The Last 6000

The Situation: 

The Last 6000 campaign is a volunteer-led effort formed in response to the 2016 Seattle Tree Canopy Cover Report, which revealed only 6,338 “majestic” trees -- those with a trunk diameter of 30 inches or greater – remain in Seattle. Since its inception, the Last 6000’s goal has been to find and document Seattle’s “majestic” trees, many of which are in danger of being removed because of ongoing urban and residential development.

Following news that Seattle’s new tree ordinance would go into effect August 1, 2023, the Last 6000 hired Team Soapbox to provide communications recommendations and outline a strategic plan for sharing results collected as part of its ongoing tree census. 

The Approach: 

Beginning in July 2023, amid an influx of grassroots activism for Seattle’s “majestic” trees, Team Soapbox worked with the Last 6000 to identify existing communication gaps and name the specific goals the campaign seeks to achieve through sharing tree data.

 Using that information, we developed a three-phase strategic communications plan to be implemented by the Last 6000 volunteers to capitalize on current media coverage and extend the campaign’s reach. Our plan aimed to ensure optimal capacity within the Last 6000 team and facilitate the development of essential resources and materials for effective community outreach.

We realized in early conversations with the Last 6000 that the best way to share tree census data with the public would be via a comprehensive and searchable online database accessed through the campaign’s website. Our recommendations specifically detailed affordable alternatives for developing the database with support from local partners and educational programs teaching geographic information systems.

Our recommendations also included upgrading the Last 6000’s website and eNewsletter and utilizing social media accounts to engage and recruit followers/volunteers to help amplify its mission.

The Result: Team Soapbox delivered a final draft of our recommendations to the Last 6000 in mid-August so Phase 1 tactics could be implemented immediately. The Last 6000 is currently redesigning its website, which will include a new “Media” page and allow for more functionality for sharing video and social media content. The campaign also recently connected with someone from Tableau, who has offered to help digitize the tree census data. Team Soapbox is available to support the Last 6000 with components in Phases 2 and 3 (media outreach, partnership building, fundraiser campaigns) when they are ready.

NW Maritime Center

The Situation:

Team Soapbox was hired by the Northwest Maritime Center to manage media relations for the opening of a new school in the Highline School District, the Maritime High School. A collaborative project of Highline Public Schools, Northwest Maritime Center, Port of Seattle, and the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition, the school provides students with hands-on learning opportunities in the maritime field.

The Approach:

Within two weeks of engagement with the client, our team successfully pitched and placed multiple media stories on the new school. Media coverage included broadcast television on Univison, KIRO 7 and Q13, coverage in the Puget Sound Business Journal, South Seattle Emerald, Burien B-Town Blog, and MyNorthwest, a Sunday front-page feature article in The Seattle Times, and radio story on KUOW in Seattle and a national radio story on National Public Radio.

Since the launch of the school in the fall of 2021, our media relations outreach has continued and additional media placements on broadcast coverage on KING 5, and print articles in NW Yachting Magazine, Puget Sound Business Journal, The Stranger, and Converge Media.

The strong response from the media provided us with the opportunity to lead media training for staff at Northwest Maritime Center and Maritime High School. The training provided staff with knowledge of how to engage with a reporter, and mock-interview scenarios.

Keep Music Live

The Situation:

When the first cases of COVID-19 were discovered in Seattle in March 2020, it became clear that among the industries that would be significantly impacted would be the live music industry. With social distance mandates and required quarantining, concerts or events with public gatherings would not occur for the foreseeable future. In the wake of this news, a group of music lovers from across Washington State formed together to establish Keep Music Live, a COVID-19 relief fundraising campaign with the goal of raising money to assist venues at risk of permanently closing due to COVID.

The Approach:

As the organization began to form, it became clear to Keep Music Live board members, that communications and project management assistance was needed. Team Soapbox was hired in early August 2020 and work began immediately to establish critical communications tools and strategic plans necessary for a successful campaign. Over the course of the six months of the fundraising campaign, our work included:

• Project Management: Team Soapbox served as the project manager for Keep Music Live, managing a group of 20+ volunteers and tracking all activities to ensure deadlines were met and work progressed. We were “aircraft traffic control” (as the Keep Music Live team deemed us), keeping tabs on all moving pieces related to the campaign. To assist with this, we developed a complex tracking grid to monitor work, organized and oversaw several smaller work groups, provided weekly recap reports on all activities, attended and informed the Keep Music Board on a weekly basis, and more.

• Strategic Planning: Prior to the external launch of the campaign, Team Soapbox developed a complex launch plan that included pitching media, developing a partner engagement toolkit, coordinating social media, and overseeing the implementation of large-scale marketing materials.

• Key Messaging: Team Soapbox crafted the key messaging for the campaign, instilling with the messaging a balance of hope and urgency. The messaging also included a sense of togetherness and opportunity for the live music community to rally together to support Washington’s beloved independent venues.

• Campaign Launch: The campaign launched on October 13, 2020, and it was an incredible success, garnered a groundswell of community support and media attention. Within a week of publicly launching, the campaign had more than 6,000 followers on its social media channels (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter), had more than 1,000 individual donors, raised more than $200,000, generated over 15 media hits across Washington state (including The Seattle Times, Spokesman Review, KIRO, KING, Tacoma News Tribune, Seattle Met, KUOW and more).

• Website: Team Soapbox oversaw the development of the Keep Music Live website which included developing the site framework, writing website content, sourcing image assets, and providing ongoing website maintenance.

