Role: Founder, Social Media/Marketing
Ask: I started The MUFF Society in the fall of 2014 as a screening series and way to champion women in the film/TV industry. When developing the brand/voice, I wanted it to be fun and effervescent. Our social presence needed to promote the monthly screenings and establish us as a trusted news source for all things “women in film.”
Eventually it also grew into a robust online community and blog. At the end of 2017 the screening series ended and MUFF shifted its focus online. This change seemed like the perfect opportunity to do a brand refresh that really focused on our social media presence. I worked with my brother, a designer, and relaunched our look in the spring of 2018.
In 2014: I settled on pink and sparkles for the overall look and our growing team developed it from there. We use templates for all of our custom images to ensure consistency across the website, blog, and social. To promote our monthly screenings, we used a mix of film stills, quote images, and custom trailers shared across all our channels. Original content was also developed including event recaps on our website and filmmakers interviews on Medium.
In 2018: I knew I wanted to stick with the sparkles but I wanted it to look more lush. The simple change from silver to gold really richened the overall branding look. My brother designed the new brand mark that was a combination of two aspect ratios: classic 35mm and the more modern 16:9. We also updated the font because who doesn’t love a new font.
Since MUFF’s inception, our mission has always been to highlight the work of women in the film industry and we brought this to our social strategy as well. We sought out news to share and befriended other likeminded organizations and people online. We also sent out a monthly newsletter that highlighted upcoming events happening in Toronto.
2014 branding:
2018 branding refresh:
The MUFF Society produced 32 successful screenings in Toronto, as well as pop-up events in NYC and San Francisco. The monthly newsletter had an average open rate of 38.75%. The Facebook Page reached an average of 20k people monthly with 5.2k engagements; the Twitter account got an average of 75k impressions per month.
Taking the time to properly develop your voice/brand is essential. When I started MUFF, and with the brand refresh, I didn’t only think of the name and the logo—I thought about social media, print material, video AND made templates in advance for everything. By putting this effort in at the start it meant that as we grew, it was easy to produce new content.
Social media is more than just your product or what you’re selling. The majority of our online presence was actually devoted to highlighting the work of women in film and our own promo came second. Your community doesn’t want to be sold to all the time so figure out other ways in which you can participate and collaborate with them online.
Outreach, outreach, outreach! By connecting with like-minded community organizations, you can tap into a larger audience and further legitimize yourself. Through outreach efforts, the MUFF Society partnered with organizations like TIFF, Goethe Institut, Christie Pits Film Festival, and Toronto Silent Film Festival.