KidsMatter EMPOWER Gala Case Study

Introduction

Each year, KidsMatter holds an annual Gala to raise money to fund important programs for the youth in our communities. COVID-19 forced this event to go virtual in September 2020, and these funds were needed more than ever. PGM helped them get there.

PGM created this 2020 Overview video explaining all of the KidsMatter programs and services. We created custom motion graphics to keep the viewer engaged.

Our team created this animation with upbeat music to show the space of the Watch Party and encourage people to attend.

Goals

Our team was tasked with creating a seamless virtual gala experience and an effective marketing campaign to promote to all channels; with the goal to reach people in a 50-mile radius to tune into this free event. From the storyboarding of the gala itself to the script and production of a flagship overview video to creating and designing graphics and animations with effective copy for social media, Paul Gregory Media implemented a marketing and production program on-brand with The Game of Life Gala theme.

Process

PGM designed an engaging landing page that housed all the information for registration, buying a golden ticket, viewing and purchasing sponsorship packages, and joining a Watch Party. This was coupled with working with Virtual Event software, Greater Giving, to masterfully intertwine this event with their website. Our team also worked alongside a local TV station, NCTV-17, to produce a strategic 40-minute gala event. This involved pre-recording segments, creating various graphics for b-roll, choosing music that was on-brand to overlay, laying out interactive titles, streaming a live watch party, and adding the little bits of magic to make this gala stand out from the rest.

On social media channels, PGM set forth a strong and consistent strategy for postings two months prior to the virtual gala. Posts included graphics about registering, becoming a sponsor, purchasing a golden ticket or watch party seat, recognizing sponsors with their individual posts, exciting countdowns to the day of the gala, sneak peeks of silent auction items, and engaging minute-long videos from the auctioneer! We also boosted posts to a specific target audience and formulated a Facebook Ad strategy to generate even more awareness. From custom animations and videos to engaging graphics, PGM provided daily content across KidsMatter social channels.

The Result

The most important metric to us is the funds raised. The KidsMatter Empower Gala raised over $87,000, exceeding their goal of $65,000. They were well on their way above that as more donations came in post-gala. When we drilled into the data from Google Analytics, it’s clear to see that 84% of referral traffic came from PGM’s social media efforts. KidsMatter had a Facebook ad budget of $500 and along with ads, our team boosted 8 posts that were receiving a lot of engagement. In fact, the impressions from social media increased 48.3% from the previous month to a total of 199,249 and there were 6,328 people who engaged with KidsMatter’s content. Total post link clicks stood at 564 and the night of the gala there were 384 sessions and 760 pageviews to tune into the virtual show. In terms of paid impressions and engagement, total impressions skyrocketed towards the end of September and totaled 81,949 views. Ads brought a total of 15,683 paid engagements with a daily average of 158.41 engagements. These numbers are stunning, and so was the total number of views the night of the Gala.

Through this event, we were able to help our client pivot to a virtual Gala, and surpass their fundraising goals! Our efforts combined with KidsMatter’s mission made their first-time Virtual Gala a success.