Get Your Free Ads Here
Bozell was founded in 1921 with the principal that we should “pay rent for the space we occupy on this earth.” After 95 years of making ads for some of the world’s biggest brands, Bozell devoted one day to community relations and making ads for the little guys – the neighborhood vacuum store, the dog walker, the struggling nonprofit – anyone who could use a little creative marketing help.
Insights
Long-standing successful businesses have celebrated their anniversaries in all sorts of ways, and some agencies have even shut their doors for a day or for a single client before. But never had an agency given professional help to anyone and everyone who needed it – for free.
Execution
Our mission: Produce 95 pieces of creative in one day for people and organizations in Omaha, free of charge.
Pre-Event: The word had to get out to make sure people showed up to Free Ad Day. Friends and family were told, social ads were pushed out, and local and national media was made aware. A Free Ad Day page was also created on Bozell’s site to explain our history of giving back, as well as our mission for our 95th anniversary.
During: Throughout the workday, 111 distinct pieces of work were created – ads, logos, media plans, book covers, everything. The work was shared in real-time via social, including three Facebook Live videos to give viewers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the action.
After: To continue sharing the story, videos and blog posts were created and shared. All of the media coverage and influencer social posts were shared across Bozell social channels, enabling a seamless and cohesive Free Ad Day PR recap.
To see all the work we created that day, visit our Free Ad Day microsite.
Results
In the days leading up to the event and in the months following, Free Ad Day attributed to nearly one million organic social media impressions. A social media reach of more than 250,000 helped lead to an eight percent increase in Bozell Facebook fans. Traditional media reached nearly 600,000 people and video views surpassed 4,000. Stories were published on national and local outlets, including PR News, Medium, Buzzfeed Community, KFAB, KETV and more. In addition, we won PR News’s Elite Agency award for Community Service for our work on Free Ad Day.
