When Cpl Lotto came to me to talk about this challenge, I was ecstatic.
Suicide rates in active duty and veterans is at an all time high - but how can we help? Knowing that I work for Marines and families, this has always been in the back of my mind. How can I use my skills and work to help out this community that deserves quality care?
The Virtual Rucksack Challenge.
This digital campaign was the brain child of Cpl Lotto, our Single Marine Program, Behavioral Health Branch, and me, Digital Marketing Coordinator. We collaborated and put together a virtual challenge for Marines to help show each other that they are there for each other, as well as put together helpful resources, statistics, and videos from subject matter experts that can talk about their resource, how they can help, and more.
This project was definitely on the fly thinking. We came up with all of the graphics, videos, and launched in less than a week. We needed to create a Virtual Rucksack Challenge graphic with rules, objectives, and more, as well as graphics for resources, facts, and community support.
The marketing campaign, messaging, and all graphics were created by myself, and I partnered with my coworker, multimedia designer Luis Landeros to film the videos. Content came from the subject matter experts.
Our Goals Include:
1. Bring awareness & education of suicide prevention resources to Marines and Sailors aboard MCAS Yuma KPI: Impressions & engagements on social media [Increase IG followership by 15%]
KPI: Number of page views on Suicide Prevention MCCS Yuma webpage increase by 15%
2. Engage patrons in participating in the Virtual Rucksack Challenge
KPI: Photos shared with hashtag #ShareTheWeightMCASYuma
KPI: Photos shared directly through private messages to MCCS Yuma IG page
This campaign ran from December 14th - 19th, 2020 just in time to bring awareness of resources during the holidays - a time that can be the loneliest for our Active Duty Marines.
As a result, we were able to…
[results coming soon]
