COPYWRITING

In summer 2020, Toronto-area businesses needed advice and tools to help navigate the reopening process as workers returned to physical workspaces after pandemic lockdowns but before availability of vaccines. Theresa joined colleagues at Lloyd Rang Communications to create small-business support materials on behalf of the Toronto Board of Trade (TRBOT).

As part of the project, Theresa provided the organizational framework for TRBOT’s small business digital toolkit microsite and crafted extensive website copy that provided advice and ideas to help small businesses create a safe return to physical workspaces. She also wrote advertorial copy to help highlight the new microsite in national newspapers to bring awareness to this support for small businesses.

The microsite and the rest of the ‘Reimagining Recovery Project’ went on to win a prestigious 2020 Platinum Marcom Award for Content Creation.

COPYWRITING AND COPY-EDITING

After its 2018 election loss, the Ontario Liberal Party went back to its grassroots members to engage in the largest platform consultation process in its history. It included 25 open forums, 500 consultation meetings and over 28,000 participants who submitted over 38,000 ideas and cast over 230,000 votes to inform the eventual 2022 platform.

Theresa was asked to co-lead the process of turning hundreds of pages of policy submissions and research into an election platform for review by the Party Leader and senior campaign team. In addition to writing chapter introductions and the complete chapter on climate change, she also crafted the opening letters from the platform co-chairs and the party leader that would set the tone for the rest of the document. Theresa led the copy-editing process and, once the platform was finalized, transformed its content into campaign literature pieces for local campaign teams.

The launch of the platform over the first week of the campaign helped boost support for the party leader by seven per cent in a Nanos Research poll. According to CBC’s Poll Tracker, the Ontario Liberal Party earned its highest level of support during the election on the day the fully costed platform was publicly launched.

MEMO AND KEY MESSAGES

A hospital foundation in the GTA required a memo to sensitively communication a leadership transition from an incumbent CEO who had helped build up the organization but did not have the required skills to grow it into a regional fundraising leader.

Theresa reviewed the background material, drafted key messages, and constructed a memo for the foundation to share with stakeholders. Both the key messages and the memo highlighted the achievements of the outgoing CEO, the advancements made by the foundation, and its vision for the future.

The messaging met the stated goals of the project by showing appreciation for the work that had been done under the incumbent CEO and the need for new leadership to tackle the next phase of growth.

KEY MESSAGES AND ARTICLES

Ahead of the 2019 federal election, a group of climate advocates were looking to put the climate emergency on the political agenda by calling on all parties to address it in their campaign platforms and rhetoric.

Theresa worked with the group to draft key messages relevant to their varied audiences in the environmental sector, millennial cohort, and faith communities across Canada. Building on those key messages, Theresa crafted five articles over the course of the election period highlighting different aspects of the climate crisis.

These articles were posted to the websites of the organizations involved to help spread their message during the election. One of these pieces was instead submitted as an op-ed article and published by the Toronto Star.

COPY-EDITING

Toronto-area botanical perfume company MOOD HONEY launched as a business at local markets, offering quality botanical scents to help improve the moods of their customers. As they prepared to launch an online store, they turned to Lubowitz Consulting to help them make a big splash.

In advance of the store launch, Theresa reviewed and edited marketing materials prepared by the company. She ensured the copy reflected the company’s narrative and would effectively attract the attention of prospective customers on social media.

The team behind MOOD HONEY later expanded its operations to include a full-fledged lavender farm called Avalon Lavender.

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP PLATFORM

Habitat for Humanity GTA is a well-known housing charity that assists low- and moderate-income families in Brampton, Caledon, Durham Region, Toronto, and York Region access home ownership. The charity had recently set a new strategic direction and adopted a new narrative but needed help converting these changes into a thought leadership platform for the CEO that could influence decision-makers in government.

Working with colleagues at Lloyd Rang Communications, Theresa took the lead in creating a thought leadership platform that would highlight Habitat and its CEO as leaders in the affordable housing sector in Canada. To construct the platform, Theresa conducted extensive interviews with the CEO, staff members, board members, and sector collaborators.

Theresa wrote an initial report synthesizing these conversations for review and discussion. She drafted narrative key messages for the CEO and an implementation roadmap for the platform that would leverage upcoming messaging opportunities. Once the narrative and platform roadmap were approved, Theresa wrote an op-ed for the CEO that was published in The Toronto Star.

