Elevating Narratives, Reaching New Audiences: A Client Conference Success Story

Conference

What do you get when a client is eager to learn, ready to provide data, and makes introductions to subject matter experts (SME)? Success.

Earlier this year, we worked with a nonprofit that was widely known in core audiences but had little name recognition outside of it. That name recognition issue was especially problematic due to a need to differentiate from a similarly-named competing organization.

Leadership recognized an opportunity to use a summer conference for almost 20,000 teenagers to spread its narrative and mission to:

  • Increase trust among core stakeholders.
  • Elevate brand awareness among secondary nonprofit national and regional audiences.
  • Establish further credibility through local, industry, and national media.

The key to success was the client’s willingness to trust the process that we recommended, including:

  • Spending several weeks understanding core narratives, establishing SME voices, and being introduced to state-level leaders.
  • Building trusted relationships with leaders and SMEs at all levels.
  • Crafting customized narratives for each voice that would resonate with target verticals.

The results included:

  • National op-ed media placements, including at Fox News Digital by a teenage conference attendee who shared how her father saved her life after a car accident.
  • Op-eds by event leadership and state-level coordinators in secondary outlets relevant to the client’s core audience.
  • Interviews of attendees and event volunteers in statewide and community news outlets – including the major daily of the event host city.
  • Placements secured in top faith-based outlets like The Christian Post and WORLD Magazine feature comments by executive leadership on complex social issues facing young people and challenges for similar institutions.
  • Turning op-eds and placements into marketing collateral by national, state, and local partners.

Following the conference, our final report showed more than just success metrics. We provided a template for marketing and public relations best practices for not only the parent organization, but also regional offices and affiliate partners.