May Day is an increasingly important day in the U.S. labor community, highlighting the often unseen work done by those in trades, including janitorial, security, and hospitality workers. At a time of growing economic uncertainty and attacks on workers’ rights, this campaign centered on a central idea: real change happens when people organize, build collective power, and stand together through their unions and communities. To bring that message to life, the California SEU-USWW gathered a coalition of 18 labor and social reform groups interested in supporting demonstrations across California on May 1, 2026.
LaMont Digital’s role was to develop a unified suite of digital collateral that reflected solidarity and collective action. These assets encouraged viewers to find a local action at camayday2026.org to find a local event and join thousands of Californians standing together in support of workers’ rights, union power, and stronger communities.
In support of a multi-organization coalition, LaMont Digital ran a highly targeted, 2 week-long digital ad campaign to target activists, labor organizers, and civically-engaged individuals to encourage them to join a local May Day action.
Our team welcomed the opportunity to show members what digital advertising in highly targeted spaces can do while managing the expectations of an 18-member coalition, many of whom were new to the digital advertising space. The campaign spend was weighted heavily toward the final days leading up to May Day, skewing analytics until the last minute, and traditional media outlets require much more lead time to generate results. We supplemented with additional information wherever possible, ultimately gaining the trust of the group.
First, we needed a comprehensive look and feel for the campaign. Our in-house art department developed a dramatic set of images, pulling key colors from the major coalition member brand guides, images of coalition members at actions, and a font that works well in both English and Spanish. The result is an easily recognizable style designed to resonate with target audiences - especially if they happened to see themselves in the advertisements.
The advertisements were designed to do two things: inform the audience that May Day activations were happening, and encourage them to visit the website for more information. The website itself featured more images of coalition members, including a member named Cruz whose photo, complete with cowboy hat and raised fist, captured the spirit of the campaign.
Once the artistic suite was ready, we engaged ad-specific SEO strategies to find viewers who already seek out pro-labor and workers’ rights content, hoping to encourage them to attend locally. We further narrowed our target audience via geofencing, allowing us to tailor ads to specific zip codes and areas of California where actions were being planned.
The result was a digital “profile” of prospective attendees, which served content to viewers on various platforms and channels so that prospective attendees would see the advertisements across multiple social media platforms and websites.
Once viewers clicked through to the website, an image of Cruz greeted them, along with an interactive map of California with pins denoting actions across the state. We included an RSVP option, although given that many attendees may be from sensitive demographics, we did not consider RSVPs an indicator of campaign success.
Another focus for the coalition was a toolkit designed to allow people to call their communities into action. We tweaked some of the creative and created ready-to-post content using our toolkit partner, SoSha, included frames to encourage user-generated content, elevating the traditional toolkit into a mechanism for 2-way communication between the coalition and their audience.
Ultimately, the campaign demonstrated how thoughtful creative, precise digital organizing, and coalition-driven storytelling can transform awareness into action. By helping thousands of Californians discover opportunities to stand alongside their neighbors, we helped strengthen the visibility of the labor movement and reinforced the enduring power of collective action, union solidarity, and community power.
Our objective was to maximize campaign awareness, drive Californians to preparedness resources, and engage audiences in meaningful action. The campaign exceeded these goals across every key metric.
Digital advertising generated more than 6.39 million impressions, supported by 608,352 video impressions and 60,939 website impressions, delivering broad visibility and sustained engagement. The campaign successfully converted awareness into action, attracting 45,200 unique visitors to CAMAYDAY2026.org and 37,423 unique visitors to the campaign toolkit, resulting in 47,408 total toolkit visits as users returned to access preparedness resources.
The campaign also exceeded audience engagement goals. Seventy-five percent of conversions came from female viewers, despite women representing only about half of Meta's Facebook and Instagram audience. This significant overperformance demonstrates the campaign's success in reaching and motivating women while helping challenge traditional perceptions of labor and skilled trades.
Together, these results demonstrate that the campaign not only achieved exceptional reach but also inspired measurable action, successfully connecting Californians with critical preparedness information and resources while surpassing our strategic engagement objectives.
