Creative team overcomes virtual challenges to build timely pro bono campaign to help families with newborns in need during COVID-19 Pandemic.
NEW YORK, NY – The EGC Group has created a 360 pro bono campaign to launch The United Way of Long Island’s new “Community Baby Shower” initiative, intended to help families who are bringing new babies into the world while facing financial hardships that may include poverty or unemployment.
The campaign, which launches this week, is called #BornUnited, and it lives across all touchpoints including TV, social, radio, and print to help the United Way gather contributions – digitally – to support their “Community Baby Shower” initiative.
Campaign Video Link– https://youtu.be/rUKP-FcKf6o
“We are extremely grateful to have generous donors who value our mission and support the Born United appeal,” said Theresa A. Regnante, President and CEO of United Way of Long Island. “It is great to see Long Islanders come together and spread a little hope and help lift up people in need. Thank you to The EGC Group for creating #BornUnited”.
EGC Group created the campaign as part of its decade-old CreateAthon program, where everyone at the Agency donates their talent and minds to help charities and good causes. The Agency believes bringing back CreateAthon during the pandemic is a most worthy time to help local not-for-profits who need to pivot their marketing initiative due to the current crisis.
“As soon as we heard the assignment, we hit the ground running,” said Rich DeSimone, VP Creative Director. “What’s happening right now during this COVID-19 pandemic is heartbreaking, and whatever we could do to help make a difference in someone’s life is the least we could do.”
This specific campaign posed unique COVID-19-related challenges since the team had to brainstorm, work, and collaborate virtually. The inspiration behind this campaign theme was: “Coming together for the greater good.”
“I’ve been doing CreateAthon since we started it at the Agency, and this was by far the most unique,” DeSimone said. “The one thing that’s never changed though is presenting the concepts to these not-for-profits; it’s really so humbling. They are so appreciative of anything we can do to help, and that feels really good, especially right now.”
The #BornUnited campaign for United Way is a multimedia 360 campaign that includes distribution on a wide range of platforms with video, social media, print, and radio messages. EGC used its newly launched Virtual Content Studio to remotely build a video/spot. The EGC Media Team negotiated PSAs and donated media to run the campaign. This is a testament to how the creative process can happen from anywhere.
With social distancing in effect, another obstacle the team had to overcome was not being able to shoot fresh video images for the TV spot. Despite this, the images and videos that were gathered are heartwarming, very powerful, and they connect with viewers on an emotional level.
“We are learning all-new ways to work during this time, and our Content Studio is proof of that,” DeSimone noted. “We’ve been turning around work very quickly to be able to have relevant messaging out for all of our clients.”
While the focus is on newborns, this campaign also includes the first year of a baby’s life – even as a toddler. The United Way believes in giving gifts that will be useful not only for the day the baby is born but for helping families receive essentials that are needed during the first year of a child’s life.
To find out more, check out the URL: unitedwayli.org/bornunited, or text “BornUnited” to 313131.