IN-DEPTH NARRATIVE ANALYSIS AND DEVELOPMENT

Lubowitz Consulting was hired to provide narrative development support to Lichen Consulting in order to help tell the company’s story to prospective clients as it began expanding into new communities.

Over a period of several months, Theresa met with members of the Lichen team as well as some of its clients to get a sense of the company’s unique voice and approach to its work. This synthesizing phase was followed by strategy sessions that helped Lichen’s team narrow their service offerings into a comprehensive list while laying the groundwork for future marketing to communities in need of these services.

Pulling together months of discussions, Theresa worked to reorganize the structure of the company website and the copy on each page to reflect the new company narrative. The website now serves as an introduction of the values of the company to the public and a blueprint for the company’s future messaging and marketing.

PROFESSIONAL BIOGRAPHY

In May 2022, author Dr. Riley Moynes delivered a talk at TEDx Surrey that went viral and became one of the top ten most viewed TEDTalks on YouTube in 2022. The talk caught the attention of editors at TED who decided to promote Riley as a ‘featured speaker’ on the organization’s international website.

Riley reached out to Lubowitz Consulting for support as he navigated the speaker profile creation and review process with TED editors. Theresa wrote a new professional biography for Riley, crafted a narrative summary of the talk, compiled a recommended reading list, and a call-to-action for Riley’s featured speaker page.

After Riley’s feature speaker page launched on ted.com, views of his talk on that website and on YouTube rose from one million after five months to over three million after ten months. Today, Riley’s The Four Phases of Retirement continues to be TED’s most popular talk on the topic of retirement.

COMMUNICATIONS & STAKEHOLDER ADVICE

When owners Cole and Stephen took the plunge to pursue their dream of owning and operating a bookstore, they came to Lubowitz Consulting to help plan the perfect launch into the bookselling world.

In the early stages, the owners needed to produce a solid business plan in order to gain the financing required to start up the store. Theresa worked with them to review their mission, vision, and values statements and provided copy-editing support of their executive summary.

When it came time to launch the store, Cole and Stephen returned for Theresa’s help in reviewing press releases and other launch materials to ensure they reflected the values of the store and the community surrounding it.

STAKEHOLDER ADVICE

In 2018, the Public Policy Forum, with the support of TD Bank, began a three year project called “Brave New Work: Building Prosperity in the Changing World of Work”.

The goal of the project is to bring government, employers, education providers, labour groups, researchers and other individuals together to find new ways forward to help Canadians to prosper in a changing world of work.

Partnering with Brian Topp, former Chief of Staff to Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Theresa contributed a publication to the project making a number of recommendations to the federal government and provincial and territorial governments.

Read the report:  Managing Precarious Work: Three Canadian Models for Rebalancing Bargaining Power in the Future of Work

FUNDRAISING ADVICE (INDIVIDUAL GIVING)

As Water Ambassadors Canada neared its 20th anniversary as a charity, the team was looking for new ways to grow and expand their impact. To get started, they turned to Lubowitz Consulting for fundraising advice and support.

Theresa created an annual individual-giving plan that included free programming for supporters, the rollout of a robust year-round email fundraising program, and the adoption of a social fundraising platform.

In the two years after the addition of these new sources of funding for the charity, Water Ambassadors Canada was able to nearly double the total number of water-deprived people it has helped since its founding.

COMMUNICATIONS, STAKEHOLDER, AND FUNDRAISING ADVICE

In 2018, the Ontario Liberal Party went through a devastating election loss and faced a bleak road back to repaying its $10 million debt as the third-place party lacking official recognition in the Legislature. To make matters worse, the vote-subsidy that helps keep opposition parties financially afloat was set to sunset in 2024.

The Party hired Lubowitz Consulting to help reconnect its fundraising efforts to its grassroots supporters with specific focus on growing its monthly giving program. Theresa created a four-year individual giving plan with weekly, monthly, and quarterly targets supported by monthly donor outreach and a year-round email marketing campaign.

The Party delivered on its fundraising plan and doubled its monthly donors in the first two years after the 2018 campaign before going on to retiring its campaign debt ahead of the 2022 election.