Society of Grownups
Creating a financial literacy startup for millennials from scratch
The Skills: Messaging, Positioning, Branding, Competitor Analysis, Persona + Brand Story Development, Public Relations Strategy, Digital Tool Rollouts
The Challenge: Launch the PR and communications strategy for financial literacy startup, Society of Grownups. Create a brand identity, lay the groundwork for social media strategy, influencer programs, media relations, messaging, and elevate the CEOs profile as the face of the brand. On the interpersonal level, hire an internal PR/marketing team and agency.
The Outcome: Over a course of two+ years via the PR team's efforts, the brand yielded 270 media hits and 1.55 billion earned impressions. This calculated to an $8m value in paid advertising. Highlights included regular coverage in Washington Post, Yahoo!Finance, Forbes, CNBC, Wall Street Journal and NYTimes. Media sentiment was 100% positive. Additionally, 400+ events were planned, 102k users viewed the blog and the social community grew from zero to 16,000 followers across channels.
Other notable projects included creation of five digital bite-sized branded videos. I flew to LA and was a part of the creation, production and post-production process along with external creative vendors. One of the most successful videos garnered 379k views and was included in the Funniest Commercials of 2015 nominated by Spike TV.
The Awards:
2015 Webbys People's Voice Award - Advertising & Media: Financial Services
2015 IDEA Finalist - Design Strategy
2015 Best of Boston Services & Goods - Improper Bostonian Magazine
“Mary joined the Society of Grownups team from its inception, playing a role in testing the initial concepts and then stepped in seamlessly to lead the PR strategy. She was absolutely critical to the success of the Society of Grownups. She not only architected the PR narrative for the company but was an instrumental leader on the team. ”
“Mary’s official role at Society of Grownups was in leading the direction of our PR efforts, but that vastly understates the value she brought to the company. She literally carried the organization on her back for several months in terms of building interest and growing the brand. Without Mary, Society of Grownups could never have launched as successfully as it did. ”