L+B Design actively lead social media activities in two events over the last 2 months, The Pink Boat Regatta which is continuously raising awareness for Breast Cancer Research through a sailing event, sponsored by the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance as well as a Gallery Opening for Kosta Kulundzic, a painter's first solo show in the United States. The initial goal of this extensive social media presence was to raise awareness, secure coverage and attendance to the events and convert into donations or sales. The Pink Boat Regatta surpassed its original goal ($100.000 mark) by raising $103,000.00 in the course of a week. Kosta Kulundzic's event resulted in two paintings being sold and a commission to perform a live performance at a political fundraiser event taking place October 27th. Here is a breakdown on how we made that happen and the fundamental steps of a planned campaign.
"Bloody Icons!" Instagram-specific sponsored posts
Let's take a look at 7 Main Points which usually define a good social media approach and how they were implemented in both campaigns:
1. Engage
The pink boat regatta is a larger event which gathered about thirty-seven boats and three hundred participants taking place downtown Seattle on South Lake Union.
Although the Pink Boat Regatta presence on social media is active all year long, about three months prior to the event we accelerated our drive to awareness through a combination of poster dissemination in town as well as multiple online postings (sponsored and non-sponsored) in order to drive traffic and kick start boat registrations to the main event, the Kick-off party and the gala dinner. LBD established an editorial calendar focusing on Breast Cancer Awareness, Event information, as well as giving exposure to the sponsors.
2. Intrigue
Three weeks prior to Kosta Kulundzic's "Bloody Icons!" solo show, LBD started posting visuals of his work along with "work - in - progress" details of a painting he made specifically for this exhibit. We intentionally tagged the personalities featured in paintings (Including Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Paul Allen, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos) to carefully insert #hashtags on each of the posts. Chris Brown's Daughter became curious and got in touch with us regarding one of the paintings. The event being local, so we targeted tech profiles, start-ups and business news magazines.
3. Invigorate
As we got closer to the two regatta events L+B Design shifted gear in promoting the kick -off party, a free get-together event giving exposure to the sponsor and the ability to sell their products and the opportunity to meet and greet with the participants of the regatta. The event took place on the Virginia V, a national historic landmark well known in Seattle docked on South Lake Union. Additionally, a raffle took place and guest walked away with gifts as well as an opportunity to purchase pink boat regatta branded gear (t-shirt, caps, etc..).
4. Integrate
We collaborated with Seattle Cancer Care Alliance's social media team to post information regarding the events and expand the reach using SCCA network. We also integrated and mentioned and tagged our sponsors in our social media posts as well as continuously gave several updates of boat attendees and online leaders in the buy-a buoy-digital race.
5. Inform
The lead time for "Bloody Icons!" was short: We really had only thirty days to build momentum and chatter around the show opening. We wrote a press release and reached out to our network from Seattle to San Francisco to secure coverage. In a few days, we were able to get the show covered by the French-American Cultural Society in San Francisco, the Alliance Francaise of Seattle, The Mercer Island Reporter and The UFE (Union des Francais de l'Etranger) Organization.
6. Propagate
We used all social media technology available here for both events in order to broadcast and share real time what was happening on the water or at the gallery. From Periscope to Facebook Live we were not shy in broadcasting live online snippet of the event. Our Pre-opening Facebook Live for Bloody Icons! gathered about 1500 views.
7. Aggregate
The last phase is about maximizing content. For some events you might want to upload presentation, reward content (and bloggers), provide transcription and recap of the event. etc.. For the Pink Boat Regatta, the fund collected and a check for $103,000.00 was handed to the Breast Cancer Research Insitute in New York in October while multiple after event follow-up were shared with all attendees including pictures of the race day after party.