CDC Employee Lifestyle Center

IDEAS engaged in a comprehensive project review, analysis and ongoing creative development project for the new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Employee Lifestyle Center.

Our experience design team worked on an array of tasks in conjunction with the CDC team:

• Review the current design and project scope with the lead architect
• Interview the owner’s representatives and end users
• Perform a context and audience evaluation
• Develop critical guest experience drivers
• Develop conceptual creative recommendations for implementing immersive experience enhancements

During our guest experience review, we focused on the actual user experience and emphasized two factors:

• Attracting new Employee Lifestyle Center users
• Encouraging regular, repeat use of the facility via the integration of environmental and programmatic immersion elements

We paid particular attention to integral elements for the facility:

• Maintenance
• Design
• Sound
• Area dynamics and development
• Food and beverage
• Operator/guest interaction
• Guest relations
• Employee training
• Cleanliness
• Guest engagement
• Operations

Engagement via Video Tool

IDEAS created an original 8-minute video tool for the project that generated interest in the Employee Lifestyle Center. 

This tool communicated its vision and design to a broad range of stakeholders and became the main communication option for all preopening uses, from leadership briefing through sponsorship/partnership development.

The tool’s target audiences were comprehensive:

• CDC employees
• Local community members with an interest in the CDC
• Press
• Potential sponsors/partners
• Fitness, entertainment, engineering and computer industries
• Other governmental organizations

The piece was journalistic in tone, but we also designed it to create excitement.

We wanted viewers to have a vivid experience of how the new Employee Lifestyle Center will look and feel when complete, both physically and philosophically.

Ongoing Support and Review

We continued to provide ongoing review and oversight of the user experience during the facility’s design development:

• At 65% and 100% schematic design phases
• At 30% and 65% design development review milestones

At each review stage, we met with the architects and CDC staff, reviewed the Guest Experience factors’ design development progress and submitted an experience review brief.

During the implementation phase, we recommended creating several of the center’s immersion experiences. These include a 3D cycling theater, an immersive yoga practice environment, soundscaping for the entire lifestyle area and other programmatic elements.

American Red Cross

https://ideasorlando.com/work/american-red-cross/

The American Red Cross may be one of the best-known brands in the country. 

When tragedy strikes — like the tsunami in Asia, the destructive earthquakes in Haiti or home destruction by fire or flooding in U.S. cities — Americans are more than willing to make a donation.

What most of us don’t realize is that for the American Red Cross to be effective, it must have substantial resources ready 24/7, 365 days a year.

It can’t wait to prep emergency vehicles, order blankets and tents, and load medicines and bandages for delivery to a disaster zone in hours. And the cadre of staff and volunteers must be trained to go into action without missing a beat.

It takes money — and lots of it.

How IDEAS Helped

In recent years, the Red Cross had stopped asking people to support its good work here and abroad, except in times of crisis. Instead, the organization had grown to depend on corporate donors to underwrite its operating costs.

This is a picture diametrically opposed to how every other major U.S. charity raises funds. Most receive about 90% of their donations from people and only 10% from corporations.

In an effort to reverse this trend, the Red Cross decided to retool and rebrand its Clara Barton Society, named after the organization’s founder.

To that end, IDEAS assisted Nicodemus Communications Group in the rebranding effort. The goal was to make the Clara Barton Society an elite giving level for major individual gifts.

We also helped create a two-day training program for staff and board members to roll out the new brand across the nation. We focused the program on how to better tell the Red Cross story and how to be more effective fundraisers.

The Clara Barton Society is now making a considerable difference in the American Red Cross’ overall funding picture. The initiative has already resulted in a number of significant donations to support the organization’s invaluable work.