Thinking Inside the Box: A Content Marketing Case Study

Based in Kansas City, Hello Fearless is an online school for female entrepreneurs. In conjunction with their launch last month, they wanted a creative campaign that would pique the interest of a small group of highly targeted, “fearless” female influencers. Geben worked with Hello Fearless to develop a content-driven “surprise and delight” campaign to connect with this group of women, centered on the following goals:

• Build and nurture relationships with female influencers
• Spark social chatter leading up to launch
• Expand Hello Fearless’ online footprint
• Drive signups for Hello Fearless’ email list

Concept: Hello Fearless sent a each influencer a box filled with items representing common fears (e.g., spiders, snakes, public speaking, dark places, etc.), along with a note reading: “There are lots of scary things in the world. But the scariest thing of all is a world where women are forced into a box and left on a shelf.” The boxes included just enough information to pique each person’s interest in Hello Fearless, without actually explaining who or what the company was.

Execution: Prior to launching the campaign, Geben compiled a highly targeted list of female influencers, ranging from magazine editors and lifestyle bloggers to entrepreneurs and startup CEOs. Each influencer’s career, lifestyle or passions aligned with Hello Fearless’ overall mission to create a world of unstoppable women.

On launch day (a few days after the boxes had been delivered), co-founder Sara Davidson used SayHelloThere.com to create and tweet personalized videos to each influencer, officially introducing Hello Fearless and explaining why she was chosen to be part of the campaign. Additionally, Sara customized each video based on what the influencer did for a living, as well as things she had recently written or shared on social media. Lastly, she encouraged each woman to share their feedback, reach out to her personally if they ever needed help and continue to spread the word about Hello Fearless to their networks.

Results: Six influencers shared 60+ photos and tweets, reaching 81,000+ people, leading up to Hello Fearless’ launch. As a result, Hello Fearless collected nearly double the amount of email addresses they had anticipated in just the first day of the campaign.

Additionally, these initial photos and tweets have since spurred ongoing dialogue, helping Hello Fearless continue to build and nurture relationships with this targeted group of fearless women.