East dallas lake & garden district
Grassroots Social Media Campaign Introduces New Community Co-Brand
THE SITUATION
The Greater East Dallas Chamber, White Rock Partnership and other business organizations across the East Dallas community and several neighborhood associations wanted to launch a community project to announce the co-branding of East Dallas as the “Lake & Garden District.” The goal of the community project was to build buzz within the community and showcase East Dallas as a “destination district.” East Dallas leaders sought the expertise and creativity of Dala Communications to create a campaign that would raise awareness for the community and businesses while positively impacting economic development within the area.
DALA’S SOLUTION
The Dala Communications team determined a multi-tiered grass roots campaign utilizing social media channels, event and community partnerships and word-of-mouth tactics was the best approach to maximize awareness and the launch for the new co-brand. To create buzz for the announcement, Dala devised a strategy that hinged on the element of “secrecy” - they teased the “big reveal” with a catchy phrase they created: “East Dallas Is…” This new phrase was the anchor Dala used to launch the promotion, engage the community and build excitement for the “big reveal” announcement of the Lake & Garden District co-brand.
The campaign included creating viral videos, social media contests and “neighborhood teasers” complete with visual cues at drop sites around East Dallas to build curiosity and engagement with the overall campaign. Dala utilized social media to announce the campaign and used traditional media and events as secondary resources to reach the wider community.
Dala also worked with district leadership team to drive community engagement and project exposure by engaging local businesses, neighborhood associations, chambers, schools and other community influencers to reach their networks via more traditional outreach tactics such as events and partnerships.
THE RESULTS
Dala’s team successfully worked with neighborhood leaders and organizations to execute a grassroots campaign driven by social media channels and event/community partnerships to introduce the new co-brand. The campaign was a viral success and put East Dallas on the map as a destination district.
The overall goal of reaching 10 percent of the East Dallas community (roughly 10,000 people) via social media was far surpassed. During the first week of the campaign, the Facebook page went from zero to 935 fans.
On the Lake & Garden Big Reveal Day, the Facebook page’s daily organic total impression totaled 17,256 and during the first week of the campaign launch, the Facebook page had 11,420 unique users. Only two months after the launch, the new Lake & Garden District Facebook page boasted 2,300 Facebook “likes” and 406 followers on Instagram after building a grassroots community campaign from the ground up. The new Lake & Garden District identity continues take root in the community and has helped build awareness of what East Dallas has to offer, giving people a reason to visit.