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“MAKING STRIDES TO SAVE LIVES”: ST. JUDE’S SOCIAL MEDIA PLAN

Summary

“Making Strides to Save Lives” is a Social Media campaign to raise $15 million for St.
Jude Children’s Research Hospital. This “Rock-N-Roll” marathon will serve as the biggest
one-day fundraiser sponsored by St. Jude. The promotion of this marathon will be targeted to
potential donors and runners who believe in raising money to benefit children who are fighting
life-threatening diseases. This particular marathon that St. Jude is promoting will take place June
19, 2021, in Memphis, TN. The money raised is for research to help cure life-threatening
diseases in children. The plan will primarily utilize Instagram and Facebook to raise awareness
for the marathon.

SITUATION ANALYSIS

History

St. Jude, founded by Danny Thomas in 1962, is a children’s research hospital that works
around the clock to understand, treat, and cure both childhood cancer and other various
life-threatening diseases (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 2020). It is a unique
organization in that it is a charity in addition to a hospital (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital,
2020). Whenever a child is admitted to St. Jude, the family is never billed a single penny for
their treatments, surgeries, housing, nor food expenses. St. Jude’s website claims that “all a
family should worry about is helping their child live” (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital,
2020). Research that has been done at St. Jude has remarkably increased the survival rate for
childhood cancer from 20% when the hospital first opened in 1962 to more than 80% today (St.
Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 2016). In 2019, St. Jude raised more than $12 million, and
this campaign hopes to reach the goal of $15 million this year. In 2019, 26,000 runners and
40,000 spectators attended the event. The goal of this campaign is to raise this number to 35,000
runners and 54,000 spectators.

Fundraising

According to St. Jude, almost 80% of their funds must be raised from generous donors,
but the hospital accepts insurance. However, not a lot of the treatment options are covered by
many family’s health insurances (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 2020). It costs more
than $1 billion per year to operate St. Jude as a whole (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital,
2020). Eighty-two cents of every dollar that is donated is used to support the treatment, research,
and future needs of St. Jude (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 2020). To donate to St. Jude,
one can simply make a single or monthly donation on St. Jude’s website. Other fundraising
events are used to raise money for this organization. Some of these include: “PLAY LIVE”

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(video game fundraiser), fitness events (such as marathons,) galas, and auctions. In addition to
these, Delta Delta Delta (Tri-Delta) sorority members have raised more than $74 million to
support St. Jude patients (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 2020). St. Jude also partners
with large organizations such as Lancome Paris to raise funds (St. Jude Children’s Research
Hospital, 2020).

Reputation & Brand Equity

St. Jude’s has a strong brand presence, has mounted many successful marketing
campaigns, and has a strong social media following with 430.6K on Twitter, 445K on Instagram,
and 2.4 million likes on Facebook. St. Jude boasts a high level of customer satisfaction. On most
review sites they are rated 4.5-5 stars. St. Jude has strong community support and social media
following compared to most similar philanthropic organizations. Their operations extend
internationally with 24 official partners in 17 different countries. St. Jude was recognized as a
top children’s cancer hospital in the US by the​ U.S. News & World Report​ in 2019 for the past
thirteen consecutive years, one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” by ​Fortune ​magazine
in 2019 for the past nine consecutive years, among several other awards and recognitions that are
listed on StJude.org.

Challenges and Threats

St. Jude has some weaknesses in comparison to similar healthcare corporations. Their
services are free, therefore their spending rate for practices in comparison to income is very high.
It is hard to depend solely on donations for an income, which gives competitors a leg up as they
can bring in more money to spend on practices and marketing initiatives.

Being a service, a significant amount of the hospital’s budget goes to paying salaries, so
St. Judes needs consistent annual donations to sustain their employees and provide good care to
patients. There are several competitors, such as the American Cancer Society, Make a Wish
Foundation, and Children’s Miracle Network, in the healthcare industry fighting for the attention
of key donors. Even philanthropic organizations outside of healthcare, such as Feeding America,
American Red Cross, and Habitat for Humanity, may be competitors when it comes to receiving
donations.

Opportunities

There has been a huge shift to people being online. According to a Nielsen Total
Audience Report, American adults spend an average of about four hours a day on an Internet app
(“The Nielsen Total,” 2018). This is an opportunity to shift more revenue to online advertising
and promotions.

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The push to “go green” and be environmentally friendly is also another opportunity for
St. Jude to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability within its marketing. As outlined on
their website, St. Jude Memphis Marathon Weekend is a green event with a commitment to get
greener and decrease their carbon footprint. They recycle printed paper material and have
recycling bins at the finish line, water bubblers are provided to reduce reliance on water bottles,
shuttles are available for transportation to reduce car emissions, and interactive wristbands will
allow St. Jude to eliminate more than 6,000 paper tickets.

This social media plan hopes to help close the gap between St. Jude’s weaknesses and
threats by obtaining donations of $15 million to easily sustain their practice for the year.