• Media Relations: Critical to the momentum of the success in building awareness of the campaign, was the media relations work that Team Soapbox cultivated. Team Soapbox generated over 60 print, radio and TV media hits were secured during the campaigns. Our team worked with reporters to secure multiple stories in outlets included The Seattle Times, KING 5, KOMO, Q13, KIRO, KHQ, KREM, Spokesman Review, Seattle Met, Inlander, Tacoma News Tribune, KUOW, KEXP, Bellingham Herald, Rolling Stone and many more.

• Social Media: Team Soapbox supported and helped develop a social media strategy that resulted in more than 11,000 followers on Keep Music Live’s social pages. This community of live music fans and supporters was generated over a six-month period.
  

• Partner Engagement: Team Soapbox help nurture and manage relationships with many community partners that led to greater Keep Music Live brand recognition. Partners included Bartell Drugs, Elysian Brewing, Theo’s Chocolate, Ellenos Greek Yogurt, Dick’s, Filson, KEXP, Stoneburner Restaurants, and more.

• Sponsorships: Team Soapbox supported the cultivation of Keep Music Live sponsorship opportunities by developing sponsorship proposals and overseeing sponsorship recognition through communications.

Our Impact:

Team Soapbox was instrumental in the success of the Keep Music Live campaign. Over the course of the campaign, Keep Music Live was able to build a groundswell of community support and raised over $1 million for Washington’s small, independent music venues. Those funds were dispersed as COVID-19 relief grants to more than 77 venues statewide, providing financial critical assistance to these small venues that were closed for over a year.

Center for Architecture and Design: Annual Media Relations

THE SITUATION

Three architecture and design organizations - the American Institute of Architects Seattle (AIA), the Seattle Architecture Foundation (SAF), and Design in Public (DIP) – first came to Team Soapbox in the quiet phase of a capital campaign to develop the first Center for Architecture & Design in Seattle. We developed messaging, a new wordmark logo, and a communications plan for the new Center, laying the ground for the new shared venue space and partner co-programming of exhibitions and events.

After supporting a successful rollout of the Center launch, Team Soapbox was re-hired as the Center’s publicist. Our job since 2016 has been to develop and place place media stories that highlight Center programs, events, and people. 

For our client, it’s not only about “butts in seats” program attendance – media coverage is an opportunity to spark public conversation on important issues that architecture and design intersect with such as affordable housing, public space, and environmental sustainability. Together, we’ve worked with AIA Seattle to think strategically about what types of outlets and stories balance the needs of attendance and the needs of community dialogue, and successfully place coverage about current programs.

THE APPROACH

Over the years, we’ve developed a robust local and national media list and relationships that span print, broadcast, and digital reporters covering design, architecture, urban planning, real estate, politics, lifestyle topics, arts & culture, and other topics.

Every year we prepare a timeline for each “season” of thematic events at the Center and discuss specific goals for our media outreach. Before every season, as we strategize about coverage opportunities, we work with AIA Seattle to assemble useful media materials – one-pagers and high-resolution photography, speaker bios, spokespeople, and potential interviews from within the architecture & design community – and pitch editorial targets. A major annual event, the Seattle Design Festival, provides an inflection point for coverage opportunities beyond regional outlets.

Our strategic and creative approach to media engagement has led to hundreds of placements and millions of impressions for AIA Seattle programming over 5+ years of collaboration, including coverage in design trade and niche press in outlets like Architect’s Newspaper and Bustler; international cultural magazines like Dezeen; business, lifestyle, tourism, arts and parenting stories in regional newspapers, magazines, radio, and television such as The Seattle Times, ParentMap, Seattle Magazine, KING 5, and KUOW. We’ve also conducted regular media training and coaching for client staff and spokespeople in connection with media opportunities.

 “Working with Team Soapbox has made an enormous difference in public awareness of our organization and causes.  They know their territory and have done a fantastic job of helping us hone story ideas, then pitching them to great success.” - Lisa Richmond, Former Executive Director, AIA Seattle  

Photos by Trevor Dykstra on Flickr

MomsRising

Building Blocks
of Early Learning Event

Message Development | Media Relations | Events

The Situation

MomsRising mobilizes Washington families to ensure the state legislature makes critical investments in early learning programs, a fundamental part of our education system and our children's academic development. So  why not put smiles on legislator’s faces at the same time? Team Soapbox was enlisted to develop a media and event strategy during Washington State’s legislative sessions to remind legislators not to cut early learning and care for our children when balancing the budget in Olympia.

The Approach

The theme of the event was Building Blocks of Early Learning and we made sure we captured the fun, whimsical but serious side of MomsRising but also conveyed the seriousness of the importance of high-quality early learning and affordable child care. Fitting the theme of the event, we orchestrated the creation of large two-foot tall alphabet blocks that spelled out key words and phrases related to early learning and managed the logistics for an event occurring on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol Building.

Critical to the event was securing legislative and education leaders. Working in collaboration with MomsRising, Team Soapbox helped managed outreach and invitations to legislative and national leaders, securing: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, House Minority Leader Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Representative Katherine Clark (D-MA), Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT),  Representative Donna Edwards (D-MD), Representative George Miller (D-CA), Representative Jared Polis (D-CO, and Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).

The Results

National, local and social media was an integral part of the event. To ensure maximum coverage, Team Soapbox wrote and released the press release for the event and did one-on-one media relations outreach to national and local outlets. As a result, photographers and journalists from UPI, NBC, The Hill, Washington Examiner, Politico, AP Photo and PBS attended - stories and photos were published s in Politico, The Hill and UPI.

Team Soapbox also ran point on social media, developing #BuildKidsUp which was used by legislators, legislative staff and the news media. Live tweeting and event photos were posted to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram the day of the event, resulting in more than 200 posts, a reach of 1.1 million, and over 2.1 million impressions. Specifically, Representative Nancy Pelosi’s tweet about the event was retweeted more than 100 times.