The Ask
Growing non-profit programs through brand storytelling
Lemonade Day is a nationwide nonprofit entrepreneurial program for kids designed to teach skills through the fun and practical experience of running their own lemonade stands. Originating in Houston, this nonprofit program aims to equip children with the knowledge and confidence to build successful futures.
The Challenge // Raising Awareness for Lemonade Day Detroit
When Detroit decided to launch its own branch, Lemonade Day Detroit, Huntington Bank stepped in as the name sponsor. To ensure a successful debut, Hudson Collective’s people focused on raising awareness, garnering support, and driving registrations throughout Southeastern Michigan. We managed the social media and their nonprofit digital campaign, provided strategic guidance, and handled public relations to effectively launch.
The objective was to raise awareness about the nonprofit and its national mission, as well as awareness of the upcoming first-year event in the Detroit area. Lemonade Day Detroit also needed to drive sponsorship sign-ups, community advocate support and applications to participate. The target market was parents of children under the age of 18 in Southeast Michigan, as well educators, similar nonprofits, potential corporate sponsorships for nonprofit programs and advocates for entrepreneurship.
The Solution
Hudson Collective’s people addressed these needs through the following strategies:
Social Media & Digital Campaign: Created and managed a blog, Facebook page, Twitter account, and YouTube channel for Lemonade Day Detroit. Posted content from events, including photos and videos of lemonade stands on the event day, to engage the community and drive sales.
Video Storytelling: A successful tactic we applied was to create videos of local entrepreneurs with large online communities sharing their stories of how they got to where they are, and why learning entrepreneurship is important.
Events & Community Engagement: Created big kickoff events to bring in families and educators and get them excited about participating.
Public Relations for Community Events: Secured media coverage including local newspaper articles, TV coverage of the event’s kickoff rally, and features on kids at their lemonade stands to build buzz and credibility.
The Impact
Building a Successful Lemonade Day Detroit
For the launch, we created and ran a blog, Facebook page, Twitter account and YouTube channel for the client. We attended events and posted photos and videos from them in these digital media channels. On the day of the event, we went to many of the lemonade stands and posted videos and photos of them to drive sales to their stands.
We capitalized on Lemonade Day’s social media presence and engaged the community for this first-year event. The excitement sparked by teaching kids entrepreneurship and posting content on channels relevant to their audience made the inaugural Lemonade Day Detroit a huge success.