Case Study
True North
Hybrid
•Santa Monica
•October 2023
It was exactly what I had envisioned for years.
David Belasco
Founder, North Education
The Challenge
North Education serves as a dedicated platform focused on refining mental and emotional skills essential for discovering purpose, fostering positive habits, and nurturing self-confidence. Originating as the largest elective course at the USC Marshall School of Business, North reshapes perspectives by providing frameworks and practical techniques to cultivate a healthy, high-performing mindset around meaningful identity, resilience building, habit formation, and redefining success and failure.
The opening moments at The Eli & Edythe BroadStage in Santa Monica
Expanding beyond the classroom, North Education envisioned True North — a hybrid summit experience aiming to share its mindset framework with the public. True North focused on curating a lineup of mindset experts and educators, featuring keynote speakers such as icon Cindy Crawford, NFL Coach Pete Carroll, business mogul Gary Vaynerchuk, SoulCycle Co-founder Julie Rice, and brain performance expert Jim Kwik.
In a strategic partnership, North collaborated with Happily to launch the inaugural True North in Santa Monica. Activating our Strategy, Experiential, Broadcast, and Creative Studios, Happily had a 3-month runway to provide strategic guidance, operational logistics, and performance marketing. The shared challenge for Happily and North was to launch a summit experience to a developing community and market it to an audience that was still taking shape.
The Solution
Happily Strategy Studio
The Happily Strategy Studio worked with North to provide strategic guidance and executive advice on the program development and ticketing structure. Our Executive Producer played a pivotal role in formulating strategies for attendee ticketing, revenue generation, digital marketing, and speaker coordination, while adeptly managing an evolving budget.
Happily Broadcast Studio
True North's global impact was achieved through collaboration with our Broadcast Studio. Happily’s showcaller, graphics designer, video editors, and talent wranglers teamed up with The Eli & Edythe BroadStage and North's preferred AV vendor. This ensured a professional presentation both onsite and online, enhancing the impact of every speaker's message.
Speakers Pete Carroll and Gary Vaynerchuk participated virtually in the summit, seamlessly integrated into the onsite and broadcast experiences through our management. This showcased Happily's mastery in blending the virtual and onsite worlds, demonstrating a sophisticated hybrid approach through tech and experiential design.
Entrepreneur and investor, Gary Vaynerchuk with Victoria Garrick Browne
Happily backstage in the control room
Happily Experiential Studio
The Experiential Studio, under Happily's guidance, orchestrated the logistics for event day. Catering, production assistants, and registration leads worked together to create an immersive experience for onsite attendees in Santa Monica and a global livestream audience, ensuring the comfort and engagement of both the audience and the speakers.
Happily Creative Studio
The Creative Studio brought True North to life with attention to detail. From set design to graphics, each element was thoughtfully curated to align with North's mission and enhance the overall experience for the audience and speakers. This included assets for event day, such as title slides and sponsorship slides, as well as digital marketing and social media materials — speaker cards, marketing videos, and more.
Sample of static digital marketing assets from the Happily Creative Studio
The Results
Cindy Crawford at True North 2023
True North provided an enlightening experience for all participants, fostering unity within an emerging community and signaling the beginning of a new chapter for the brand. The collaboration between True North and Happily represents a significant milestone in the growth of North Education.
The outstanding lineup of keynote speakers, featuring icons like Cindy Crawford, Pete Carroll, Gary Vaynerchuk, Julie Rice, and Jim Kwik, resonated deeply with the audience. Cindy Crawford on navigating the business landscape with style, Carroll shared leadership wisdom, Vaynerchuk inspired with entrepreneurial triumphs, Rice unfolded her transformative journey, and Kwik provided insights into cognitive potential.
Happily's multifaceted approach revitalized the brand, covering performance marketing, content creation, operational logistics, broadcasting and more. Attendees, both onsite and online, immersed themselves in the True North experience, enriched by the insights shared by the programing. The inaugural edition pushed the brand to new heights and set a standard for future North events.
Dr. Marissa Knox, from The University of Texas at Austin and Purdue University, speaking about fierce self-compassion
Brain Coach Jim Kwik on limitless mindset
Motivational Coach Angela Manuel-Davis with SoulCycle Co-Founder Julie Rice
Dr. Benjamin Houltberg, Psychologist and Performance Scientist, on identity, purpose and performance
President of Film and TV at Hello Sunshine, Lauren Neustadter, on storytelling and narrative
Jake Olson speaking with Pete Carroll, NFL Head Coach for the Seattle Seahawks
Cindy Crawford with North Founder, David Belasco
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