Driven by our mission to empower every New Yorker to achieve food security for good, Food Bank For NYC works with 800 soup kitchens and food pantries to provide reliable access to food.
From legislation impacting their human rights to cycles of discrimination in housing and employment, our organization recognizes that the LGBTQ+ community is increasingly under attack, with those most marginalized – transgender and non-binary people, people of color, and those living with HIV –getting the worst of those attacks. According to the Williams Institute, nationwide, 22% of LGBTQ+ adults are food insecure. In NYC, 1 in 5 LGBTQ+ people struggle to put food on the table.
While entities nationwide have backtracked on their support for the LGBTQ+ community, we have responded by strengthening our partnerships, including our public outreach, with community-based organizations serving their unique needs:
Main and Specific Goals
To raise awareness on food insecurity in the NYC LGBTQ+ community.
1. Increase public awareness about the need amid the increasing cost of food.
2. Raise funds to help get vital food and resources.
3. Advocate for policies to ensure lasting change.
4. Volunteer to help us sustain our on-the-ground services.
We envisioned a Pride campaign that highlighted the humanity and beauty of LGBTQ+ neighbors using our pantry and soup kitchen services and established a genuine connection between the public and partner agencies that serve them. Besides the agencies mentioned above, we called other agencies, securing 17 participants: Ali Forney Center, AIDS Center of Queens County, the Bronx BOOM! Health, The Church of the Village, and Destination Tomorrow
For the creative planning and execution, we worked with Antarctic, a Minority Business Enterprise-certified digital agency that has built LGBTQ+ rights campaigns for NYC Commission on Human Rights, Seattle Pride, The LGBT Bar, and SAGE. For our paid media, we worked with MSA Marketing, an Emerging Business Enterprise Certified agency that has conducted diversity & inclusion campaigns for NYC Health + Hospitals, MetroPlusHealth, and Empire BlueCross BlueShield.
With our input, Antarctic created a slogan that nodded at the 2023 Pride theme “Strength in Solidarity”:
“We utilize our resources to positively impact the lives of our neighbors. We stand as partners and as a hand outstretched with the food they need to thrive. Because Food is a Powerful Ally.”
Following this slogan, the final creative primarily highlighted non-binary and transgender individuals and people of color, and chosen families or individuals bonded by mutual support and love. It included impact stats, copy, and stunning multimedia that illustrated and celebrated why a food bank is raising awareness about the rights of LGBTQ+ people.
Our target audience included a range of highest-, mid-, and longest-income zip codes where we reached general supporters who are aware of our work via social media, email, community outreach, and word of mouth. Our limited-budget media plan included a combination of experiential marketing platforms and digital media. We placed ads in Reddit, TikTok, and Snapchat, where our organization doesn’t have accounts but where we know our social community is. We also tried Tinder, the most popular dating app among LGBTQ+ people across income levels. We innovated with an Amazon Pride ad package with access to O&O platforms (Kindle e-readers, Fire Table, and TV with OTT advertising on streaming TV and movies).
Platform + Strategy + Targets + Channels
Street teams and digital billboard trucks stormed NYC streets as campaign ambassadors to meet people, tell them about LGBTQ+ hunger, hand out our campaign flyer, and capture testimonials. They distributed approximately 6000 flyers for seven days leading to the NYC Pride Parade on June 25th at high-traffic locations. Wild postings covered walls on sidewalks with bi-weekly re-installs in those same locations. Lastly, 1600 people interacted with our Eventbrite page, and over 200 people expressed interest in participating in our NYC Pride Parade activation, where we joined 700 other groups.
The landing page foodbankfornyc.org/pride generated 304,292 views between 6/5 and 7/3, more than twice compared to the same period in 2022.
Paid Social Media Performance
Tinder: 1.03M impressions; 27,300 clicks; CTR 2.70% (almost double the average rate of 1.5%)
Facebook and Instagram: 1.6 million impressions; 16,500 clicks; CTR 0.99
Reddit: 1.6 million impressions; 4520 clicks; CTR 0.28
Snapchat
English: 504,596 impressions; Swipe ups 11,821 swipe ups; 2.34 CTR
Spanish: 123,899 impressions; swipe ups 3.09 CTR
TikTok
English: 1.16M Impressions; 17,332 clicks; CTR 1.49
Spanish: 463,262 impressions; 6,057 clicks; CTR 1.31
Amazon: 2.5M impressions; 3,482 clicks; CTR 0.13
Billboard truck + Street teams: 1M impressions
Pedestrian testimonials:
"I didn’t even realize Food Bank could be a resource for me."
“Right message, right place, right weekend.”
“I use food banks, and this is such a good cause for the LGBTQ+ community.”
“So important for young people to know about this so we can create more resources for our community.”
Wild Postings: 4.8M impressions
Total paid impressions: 25,646,968
Organic social data:
Total posts and likes across platforms: 8/456
Total impressions: 11,229
Total reach: 9,022
*Post Pride Parade post on Instagram impressions: 2915 impressions (among highest in 2023)
*First day of Pride Month LinkedIn post: 3048 impressions (among highest in 2023)
