by Sean O'Grady
The Mission
 |
| Watch the Documentary: http://bit.ly/1iAQyvl |
Archangel's founder, Stu Hirsch, created the group in January 2010 immediately following the devastating magnitude 7.0 Haitian earthquake - a disaster that killed over 250,000 and displaced over 1 million people to tent cities.
Since then, Stu and the Archangel Airborne team have flown eight aid missions to Haiti and provided free medical care to over 6,000 impoverished residents.
Archangel has done well, but like many small non-profits, it has racked up expenses.
Stu and the group have admirable ambitions to grow Archangel Airborne beyond Haiti's borders. In fact, they're already making progress, having provided medical supply runs to the Jersey Shore following Superstorm Sandy, and performing feasibility studies for potential medical clinics in Nicaragua.
But in order to grow, they'll need dollars. And to get dollars, they'll need awareness.
Tell Me a Story:
An old high school acquaintance introduced me to Stu and Archangel Airborne in the fall of 2011. As I listened to Stu's initial organization pitch, I heard the voice of legendary CBS News Producer Don Hewitt whisper through the back of my mind, "Tell Me a Story." I was hooked. Less than an hour later we had hatched a plan:
- Let's embed a video crew with the Archangel team on the next Haiti mission
- We'll create a series of short videos and a brief documentary film about the experience
- And we'll release this material to local media on the Earthquake's anniversary
It was storytelling 101, and here's how it played out.
Start Slow, Invest Low, Watch it Grow:
In May of 2012, I donated the airfare to send two one-man-band videojournalists with Archangel Airborne to Haiti. They recorded approximately 18 hours of interviews and footage. We knew we wanted to create a long-form documentary, but we first used the footage to create digestible, viral nuggets - little videos that could be easily be shared and consumed by local media.We edited and uploaded a handful of short videos for YouTube and a downloadable b-roll reel to share with local news outlets. We combined these hyperlinks with some copy to create a clickable press release and fired it off to approximately 20 media contacts in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, media market a few days before the earthquake's anniversary.
It paid off.
The humble group of aviators and medical professionals found themselves featured in:
- The Scranton Tribune
- WBRE NBC in Scranton
- YNN throughout New York State
SEO and traffic to ArchangelAirborne.org soared. They had arrived, and were now ready for stage two of our plan.
Double Down:
Year one of the campaign was about media awareness. Year two was about media & social media awareness. Both were driven simultaneously using the following steps:
- Our team created the thirty minute documentary film Flight of the Archangels
- We organized a film debut party for the weekend of the earthquake's anniversary
- We uploaded the documentary to YouTube and sent a clickable press release to local media
- Archangel team members and local media were invited to the debut
- An email and social media blast was coordinated to follow the documentary screening
We kept it simple. We kept it manageable. And to date, we're keeping the traction going...
Moving the Needle:
The documentary launch party occurred at Archangel Airborne's hanger headquarters in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, on January 11, 2014. The Scranton Tribune and Blue Ridge Cable covered the event. A few dollars were spent on light refreshments and Stu allocated $50.00 to promote the documentary post on Facebook. Within one week the following had happened:
- The documentary garnered 10,020 impressions on Facebook
- Bitly reported 1,140 clickthroughs
- Archangel Airborne's Facebook fans grew from 825 to 1,072
- Nearly $1,000 were donated
- 10 individuals contacted the Archangel website and Facebook page asking how they could donate
And the word keeps spreading.
Stu and his team are now using the 30-minute film to promote Archangel Airborne to universities, medical charities and numerous other civic and philanthropic institutions. The film will be used to help Archangel Airborne apply for fundraising grants and it will also be entered into a series of film festivals this summer throughout Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey.
Not bad for $50.00 and a week's worth of on-location taping.
Flight of the Archangels may not win an Oscar, but it could help save a life in Haiti, and that's a story worth spreading.
To donate or learn more about Archangel Airborne click here
No comments:
Post a Comment