Ryan Serhant, founder and CEO of real estate company SERHANT. and star of Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing New York, was named the 2021 National Ambassador for the American Cancer Society’s (ACS) Real Men Wear Pink Campaign to help lead the charge in the fight against breast cancer.
The objective was to use Ryan’s public platform for social good to raise awareness for breast cancer, encourage women to get checked on a regular basis, and raise funds for critical research. Leveraging Ryan’s large social media following (4.5 million followers across social channels), the goal was for Ryan Serhant’s team to raise $75,000 and to spur the national campaign to raise $11 million for the American Cancer Society.
October is a cluttered month for breast cancer messages, so the ACS and Ryan Serhant both wanted to do something different to help the messaging and the fundraising break through.
Social strategy for social good: For the social good campaign in partnership with the American Cancer Society, Ryan Serhant and his company SERHANT. decided to focus awareness and fundraising efforts on two platforms: Facebook and Instagram. The team analyzed data and engagement metrics to determine that these two social media platforms held the largest and most engaging population of its general audience.
Leverage press, and integrate it with social: While the Real Men Wear Pink Campaign officially launched in October, Ryan’s efforts began in August with an introductory video starring him dressed in a pink suit; the goal of this video was to recruit others to join the cause come October 1.
The October campaign kicked off with a press push offering Ryan as a spokesperson for breast cancer awareness - and the launch video was used to pitch Ryan, in Aug, for TV interviews to air in October. For the remainder of the month, there were a series of Instagram Posts, Instagram Stories, and Facebook Posts shared across both the SERHANT. company social media pages and Ryan Serhant’s personal social pages; all posts included a CTA to donate to the American Cancer Society.
Make it personal & professional to motivate others to act: Ryan was dedicated to the cause because he has a daughter, wife, mother, mother-in-law, work colleagues, friends who are female and at risk for breast cancer. Ryan hosted an event with breast cancer researchers from the ACS for all staff at SERHANT. This event allowed them to ask questions and get a detailed accounting of the latest in breast cancer research (e.g., triple negative breast cancer, new, targeted immuno-therapies and additional drugs being developed for Stage IV breast cancer) - and it served as a moment to capture content that would remind women to “return to their screenings” and for everyone to “please give” for this needed research.
At the close of the campaign, Ryan Serhant and SERHANT. raised $217,120 for the American Cancer Society; the 2021 national campaign raised over $12 million in total, making it the largest Real Men Wear Pink fundraising campaign.
The press push around the campaign garnered over 136 million media impressions, and included messages of awareness and education, while dedicated social media posts had a reach of over 1 million and generated 1.1 million impressions. There were 36 posts across all platforms generating nearly 24,000 Likes and over 26,000 Views.
