Our Happy Divorce (OHD) is empowering and inspiring people to think differently about family dynamics: divorce, co-parenting, step-parenting, and what it means to put kids first. Nikki DeBartolo and Ben Heldfond share their journey, inspiring parents to set aside their egos and create healthier, happier post-divorce families. Though their marriage has been over for more than a decade, they still share a happy blended life with each other and their son Asher, along with their spouses and children.
Nikki and Ben had the idea to write a book together about their experiences. The whole family traveled to Africa, where they experienced transformational change and met incredible people who inspired them.
The ex-couple envision a new normal where all families experiencing divorce embrace a commitment to place the needs of their children at the center of their decisions and create healthy post-divorce relationships. Nikki and Ben hope their story is only one of many that will reshape divorce for families around the world.
Before the book hit the shelves, they knew they needed to build an active social media presence to help spread their inspirational message. Their book “Our Happy Divorce: How Ending Our Marriage Brought Us Closer Together” was published in October 2019.
Joybyte created a cohesive and uplifting brand and image for OHD and a defined growth strategy. Now, their community reaches well beyond the pages of their book.
Joybyte created a social media and influencer marketing strategy to position the happy ex-couple as thought leaders and help grow the positive divorce movement. We created an inspiring brand; identified a broad scope of healthy divorce influencers ranging from podcasters to celebrities; and developed a robust content calendar packed with helpful tips for co-parents, stepparents and blended families.
Branded social graphics depict educational and inspirational messages and are backed up with real family images and videos from Nikki’s and Ben’s lives. These real glimpses share their story and let people who are struggling with divorce know that a happy ending is possible. Nikki's and Ben’s spouses, Chad and Nadia, are also heavily featured on the OHD social pages, which shows the full blended family. Parents and stepparents are equally involved and the kids are all seen as one family, not half-siblings.
One of OHD’s biggest priorities is awareness, reach and interaction with their target market: families affected by divorce. Joybyte built a community of like-minded individuals through OHD’s very own Facebook group, created a network of divorce influencers, implemented social media campaigns with uplifting messages like #MyExMyFriend, and started a new livestream that discusses hot divorce topics with key industry leaders. Recent topics include narcissism, co-parenting and communication, kids and divorce, reparenting, and sobriety (a topic close to the family’s heart, as Ben recently celebrated 25 years sober).
The Joybyte team used social media to promote and grow the OHD livestream from the ground up, by securing influencers and taking advantage of both organic and paid social posts. Since video content is higher performing on most social channels, we decided to focus on the use of live video, plus curated graphics, a dedicated influencer strategy and taking advantage of Nikki's and Ben’s personal social media reach to successfully launch the livestream.
To date, the livestream shows have generated over 100,000 views and featured more than 10 industry experts, including Michelle Dempsey and Bela Ghandi, recognized experts in the divorce and dating community. Nikki and Ben have also secured two sponsorships from Soberlink, a breathalyzer company that aims to help divorced couples keep their sobriety accountable.
Since November 2019, the Our Happy Divorce social pages have reached more than 800,000 people on Instagram, generated over 53,000 interactions, engaged with hundreds of influencers and secured 20+ speaking engagements and press opportunities for Nikki and Ben.
"We’ve been nothing less than impressed with the Joybyte team at every turn. Their creative, hands-on approach to our social media strategy has opened many relationships for our brand. They’ve helped us build an audience, engage with new people daily and ultimately get our book and message into more people’s hands. We couldn’t ask for a better partner." - Ben Heldfond, Our Happy Divorce.
