Heifer International Holiday Program
"This may be the most clever thing anybody has ever done to support Heifer."
— Ray White, Public Relations Director, Heifer International
How do you use social media to transform a campaign into something larger and more meaningful?
Partnering with Heifer International, we created a holiday program that helped heal the world and promoted a worthy cause.
Challenge:
2008 was a year that called for something more meaningful than a standard holiday gift. In addition to thanking our clients for a wonderful year, we wanted to do something to serve the greater good. A few of us were familiar with Heifer International, a non-profit organization that donates livestock — cows, pigs, goats, even bees — to poverty-stricken families around the world. Heifer teaches families to sustain themselves — a gift that keeps on giving. So in addition to making a donation, we wanted to tell the Heifer story in a fun, memorable way and encourage as many other people as possible to follow our lead.
Results:
We created a multi-touch, online and offline campaign built around a special website: garfieldgroupholiday.com. The web experience included a fun video featuring talking Heifer animals that drove visitors to an educational game where they could vote on the animals to be donated. We also posted the video on social networking sites like YouTube and Viddler, and created a “Hope Heifer” profile on Facebook and Twitter. Combining email, tweets and viral pass-alongs, we drove over 1,500 visitors to the site — spreading the word on Heifer and encouraging dozens of follow-on donations.