United Way Bengaluru (UWBe), one of Bangalore’s leading non-profit organisations, wanted to organise a unique event to bring together the most important stakeholders of the city – its denizens. The organisation chose the picturesque Nandi Hills as the locale and The PRactice took on the challenge of organising a first-of-its-kind Hillathon where participants would run a verdant and hilly course to raise funds for a local cause of their choice.
The team had less than a month to bring this fund -”racing” event to life. Participants could choose the course – a 6 km Heritage walk or an endurance-challenging half marathon. It was decided that the funds raised from the event will go to different charitable cause selected by participants and not by the organiser.
Under the team’s creative onslaught, the Nandi Hillathon campaign began to take shape. The PRactice team doubled up to work with media channels, both local and national, to garner the widest possible exposure for this citizen initiative. In addition to highlighting the event itself, the media stories focused on local causes, participation of transgenders, and citizen champions in the Hillathon. Local celebrities were enlisted and their familiar presence was leveraged to spread awareness about the event and its mission. The event was listed on Milaap, India’s leading crowdfunding site for social causes, as well as every other city-specific event listings. Meanwhile, creative use of engaging videos, contest campaigns and hashtags were used to create buzz on social media.
The team also undertook a sustained influencer outreach and connected with Bengaluru-based running, fitness and hiking groups, as well as groups focused on supporting local activities in the city. The team reached out to Corporates, NGOs and Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) to underscore Nandi Hillathon’s mission to address issues that are dear to most Bengalurians, like restoring biodiversity to Nandi Hills and cleaning up the badly polluted lakes in the city.
All the hard work and resourcefulness paid off!
The event was a resounding success with over 600 participants. It received 64 stories including 6 in regional television coverage. A leading publication carried a detailed print story about the event and its mission. Curated interactions with leaders of the transgender community resulted in 2 high impact feature stories. The digital outreach on social media [organic and paid] resulted in nearly 200,000 impressions.
The UWBe team was extremely impressed and appreciative of The PRactice’s contributions.
“We were lucky to partner with The PRactice.The team was a delight to work with! There were no dearth of ideas and action from their side… The team understood us completely and despite the less than 35 day deadline, did an amazing job. We loved the professionalism displayed by the team and their execution efficiency at each stage. We are glad that this partnership worked and look forward to having them on board for our various projects.”
