by Bridget Pooley, Manager of Engagement
Every four years* something magical happens – and I’m not talking about the United States’ presidential election. We collectively receive the gift of an extra 1,440 minutes tacked on to our February, enjoying 29 days instead of the usual 28. While you might’ve spent the day as all your other Mondays in February, Chevrolet took advantage of the extra 24 hours to convince people across the country to do something powerful with their extra time with its #DayItForward campaign.
Part of the Conversation, No Matter What?
As with any occasion – real or imaginary, I’m looking at you, National Caramel Popcorn Day – brands jumped at the opportunity to talk about Leap Day with mixed results.
Arby’s ran a confusing campaign offering a vegetarian menu featuring meatless versions of their usually meat filled sandwiches. Which, aside from creative visuals, didn’t wow me – what was the tie to Leap Day and the concept of extra time?
On the other hand, Zappos gave its employees the day off and used social media to talk about it’s Change.org petition to make Leap Day a federal holiday. To be clear, I’m all for extra federal holidays, but Zappos could’ve done a better job of drawing the connection between having the day off and doing something good with the extra time. Without that motivation, we might all choose to stay home and watch Netflix.
#DayItForward
That brings me to Chevrolet, which encouraged people to take advantage of 2016’s Leap Day by using the “extra 24 hours this year to do something nice for someone special.” The campaign came to life via twitter with a couldn’t-have-been-cheap branded emoji, on chevydayitforward.com and was integrated across Chevy’s other social media channels, as well as its website.
Logical Connection
The first component of the campaign that made #DayItForward successful was that Chevrolet had a clear, yet broad, call to action that maintained a logical connection to the gift of extra time. By emphasizing the importance of doing something good with that time, but not limiting the specific action, the campaign felt crisper than Zappos’ federal holiday initiative.
Local & National Impact
Chevy’s second success factor was an intentional combination of local and national impact. In fact, a quick Google News search for “Chevrolet #DayItForward” came up with more results about how Chevy’s network of dealers participated in #DayItForward than national examples, despite the celebrity power backing the national efforts.
Local examples from across the country include:
- In Michigan, a dealership donated $2,500 in food gift cards to five local nonprofits.
- A local dealer in Illinois paid the grocery bills of randomly selected customers.
- In North Carolina a Wilmington dealer treated kids with autism to a fun day at a youth sports center and donated a car as a raffle prize for the nonprofit to use.
- A dealership in Texas donated $20,000 to fund a high school’s arts booster club.
And nationally, Chevy partnered with a variety of celebrities to #DayItForward, including:
- Kevin Spacey surprising a young actor with a grant and support with drama school applications.
- Luke Bryan delivering lunch to the local fire department in Franklin, Kentucky.
- An unexpected delivery of school supplies – and a trip to Hawaii for teachers – from Jimmy Kimmel to a middle school in Los Angeles.
Chevy posted more than 25 videos on its #DayItForward YouTube channel of a number of these acts. Check them out and let me know which was your favorite!
Bringing it Back
While a campaign like this – with what was surely a large price tag – might not be realistic for every organization, there are a few great takeaways to highlight:
- Be relevant. Take advantage of the calendar, leveraging days that make sense for your organization, but don’t feel the need to glom on to every day, even if you love caramel popcorn.
- Consider jumping on the emoji train. I visited CSIC’s Cause Consulting course on Tuesday, March 1 and heard PRCC student Emily Kleiman present about how nonprofits can use emoji to communicate their message in an updated way, leading to increased engagement. While your organization might not be able to afford a branded emoji such as the #DayItForward emoji, perhaps you can use existing emoji, as WWF did for its Endangered Emoji campaign.
- Don’t be overly prescriptive with your CTA. Chevy didn’t demand one action from its entire population and instead left the decision up to individuals who could interpret it in their own way.
- Engage! Chevy spent the entire day engaging around the campaign and has continued to engage with those who participated and shared their #DayItForward activities.
*For the most part as there is apparently a rule where you skip leap year on centennial years, except when the year is divisible by four, but this post isn’t about math!