Sierra Club Florida: Saving Florida Parks
With the Florida Governor proposing to develop 17 state parks into golf courses and pickleball courts, the state’s Sierra Club stepped up with a “Save our Parks” campaign. Communications Director Leslie Pearsall took a leap of faith that paid off big time to build their email list.
“Digital was all new territory for us. We had nobody dedicated to web design,” Pearsall explains. The organization partnered with a digital consultant to develop a paid ad campaign on Facebook. The incentive was a simple bumper sticker, which supporters got for free.
“We had a tremendous response! We gained over 2,000 new contacts, and had close to 5,000 signups,” says the very pleased Comms Director. “Stickers are the great unifier. It’s a really simple hook to get people talking and involved.”
Successful Campaign Elements
Great Messaging + Young Influencers = Online Success
The organization wanted acquisition and awareness, but also visibility. Some of the people the Sierra Club got talking about the issue were three local social media influencers, including Luca Martinez (on instagram @lucamartinez.fl).
As a young person of color, who’s passionate about state parks and Florida wildlife, Martinez is connected to just the audience they wanted – and has over 850k followers. Pearsall contracted him to visit all the parks, and create some gorgeous videos.
Another Florida influencer they partnered with was Lauren Gay, whose Instagram handle is @outdoorsydiva. Check out her hard-to-resist reel and you’ll understand how she has over 43k followers!
A Microsite, a Form & a Schedule
With the digital consultant’s help, Sierra Club Florida built a microsite, and drove people to it with digital ads and the Instagram reels of their paid content creators. On a pre-planned schedule, they sent lists of signed up contacts to F.I.I., who had them printed and shipped right to people’s doors.
The consultant had not worked with F.I.I. previously, and wound up quite satisfied. “F.I.I. turned around everything very quickly. We created the art, and they delivered union printing and fast shipping,” he reported. “I was looking for shop with deep political experience. F.I.I. understands the frustrations – politics is always about deadlines, and sometimes the deadlines are … ridiculous. I wanted a partner who had experience with that kind of pressure. My client was happy with everything, and the bumper stickers were really high quality.”
Comms Director Leslie Pearsall was surprised to see signups from as far away as Alaska and Hawaii. And now she has a great list of contacts she can re-engage with for marketing and fundraising.
Such a great effort full of creative outreach and brave use of new tools. We salute you, Sierra Club Florida!