Case Studies

Challenge

For decades, experts have been ringing warning bells that we are not adequately caring for the most vulnerable members of our society – the very people on whom our future competitiveness as a country is dependent. WestEd wanted to build a grassroots campaign to set the stage for social change. 

Approach

J. Ronald Lally, the co‐director of the Center for Child & Family Studies, and director of the Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC) at WestEd, has been researching the effects of the environment on baby and toddler brains for 46 years. We leveraged his influence to start building an army of people committed to the cause of improving conditions of the youngest American citizens to ensure that they are given the same opportunities to compete and thrive on the global stage.

Results

• Strategy Development: We refined messaging for the effort, shifting from a manifesto to a system of four pillars of change, including prenatal care, paid leave and well-baby care, screening and follow up services, and quality infant and toddler care. We developed a persona schema and matched this with influencers who we felt would identify with each pillar.

• Tactical Plan: We developed a strong system of “calls to action” including taking a pledge, clubs for Lally’s book launch, sharing stories, volunteerism, and donations. This was complemented with strong communication through email, social media channels and a blog. We paired this with a strong content plan to feed these new channels.

• Measurement Recommendations: We built a measurement program to gauge success and allow for real time tweaks based on results over time.

• Guidelines: We developed a communication and social media response flowchart as well as guidelines for communication to allow the program to get new participants up to speed quickly.

During the course of several years (2009-2016), my colleague and I built an influencer marketing program for SeaWorld San Antonio. At the time, this was a new strategy, and we built it from the ground up. We began with five local influencers and grew it to a statewide program with travel and overnight stays (including in the park) that included up to 60 participants! 

The program became so popular, influencers applied to join in and we were able to build an elite, high-performing group that promoted regular fun and special events, such as the special holiday in the park activities for Halloween and Christmas. Our events performed so well with such positive publicity and sales, that other parks, such as Orlando, requested information about how to launch an influencer program. We planned activities for SeaWorld San Antonio in other cities, such as Dallas and Austin, to build stronger awareness of the park as an easy travel destination. We even hosted SWSA animal ambassadors at SxSW in Austin!

Our efforts netted publicity in print and television, online including social media, and through word of mouth. Most importantly, it raised awareness and attendance at the park. More critically, influencers were proud defenders of the park when it received negative publicity. That turned sentiment around more than any other effort.

We also expanded the influencer marketing program to include an annual influencer conference, where attendees paid to learn more about being an influencer. This included activities such as: VIP dinners, overnight experiences in the park, a digital photography course with a park photographer and local famous photographer, Nan Palmero, successful social media practice training by experts, and more. 

Influencers learned great skills and shared fantastic park photographs. We hosted multiple influencer events, including for the grand opening of the SeaWorld water park, Aquatica.

KPIs from AdventureCon 2013

Across the 1.5 day event (weekend):

• Twitter – 1,584 tweets (754 users, 1,056,825 reach, 8,414,216 impressions

• Instagram – 292 photos 

• Facebook – 43 posts (launched a Facebook group to increase share rates of posts among group--very successful)

• Vine -- 11 mini-videos 

• Blogs -- 31 posts (reached 50-300K with a 96% blog engagement, 56% over average)

• Revenue -- $4160 after expenses for conference

• Projected ROI for publicity -- 757% ~12K

I identified and recruited/selected influencers; built and managed outreach lists; managed contracts; oversaw projects; planned, coordinated and managed events; handled adverse situations; coordinated with ally vendors such as hotels; and tracked and analyzed results.

Influencer Program

A successful influencer program for clients including Galveston tourism, where we hosted events for Downtown Galveston, Hotel Galvez, Moody Gardens, and the beaches. We planned and coordinated multiple FAMs.

One of our most successful programs for Galveston was an outreach to homeschooling parents within easy driving distance of the island. We worked with the CVB to create a curriculum that demonstrated how Galveston could help with an integrated curriculum. It was extremely popular in the homeschool community. We only hosted one launch, yet homeschool parents continued to visit and post about the educational value of Galveston after our program concluded.

• Goal: introduce new homeschool curriculum and Galveston as a tourism learning destination by spotlighting the major attractions and venues in the curriculum, and highlight the destination during the holidays

• Outcome: each attendee shared over 500 photos and stories online, building huge awareness of over 20 million and interest in Galveston as a destination and the learning potential while visiting

• 577 mentions during one-day event

• 10-20% participation in top 5 Texas cities 

• 936K reach on Twitter

Social Media Training

Through regular contracted training for Downtown Galveston, I taught merchants how to: 

• Create a SMART plan for your social media

• Choose the social media networks that will work best for your business

• Produce amazing content that connects

• Develop a daily checklist and workflow

• Choose and use management tools to assist

• Measure and analyze results

I spoke at the Galveston CVB Tourism Summit: Social Media 101: Rocking Social Media in 5 Hours a Week

Special Event Promotion: 12 Days of Christmas

Developed, launched and managed special events to promote Downtown Galveston social media and downtown merchants, such as the 12 Days of Christmas (July 2015), a scavenger hunt with daily winners -- total increase in growth and engagement 73%

• Results Facebook over 12 days

  • 3% community growth

  • 28% growth in impressions

  • 7% engagement rate

• Results Twitter over 12 days

  • 1.6% growth rate

  • 560% increase in impressions

  • 518% increase in engagement

  • 524 shared tweets

• Campaign total value

  • 569 claimed offers

  • 36651 reach (unique)

  • 125 unique participants

  • 30 influencers joined

  • $121,697.46 total potential value

Ad Campaign: Lofts Tour

I built and managed their social media community, including running ad campaigns. 

For example, the Lofts Tour was lagging on ticket sales so I organized some last-minute social media ads. Big traffic, click-throughs and engagement on Facebook and Twitter posts, boosted by multi-media advertisement.

• Sample of one ad:

  • Spend: $20

  • Reach: 5631

  • Click-throughs: 247

  • Engagement rate: 7% 

• Overall Results

  • Ticket sale increase: 200%

Community Management

KPIs from Downtown Galveston Community Management

• Starting from the ground up until final report at contract’s end for their two platforms (Twitter and Facebook):

  • Community: 0 to 16.5K (48% rate annual growth, higher than the average of 42%)

  • Engagement: 3-11%

  • Demographics: Hit targets

  • Drove visitors to Downtown Galveston for shopping and tourism, merchants saw a boost in foot traffic and sales

  • Built stronger awareness of Downtown Galveston as a destination

This was directly after Hurricane Harvey. During the hurricane, we used social channels to provide emergency updates, information, and reassurance to residents and tourists. I worked around the clock.