- Employer – U.S. Army Central California Recruiting Battalion
- Industry – Military
- Date – December 2022
The U.S. Army Central California Recruiting Battalion consists of 6 different recruiting companies and 33 recruiting stations that cover an area of approximately 48,549 square miles from San Francisco in the north to Santa Barbara in the south, and from the Pacific Coast to the border of Nevada. As the new social media manager of the battalion my first campaign to oversee was a community relations and brand awareness campaign called the 2022 Army Toy Drive.
A few local recruiting stations had a surplus of toys that they had not given out. From there, I reached out to a contact at the local children’s hospital called Valley Children’s Hospital, which is well-known throughout the Central Valley. They got me in contact with Child Life Services at the hospital. Their department helps children understand and cope with hospitalization, in which one of their responsibilities is to give toys to children who are at the hospital.
Then by researching the data analytics for the past year of all the Army’s Central Valley recruiting station’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, 16 in total, I believed I could reach at least 1,000 people on social media with no ad budget. The timeline was the second and third week of December 2022.
From the research, my goals were to;
- Build a relationship with Valley Children’s Hospital by donating over 100+ toys.
- Gain positive local brand awareness within the Central Valley on social media for the battalion.
From there, my measurable objective was to;
- Reach 1,000 people on social media about the Army’s toy donation to Valley Children’s Hospital.
Below are the tactics that were used in the campaign.
- Social Media: I created a social media post after the donation that showed U.S. Army recruiters donating toys in the front lobby of the hospital. I then strategically shared that post on 16 different Facebook and Instagram accounts within the Central Valley.
- Social Media Influencer: I had the Clovis Veterans Memorial District share the post to their followers on their Facebook account (3.7k followers).
- Event Photography: I brought two Army recruiters to the hospital where we met the Child Life Services team, where I took photos of them donating the toys.
- Internal Communications: Valley Children’s Hospital wrote a small article about the donation in their internal email, which goes out to 4,000+ medical professionals.
Below were the final results.
Below were the final results.
- Total Reach: 2,992 people
The Army considered this a successful campaign as the measurable objective saw a 199.2%+ increase from the original objective. This was successful enough that I am pitching 3 new donation campaigns spread out through 2023. They will consist of donating school supplies to teachers, donating candy to underprivileged kids during Halloween, and expanding the toy donations to over 1,000+ toys to Valley Children’s Hospital.
This campaign won multiple awards in 2024.
- Public Relations Society of America “Image Awards” – Award of Excellence: Community Relations
- Public Relations Society of America “Image Awards” – Award of Excellence: Social Media
- Public Relations Society of America “Image Awards” – Award of Excellence: Brand Reputation