Given the short timeline to help JDRF raise awareness for the virtual Gala, we leveraged the real subject matter experts – those affected by T1D. Well-known local faces willing to share their story included:
- Mary Lyn Schuh, executive director of JDRF Middle + East Tennessee
- Tennessee Titans GM Jon Robinson, whose daughter Taylor has T1D, and his family
- Eric Paslay, chart-topping country music artist who has T1D
- Bart Millard, lead singer for American contemporary Christian music band MercyMe, whose son, Sam, has T1D
We created fun videos and posts – the Robinson Family’s carpool karaoke and an auction-off between Jon Robinson and professional auctioneer Jeff Randall – for the chapter’s social channels.
We engineered a companion digital campaign, The 20×20 Challenge, that lowered the monetary “ask” to just $20 a person. We turned to friends, family, and supporters of JDRF to donate $20 to JDRF Fund A Cure to post on their personal social channels that they were taking the 20×20 Challenge, and then tag another 20 people asking them to do the same.
We compiled a social media influencer list of all JDRF chapter stakeholders (board members, the chapter mailing list, sponsors, Nashville influencers, etc.) to boost the 20×20 Challenge signal across social media channels. We developed a social media toolkit explaining the Challenge and template social media posts so stakeholders could easily participate.