Authentic Storytelling

During the Covid-19 shutdown in early 2020, a 35 year old alt weekly was paired down to only three employees. There was a need to help cover all the community stories in real time beyond the weekly printed publication. We jumped in to support local goddess and editor-in-chief with their instagram. We became the third arm of their editorial strategy until their sales and advertising picked back up again.

Real Time Coverage

We created the space for the Black community to use their own words in #BlackVoicesMatter posts, creating trust to be heard. We used the IG stories and IGTV to cover BLM protests in real time without "taking sides". Our new community started tagging us, give us shout outs and use our stories as a resource. Some of the BLM stories increased our views over 300% for the months of May & June. Every video and picture was posted with permission and credit was given. Photos featured on The Orlando Weekly instagram

Artist Amplification

What do creatives do when everything stops? They create a reflection of what they see around them. FaceTime photoshoots, political baking, streaming couch concerts. We partnered with various artists to amplify their projects created during this timeframe. Samples here.

Press Club Campaign Support

The immediate need for any business during this shutdown was to pivot. OW immediately started to rethink their business model to lean into a community funded revenue stream. The paper has been free for 35 years, and they don’t plan on changing that. Trump’s attack on the media didn’t help local papers either, a number of papers folded in the first few weeks. OW never stopped working.

Community Partnerships

In order to get the real stories behind the people living in our communities, we needed to go where they were. The ACLUFL and 104.5 partnered with us to produce an education series called #PollPrep that educated our readers on who/what was on the ballot and why it was important to vote! The LBGTQ History Museum and Zebra Coalition partnered with us on a #BeyondPride series.

#MoneyMondays

Covid and BLM had a huge impact on engagement. Creating a micro campaign that would amplify BIPOC businesses shifted a portion of our readers to a new demographic we had not been reaching previously. June 1st, #MoneyMonday where we featured hyper local Black owned businesses every Monday at 7PM.

Strategy & Results

OW followers were used to using the channel for giveaways and event tickets, however the new goal of the channel was to start using the space to raise funds to keep the paper alive and free. In order to shift the behavior, we needed to elevate the culture of the paper to feature local art, music, theater and politics…OW is more than beer and pizza. In the 5 months (April - September) we worked on the OW insta account, we increased their impressions from 100k a month to 100+ a day. We gained 30K followers with the new behavior to give rather than just take. The Republicans were not big fans. 😈