Client:
Creativity Challenge Community (C3) serves K-5 elementary students in Denver Public Schools. Founded on the mission to grow kind, courageous thinkers, a Mindfulness Program was introduced to the students to reduce conflict and increase self-regulation, focus, and kindness. The program has experienced success with students and C3 wanted to promote the program to build school recognition among the public through press coverage.

Research:
While mindfulness and meditation have gained public traction in recent years, coverage on the topic among students and children was minimal. National research on the benefits of mindfulness focuses primarily on the adult, but further secondary research uncovered targeted student research with impressive results. No other local Denver schools had received press coverage on a mindfulness program.

Solution:
To make the topic timely, we made gratitude the focus of mindfulness classes just before the student break for Thanksgiving. In order to create a visual component to the story, we also had students draw pictures of what they are grateful for and explain their drawings to the class. To give the public a helpful takeaway, we created an easy 6-step guide to practicing mindfulness alone or as a family unit. Statistics and medical research were included in media outreach to demonstrate the benefits of mindfulness beyond C3’s classrooms. Local broadcast outlets, newspapers, magazines, online outlets, and bloggers were targeted.

Results:
With a program objective of two media placements, the campaign far exceeded expectations with 13 media placements:

  • 9News (KUSA-TV) – aired twice Thanksgiving morning, segment and guide posted online
  • KTVD-TV – aired on Thanksgiving morning
  • Denver Post – story teased on cover of paper, half page story with color photos, story also posted online.
  • 5280 Online – story discussing the program posted by a health blogger
  • KOA News Radio 850AM/94.1FM – segment length of 5:30 aired on both stations, a shorter version of segment also posted online
  • Fast Company Online – C3 program included in story about meditation in the workplace
  • The Denver & Englewood Macaroni Kid editions shared the Denver Post story on their Facebook pages

The story is also slated for the May 2017 issue of Colorado Health & Wellness Magazine.

Media Metrics:

  • Potential Online Reach: 25.8M
  • Estimated Online Views: 46.9K
  • Radio Listeners: 30.2K
  • TV Viewers: 106K
  • Print Circulation: 196K
  • Social Shares: 11.1K
  • Hyperlinks: 3

Testimonials:

“Gina is a consummate professional as well as an absolute pleasure to work with.  She worked extremely diligently on our campaign, communicating clearly to all parties involved at every step along the way and cultivated her extensive network of contacts within local media to far exceed our stated goals for the program.  GKC Public Relations has my highest recommendation and will be my first call in the future.”
-Brad Gunlock, Creativity Challenge Community

“Gina worked with our school to promote a mindfulness program. Gina was able to get us media coverage on multiple platforms including news stations, newspapers, and magazines. Gina was incredibly professional and worked to support our project.”
-Brent Applebaum, Assistant Principal, Creativity Challenge Community