that have defined the debate to this point.
PROCESS
Our work started with digging through CALinno’s survey to identify the underlying insights. In parsing through cross-tabs and hundreds of pages of survey results, the story became clear: Americans overwhelmingly supported net neutrality in principle, but knew very little about how the internet was currently regulated or the sweeping policy changes in recent years. Americans viewed net neutrality less favorably when informed that Title II is a regulation, not a law, and can be changed with each new administration or FCC leadership change.
LGND’s design thinking was influenced by our research on the topic. The internet’s short history reminded us of the days days when 8-bit was the latest and greatest design technology. It wasn’t that long ago! The timeline pulled out significant milestones in internet history and paired perfectly with custom pixelated illustrations. This fun and playful thematic helped distill the complexity of the issue, and provide audiences a unique and accessible visual storytelling experience.
LAUNCH
LGND was also tasked with communications and marketing strategy to help ensure the survey got the attention it deserved. Our launch playbook identified national and state-based policy maker community as the primary audiences for this project, and our media strategy focused on securing an exclusive with a respected journalist covering tech policy at a DC-based publication. You can read about the survey in Axios and The Hill.
LGND drives home a uniquely personal and collaborative approach. Their determination and can-do attitude foster a winning environment that helped carry our project over the finish line.
Mike Montgomery
Executive Director
CALinnovates