Colorado CASA - Public Awareness Campaign
Challenge
Build public awareness and action around the urgent need for 2,020 CASA volunteers within the state of Colorado by the end of 2020 Change a Child’s Story™: Recruiting CASA Volunteers to Help Protect Colorado’s Children Challenge Leverage traditional and digital strategies and tactics to help recruit 2,020 CASA (court-appointed special advocate) volunteers within the state of Colorado by the end of 2020. CASAs advocate in court for the best interests of children who have experienced child abuse or neglect. Specifically, the agency was charged with tailoring a national public awareness campaign – “Change a Child’s Story,” developed by the National CASA/GAL Association.
Solution
GroundFloor Media (GFM) and its sister agency CenterTable worked together to customize and execute the national “Change a Child’s Story” campaign within the state of Colorado. Campaign components included statewide media relations, website and collateral support, and a paid social media advertising campaign. On the media relations side, the GFM team collaborated with Colorado CASA to develop compelling and varied human-interest media pitches and then distributed them to targeted media outlets statewide. To help prepare Colorado CASA spokespeople, the agency provided message training for them and helped coordinate all media interview logistics and follow-up. In addition, the team amplified resulting coverage by leveraging it on CASA’s various social media platforms. GFM also developed a template media pitch for Colorado’s 18 local chapters to use for their own local/hyperlocal media efforts. At the same time, CenterTable planned and executed a paid Facebook advertising campaign to attract potential CASA volunteers in Colorado and raise general awareness for the organization. The team also set up Colorado CASA’s Google grant account and completed a related training for all 18 local CASA chapters in Colorado. Finally, the agency adapted collateral materials from the national campaign, including print ads, a social media frame and a tri-fold brochure, to reflect Colorado CASA-specific branding and messaging.
Results
Through its proactive media relations efforts, GFM secured a number of stories in publications statewide highlighting the need for CASA volunteers in Colorado. Key coverage included: 5280 The Colorado Springs Business Journal The Colorado Sun The Gazette (Colorado Springs) KOAA-Ch. 5 (Colorado Springs) KUSA-Ch. 9 Colorado Expression “Colorado & Company” iHeart Radio’s “Front Range Focus” FOX21(Colorado Springs) Colorado Springs Indy Additionally, wire distribution of the related press release garnered 148 placements with a total of more than 66 million impressions. Meanwhile, the paid Facebook advertising campaign, executed from September 9, 2019, through November 11, 2019, directly generated 805 potential CASA volunteers for Colorado at a cost of $31.68 per lead. In addition, the campaign significantly raised awareness of the organization by reaching 283,456 people a combined total of nearly 1.4 million times and driving 9,007 clicks and more than 5,000 reactions and 650 shares.
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