Challenge

United Way of Winnipeg had a unique opportunity to launch a sports tickets donation program with the star power of Will Arnett. They needed to capitalize on Will’s visit to get as much media and public attention as possible to:

  • capture & communicate Will’s enthusiasm for Winnipeg and his support for one of its largest nonprofits;
  • encourage donations; and
  • increase exposure for United Way’s brand with the use of social media and inherently shareable video clips.

Solution

Tactica identified the opportunity to produce a series of videos for United Way and successfully pitched the concept to the charity. Tactica moved quickly to develop a strategy for the imminent visit with United Way’s communication team – they would shoot three types of videos:

  • Funny donor appeal videos by Will Arnett himself – these videos would play a crucial role in the social media strategy;
  • Thank you videos by Will Arnett – these videos would be shared with donors as they contributed to charity over the next year; and
  • A documentary video of Will’s visit – this would be used to share key events during the trip with the media and public.

Within 24 hours Tactica was on the ground shooting with the talented crew from Handcraft Creative. The videos were shot and edited quickly giving United Way’s social media team plenty of content to feed the voracious Will Arnett fans that followed the buzz on Facebook and Twitter.

Result

The impromptu campaign was a huge success for the United Way as donations began pouring into the charity. The video content help United Way get media traction and build their social media campaign, including:

  • achieving several of the top local trending Twitter topics during live coverage of the event; and
  • Klout score increase for United Way of Winnipeg by 15 points during the weeks of the event.

The project won Tactica a 2012 Signature Award for “Best PSA”.

Client Profile

United Way of Winnipeg

United Way of Winnipeg is a member of the United Way/Centraide Canada. The national organization works with, and for, local United Ways, providing strategic direction and creating connections for sharing information and resources. Next to governments, the Canadian family of United Ways is the largest funder of the voluntary sector and social services in the country.