Bates
Step Up 2 Serve
The Opportunity
Bates was in dire need of a major social moment to reinvigorate their core base. Step Up 2 Serve is a campaign with a big call to action to the Bates community: share your stories from the front lines, and Bates might give you boots for 5 years. Timed appropriately in October with First Responder’s Day as a way to give back and celebrate the lives of those who serve. Handcar was needed to both ideate on the activation of, and develop content to support this major social activation for the brand.
Project Services
- Social Campaign
- Photography
- Art Direction
When the call comes in, it’s time to move out.
The Solution
For our first round of Step Up 2 Serve, Handcar developed a TINT webpage to host the giveaway. To announce Step Up 2 Serve to the audience, we needed to create some informative graphics to go out at different stages of the campaign. Reminder posts were built to encourage story sharing.
Taking what we learned from our first year in the campaign, in 2022 we had a slightly different approach.
Instead of sharing stories post-contest, our small but nimble photo and video team traveled on-site to pre-identified First Responders to capture their stories, as a way to encourage others to share theirs. We highlighted First Responders in a variety of fields – law enforcement, emergency responders, and firefighters. Three winners were chosen in each of the three fields.
Leading up to First Responder’s Day, we shared the stories of the previous year’s winners to further generate excitement for the contest. Post-contest, Handcar interviewed and filmed the stories of each of the 3 winners, with a full-length video created for sharing on web, social media, and YouTube. This was a huge storytelling opportunity for the brand and a campaign that the Bates audience will now look forward to year after year.
The Results
Since the Handcar campaign
+
Instagram likes in the first week 2021
+
Instagram likes in the first week 2022
+%
engagement on Facebook in 2022
"The Handcar team was able to take a consumer moment, Police Week, and make it a Bates Brand campaign. It was the most engaging content on our social channels and drove increased sales on our website."
Marshall Davis, Marketing Director