Be different, and be better. That was the thread in Tony Pigott’s kick-off session at Venture4Change called Marketing Meets Mission: The Story of Brandaid Project. Sounds simple, but simple doesn’t mean easy.

“It’s not enough to have a really important mission and a deep passion for it,” says Tony, head of JWT Canada, co-founder of Brandaid Project, and self-confessed “soulmate” of social entrepreneurs. That’s absolutely essential. Don’t go anywhere without it. But in an incredibly noisy marketplace, you need to think and act like a brand. It’s what will make your venture succeed, or fail.

Tony is a big believer that there is a substantial, in-demand marketplace and opportunity for social ventures. Companies are spending money, resources and time figuring it out and getting in to it. But it’s competitive, and non-profit and social ventures need to think like a competitor.

“If I were your agency, I would be asking some very tough questions,” says Tony. “Do you really, really know what you stand for? What is disruptive and unique about your idea and your model? Have you really captured what’s better and different? Have you crystallized that into a compelling brand idea and story? Are you able to work with this and bring the idea alive every time out?” The ability to answer these questions, Tony says, is a huge predictor of success.

Other highlights from the talk:

• Brand ideas are the lifeblood of advertising, and of social ventures
• Consumers are rebelling. They’re now in control of the media and of what they’ll engage in. They have forever changed the way we market.
• People are spending more time online than watching TV
• Business has a role to play in how things can evolve. Tony says part of his personal mission is to “accelerate and catalyze change so it actually sticks.”
• Companies are looking for really important, smart and interesting social change ideas and social ventures to get involved with. But they are going to be doing fewer, bigger things.
• Doing good is competitive – NGOs and new ideas surface every 5 minutes
• -Go ahead – appeal to the emotions. “We make decisions on how we feel and THEN we rationalize.” Build emotional capital if you’re going to build financial capital.

I found JWT’s rebranding for STAND Canada very moving (check out STAND’s video). It’s a great rebranding example (though it would be great to see what STAND’s marketing was like before the rebrand). Tony says STAND was suffering from a failure to crystallize what they stood for. The video was about bringing a story to life, shaking people up, and making it impossible to ignore. A good visual of branding in action.

There’s more to come on Tony’s presentation. Up next: the market for social change