Celebrating 100 Years in Style with United Way

 Lindsey Lowe

Our team at Maycreate has a great passion for our Chattanooga community, so we were honored to partner with United Way of Greater Chattanooga in preparation for their impressive centennial. The nonprofit’s local chapter approached Maycreate to help them properly commemorate their 100th anniversary while also highlighting the impact United Way continues to make in our community. Both client and agency are proud of what we were able to accomplish together.

An All-Hands-on-Deck Campaign  

Our team partnered with United Way’s internal marketing team and PR group Mace + Carmichael to bring this campaign to life over the course of several months, and it was truly a collaborative effort.

The Maycreate team included:

  • Brian May - Creative Direction

  • Anthony Sims - Concepting and Assisting Creative Direction

  • Lindsey Lowe and Monty Wyne - Copywriting

  • Ian Lewis - Lead Designer

  • Shawn Tarr and Daniel Jackson - Assisting Designers

  • Rad Davenport - Digital Campaign Manager

  • Erin May - Media Strategist

  • Beau Belcher - Assisting Project Manager

  • Grant Little - Concepting and Assisting Art Direction

  • Morgen Tanksley - Lead Art Direction

Before we kicked off the campaign, our team first refined the United Way 100 Year logo and built out a design system that would carry us through the entire year. It needed to look celebratory and exciting, but also work cohesively with the United Way’s brand standards. We also built out a full logo usage guide for this campaign.

We drew on bold shapes and bright secondary colors to celebrate the beautiful diversity that makes our community so unique and incredible. And by connecting and stacking these shapes, we show that we impact our community best by joining together.

Designed for the Long Haul

Our team broke this overarching campaign down into four distinct phases intended to stretch out across the entire 100 days.

Phase One: 100 Days 100 Ways

We drew attention to UW’s anniversary with 100 easy ways community members can make an impact. These “ways” included simple things like “#78 Mow your neighbors lawn” or “#10 Volunteer to read at your local library”– easily manageable acts of service that anyone who wanted to contribute could feasibly build into their day. 

We also encouraged community members to challenge themselves and make an even bigger impact by achieving all 100 ways in 100 days, sharing their service stories on social using the hashtag: #100WaysChatt.

Phase One included the following deliverables:

  • Billboards

  • Bus Ads

  • Lamp Post Banners

  • Window Decals

  • Display Ads

  • Social Ads

  • NoogaToday ad placements

  • Posters

  • Email Campaign

  • Landing Page Design

  • Unique URL (100days100way.org) with redirect to landing page

 
 

This phase also included an impressive birthday celebration at our local Chattanooga Lookouts Game. United Way hosted the game and gave out birthday hats to all attendees. In the 5th inning, the entire stadium sang a heartfelt “Happy Birthday” to the United Way. We created the following assets for this birthday celebration:

  • Custom jerseys for the players to wear

  • Large-format birthday banners

  • Selfie stand with freestanding “100”

  • Birthday hats for all game attendees

Phase Two: Impact Days 

In the second phase of this campaign, we helped United Way promote their largest volunteer event ever recorded with 1000+ volunteers and 75 unique improvement projects completed around the city. This event took place on September 16th & 17th, 2022. We achieved these results by swapping out our 100 Days 100 Ways messaging for the #100th Way to impact your community, which was: Signing up for Impact Days.

Local businesses and organizations could submit project ideas for volunteers to complete on these Impact Days, and individuals or groups were invited to sign up for Friday the 16th or Saturday the 17th to pitch in and help improve the Chattanooga community. 

Phase Two included the following deliverables:

  • Billboards

  • Bus Ads

  • Display Ads

  • Social Ads

  • NoogaToday Ad Placements

  • Email Campaign

  • Print Ads in the Times Free Press and Chatter Magazine


Photos by RVRB Agency

Phase Three: Block Party

After the Impact Day weekend, the United Way hosted a huge block party on Market Street that was free to the public. Sponsored by BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, the 100 Year Block Party included a kids area, food trucks, and live music, as well as interactive games and art installations. There was even a cake decorating contest in which our team participated. While we were finalists (whoot), the McKee Foods team ended up taking home the trophy.

Phase Three included the following deliverables:

  • Display Ads

  • Social Ads

  • NoogaToday ad placements

  • Print ads in the Times Free Press and Chatter Magazine

  • Spray Paint Stencils

  • Stage Banners

  • Notice Signs

  • A-frame Directional Signs

  • Selfie Frames

Photo by RVRB Agency

 
 

Phase Four: Thank You!

For the final phase of the campaign, we partnered with the United Way to say thank you to the community for helping make Chattanooga a better place this year. With simple “Thank You” billboards around the city, we hope to remind everyone that we best make change together. 

Photo by RVRB Agency

Cheers to the Next 100 Years

Though the campaign is winding down, United Way is only getting started. Find out how you can help make the next 100 years as impactful as possible by visiting unitedwaycha.org and following the United Way of Greater Chattanooga @unitedwaycha on social media! 

Need help bringing awareness to the difference you’re making in your community and customers’ lives? Reach out to our capable team. We’d love to help concept and execute an impactful campaign on your behalf. Contact one of our account supervisors, John Wagoner or Adam Bledsoe, or call us at (423) 634.0123 to get things started.