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OPPORTUNITY
The organizers of the first annual Polish American Heritage Festival presented us with a unique opportunity. How could St. Stanislaus, a neighborhood church in the urban heart of St. Louis effectively reach out to the greater St. Louis community to publicize and promote the inaugural year of their Polish American Heritage Festival? The two-day celebration of Polish culture and community in St. Louis promised authentic food, games, crafts, and live Polka music for all ages. It aspired to be a celebration of all things Polish and a family oriented event.

STRATEGIC APPROACH
For inspiration, we took a tour of the event site and met with the folks at St. Stanislaus Church.  The beautiful paintings of Polish dancers in the grand hall (and a couple of ice cold Okocims) were just the insight our design team needed; the agency immediately got to work.

For the campaign’s artwork, Scorch collaborated with well-known St. Louis illustrator Dan Zettwoch.  His illustrative style, combined with the agency’s creative direction, gave a unique visual style to this equally unique event.  The campaign materials needed to be fun, original, and most of all, memorable.  Utilizing the architecture of the church and downtown St. Louis landmarks, the artwork quickly began to take shape.

Over the next several days, the design team sketched out a poster — in crayon. Adding elements as the client requested, the piece grew to encompass all the required information in an interesting and colorful composition.  To highlight the festival’s Polish-American flavor, dancers, floral icons, and Polish food were illustrated in a playful and inviting style that perfectly complemented the character of the festival.

With the poster complete, our marketing and promotional plan was deployed across traditional and social media to raise awareness of the event.  This was our chance to introduce a totally new event to the community, to get people excited about it and then deliver them to the event, all in a short period of time. Over the next 3 weeks, we wrote tweets, established a Facebook presence and built an amazing groundswell of support, which generated significant attention for the event. Buzz about the festival was flying around the online community in English and Polish.

Over 11,700 direct impressions were instantly created through social media.  The event was featured on local television stations, as well as several other local media outlets. Yelp, a popular location-based social network, featured the Polish American Heritage Festival in their St. Louis newsletter, which reached over 11,000 recipients.

RESULTS
The first annual Polish American Heritage Festival was a huge success.  Not only had Scorch created memorable art for the event, but that “invitation” had brought large numbers of people together for a unique cultural experience in St. Louis.  Through social media, grassroots marketing tactics, extensive PR reach, and a smoothly executed marketing strategy, the agency was proud to contribute to the festival’s success.

The partnership between Scorch and St. Stanislaus had yielded such great results that we were immediately asked to work with them on next year’s event. We can’t wait!

Creative strategy coupled with smart design can give your social media network new direction and value. We would welcome the opportunity to help your brand achieve it’s goals.