For decades, NASA has been an integral part in helping solve tough, mission-critical problems. These missions span technological categories in space, aeronautics, and beyond, and have been a strong influence in the advancement of many life-improving technologies in the modern world. The Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI) has been NASA's valuable organization serving the NASA workforce and different government agencies to generate ideas and solve important problems by working with global communities via challenges, crowdsourcing initiatives, and other innovative mechanisms. Now, after a very successful launch and more than 15 years running, they are looking to update and simplify with a new, more memorable name for the program. In addition to CoECI itself, the new program name will encompass NASA’s "Centennial Challenges" as well as NASA’s "Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing" program, so it will be larger overall.
On the heels our other NASA CoECI Name Ideation Project, the goal of this specific project is to work with the final shortlist of new program names for the CoECI program, and expand upon the titles to create a few paragraphs for each potential program name, including boilerplate descriptions of the program, and offering a compelling "why" behind the name. This will involve the creation of a singular "program name exploration" document, encapsulating all of the above, including risk analysis (potentially negative connotations, etc.) Since NASA is a government agency and CoECI collaborates with so many different organizations, having a compelling "why" behind the name is a key element, as the final shortlist of names will be undergoing thorough scrutiny. Your writing should encompass an analysis of the impact that each name might have, how it could be perceived both internally at NASA and externally by the public at large, pros and cons of each title, and what boilerplate language would look like (i.e. the "about us" type language for the website or a press release, etc.).
FOR YOUR PITCH: You will be required to submit a writing sample, as well as your writing portfolio. For pitch purposes, you can use NASA Spark as the proposed title for your sample, and we'll be looking to see a bit of your creative writing skills with the "compelling why" element of breaking down the name's value, and also some copywriting skill for more "boilerplate language" describing the program. For the boilerplate portion, you can have a look at CoECI's website to get a technical sense of how CoECI describes their program. For your writing portfolio, we're looking for relevant work to the task at hand, as opposed to fiction or more narrative writing. If selected, you will collaborate with Tongal and NASA and also get access to trend analysis data and brand guidelines to help guide your initial drafts, so the pitch is really more about getting a sense of your writing capabilities/style, and see how that fits within this assignment.
For this project, you should be prepared to move at a fast pace once greenlit. We will be looking for first drafts within a few days, so be sure your calendar has availability in the week of October 13th - 16th. Check out more information in the Background, and for any questions or other project updates, check out the Project Forum.
EXPOSURE: We expect content will be used on the platforms below.
TARGET AUDIENCE:
TONE/FEEL: Informative, intriguing, innovative, active, concise
AI USAGE: We are NOT looking for AI-generated submissions or content in this project.
By participating in this project, creators acknowledge that the Sponsor is under no obligation to greenlight a submission. Though most projects do move forward, we'll notify you in the event the Sponsor decides not to fund any submissions via the Project Forum. Regardless of the result, all submissions will be reviewed and evaluated by the Sponsor and project team.
In order to be considered, include the below materials in your submission. For examples of effective pitches, check out this gallery. All Pitches remain private, even after a Pitch is selected, and Tongal strives to have Pitch selections made by the end of the Evaluation period, but additional time may be required by the Sponsor, depending on any number of factors. Unless specifically requested, there's no need to include a budget with your submission.