Campaign Overview:

Youth of the Year is Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s (BGCA) premier leadership program. Each year, thousands of teens from across the nation compete at local, state and a national level, and ultimately one young person is named National Youth of the Year representing the voice of 4 million Club youth.

Six finalists traveled to LA for a week-long experience culminating with the National Youth of the Year event/announcement. The event serves as a fundraiser and brand moment to celebrate the work of Boys & Girls Clubs throughout the country and on military installations worldwide that are helping young people on their path to a great future.

Goals:

• Drive awareness, understanding and trust of BGCA’s premier leadership program- Youth of the Year and its signature Sponsor- Kohl’s Cares

• Aim to ignite consumer excitement, enthusiasm and engagement about the program and winner announcement

Audience:

• Potential donors, parents, BGCA supporters

Strategies

Ignite a comprehensive 360 campaign maximizing reach and engagement across all relevant external BGCA and partner channels

• Garner national and local earned media attention for third party recognition of program impact

  • Pre-event outreach to secure blue carpet and event attendance- targeted national news & philanthropic trades, regional and local market news, consumer & family publications, and new media (social influencers, podcasts)

  • Post-event outreach including press release, AP photo wire distribution, celeb photo seeding and local and national outreach around winner

• Engage influencers and VIPs to drive consumer understanding and excitement

  • Partnership with stylist Justin Boone- recognized for his work with artists including Kendrick Lamar- to give the Youth of the Year finalists styling tips in the Kohl’s Gifting Suit- a partner experience where teens picked out

  • Also engaged Club alum and actor, JB Smoove in the Kohl’s gifting suite

• Capture content with intent of all BGCA channel leads to leverage in real time and post-event for longer lasting storytelling opportunities relevant to the program

  • Blue carpet, gifting suite and partner experience videos and photos across social media channels, internal and external email announcements

Results:

• 66 total media placements and 2.1B total media impressions across national, entertainment and local news: People, ET, ENews, CW39, Her Campus, Authority Magazine

• 8 paid social posts highlighting Kohl’s Gifting Suite

• 5% engagement rate (2.5x industry standard), 19K+ social views, 11% reel engagement rate

• 22 social media posts & 8.2M+ impressions

• Previous coverage highlights for the Youth of the Year Campaign include Good Morning America, The Washington Post, Huffpost Black Voices, Essence, The Hill, Fox News, PBS American Graduate Day and more