First lady of North Carolina Kristin Cooper teamed up with United Health Foundation and Whole Kids Foundation to award 22 grants to North Carolina schools and YMCAs. Each organization received a $2,000 grant to build or expand an existing vegetable garden and provide educational resources about agriculture, caring for the environment and maintaining healthy lifestyles. UnitedHealthcare tapped Largemouth to promote an event taking place at one of the grant recipient schools in Mt. Olive, North Carolina. The event featured an expert roundtable discussion on nutrition education, as well as a garden groundbreaking ceremony. The objective of the campaign was to shine a spotlight on UnitedHealthcare’s efforts to improve health outcomes in Mt. Olive and across North Carolina.
First lady of North Carolina and UnitedHealthcare address nutrition education
Bringing leaders together for an impactful community event attracts local media attention
Challenge
Ideas
Largemouth worked closely with Kristin Cooper’s press office, UnitedHealthcare and the Whole Kids Foundation to craft compelling media assets and engage local media audiences in Mt. Olive and its surrounding communities. As part of a comprehensive media strategy, Largemouth facilitated multiple pre-event interviews (in-studio and onsite at a school receiving a grant) with Kristin Cooper and UnitedHealthcare North Carolina CEO Anita Bachmann. Local broadcast stations were invited to attend the event and cover the roundtable discussion, and if they were unable to attend, Largemouth followed up with event summaries and professional photos to secure post-event stories.
Understanding the value of hyper-local news angles, Largemouth also engaged with smaller local newspapers in towns where a school had received a garden grant, earning strategic coverage with an audience that was seeing the good work of UnitedHealthcare in its own backyard.
Impact
The campaign earned wall-to-wall media coverage among target audiences, communicating key campaign messages to tens of thousands of people through positive mentions in broadcast segments and online stories.
