Goodwill® is made up of a network of 163 local organizations in the United States and Canada who collectively provide job placement and training opportunities, and other community-based services such as career counselling, financial education, and résumé preparation to people with disabilities and disadvantages, and anyone facing challenges to finding employment. In 2015, Goodwill organizations helped place over 312,000 people in jobs, and nearly 2 million people engaged in face-to-face Goodwill services to advance in their careers. To help fund its programs, Goodwill sells donated clothes and other household items in more than 3,200 stores and online at shopgoodwill.com®. The campaign's objective is to encourage audiences to become job creators in their local communities by donating their stuff to Goodwill, demonstrating that their donations aren't just an end point, but the beginning of job creation in their community. All PSAs conclude with the tagline, "Donate Stuff. Create Jobs."
To extend the launch of new PSA creative, we developed a communications strategy that leveraged partnerships with influencers and content creators to extend the campaign messaging and increase brand (and brand mission) awareness.
In order to extend the "Donate Stuff. Create Jobs." messaging it was important to tap into existing Goodwill advocates and partner with them to get the word out about Goodwill's mission, and the impact donating to (and shopping at) Goodwill has on local communities. To do this we developed a strategy that would galvanize a group of brand ambassadors, reaching our diverse target audience of millennials and moms. As ambassadors, creators were asked to incorporate campaign messaging into their content, educate their followers on the impact of donations to Goodwill and encourage their followers to donate by showing how easy it is and/or giving donation tips and tricks.
To implement this program, we researched creators who had already organically engaged with the Goodwill brand and incorporated brand messaging into their videos. This was crucial to the execution since we wanted to ensure the messaging felt authentic to the creators' audiences. Following the discovery phase, we pitched the partnership to a curated list of influencers and secured six channels to come on board for the launch of the campaign to create original campaign content on their channels.
What made this activation unique was the array of experiences and channels that were eager and able to participate. Jenn Im, a millennial beauty macro-influencer, went back to her hometown Goodwill in Southern California to donate and swag some precious finds, while Ambrosia Malbrough, a minimalist mom-to-be mirco-influencer, shared tips on how to maintain an uncluttered home.