Strengths: Weaknesses:
● Successful marketing and strong brand ● High spending rate due to the low cost
portfolio for service to customers
● Strong following on social media ● Depend on donations for income
● High level of customer satisfaction;
patients leave happy that their bills are
taken care of and customer service
exceeded expectations
● Strong support from the community
and the sorority, Delta Delta Delta
● Recognized with several prestigious
awards from reputable organizations
such as ​Fortune​ magazine
● Considered a best place to work for
six consecutive years
● Operations are widespread and
international

Opportunities: Threats:
● More people use the Internet for their ● Several competitors in the industry
daily intake of information; therefore, stand out to key donors; could lose
it is an excellent channel for St. Jude’s donations to another hospital chain
to use to obtain more donors and ● Competitors have other sources of
customers. income (not solely donations) and can
● The push to “go green” offers afford more marketing strategies and
opportunities for St. Jude to stand out possibly better equipment
against competitors by promoting their
marathon’s clean environmental
practices
● St. Jude’s has a unique service that
will motivate donations from a wide
cross-section of people.

PLAN DETAILS

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This plan focuses on raising funds and increasing interest in the children’s hospital by enhancing
the strengths of St. Jude. The following plan outlines how to increase their social media
presence, partnerships with Delta Delta Delta, as well as promote the sustainability of the
marathon and the uniqueness of St. Jude’s practice. The marathon will be a “Rock and Roll”
theme, with “Making Strides to Save Lives” as the slogan.

OBJECTIVE:

The purpose of this campaign is:

● To bring attention to the annual marathon to raise US $15 million, an increase of

25% over 2019.
● Attract 35,000 runners and 54,000 spectators, an increase of 35% over 2019.
● Obtain two million online donors from St. Jude’s social media accounts and
advertisements. Obtain a 20% increase in click-through rate for all the
participating online channels over the campaign period. According to the
AdStage Benchmark Report’s recent evaluation of social media advertising
metrics show that the click-through rate (CTR) for Facebook is 1.11% and for
Instagram is .22% in the third quarter of 2019 (“The Adstage Paid,” 2019).

TARGET AUDIENCE:

Target men 40-44 years old and women 30-34 years old, the demographic that is most
likely to participate in the marathon. According to the Journal of Sports Science & Medicine, in a
study done analyzing Chicago and New York marathons, the highest participating age range was
40-44 years old among males and 30-34 years old among females (Connick, et al., 2015.)

MESSAGE:

● Campaign Slogan: “Making Strides to Save Lives”

● Marathon theme: Rock and Roll
● St. Jude is a non-profit organization that provides free treatment to families who need it
most, and the organization needs public contributions and donations in order to fund its
practices.
● This “Rock and Roll” marathon is a super fun way to get involved with donating and
changing lives!

DATE:

Launch: January 9, 2021; Marathon: June 19, 2021 (Provide runners and spectators time to buy
plane tickets to fly to the event.)

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Date: Strategy:

January 9 Launch campaign

January 10 - June 19 Post graphics regularly on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter

January 10 Submit press release

January 10 - June 19 Paid targeted advertising on Instagram and Facebook

January 15 Mail postcard marathon invitations

January 25 Run magazine advertisements

January 30 - February 30 Appear on talk-shows

February 1 - April 1 Instagram influencers

February 13 Adopt-A-Box

February 20 Hang flyers in coffee shops and local businesses

February 27 Tri Delta e-mail campaign

March 1 Instagram giveaway

March 13 Tri Delta mini-marathons

April 1 - May 1 #stride2savelives hashtag

May 20 Promo video posted

June 19 Marathon

STRATEGY:

1. Tri Delta Partnership

Objective:

● February 13: Tri Delta chapters and members across the nation will repost the
“Adopt A Box” graphic created to share on their Instagram page to increase
funding around the time of the marathon.
● March 13: 50 Tri Delta chapters will host their own mini marathons/5K’s on their
campus in support of the “Rock-N-Roll” marathon that takes place in Memphis.
Chapters will sell tickets on their campus for $25 each.

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● Raise $2 million through the “Adopt a Box” fundraiser and $500K on the sorority
marathon date.

Purpose:

Since 1999, Tri Delta members have raised more than $74 million to support St. Jude
patients. Instagram is very popular among Generation Z, so this will be a great way to reach
college-aged people.

Tactics:

● February 27: launch an email campaign that will go to Tri Delta alumni members across
the nation explaining the marathon that their chapter will be hosting, and will ask alumni
members to consider donating to the cause.

Traditional Media Tactics:

● Use email campaigns to solicit donations and participation in the marathon from
Tri-Delta alumni, and also university students.

2. Instagram Awareness

Objective:

● Reach 500,000 followers on Instagram by the end of the campaign

Purpose:

St. Jude currently has 445,000 followers on Instagram. There are an estimated 107
million Instagram users in the United States alone (“Instagram: number of users in the United
States 2019-2023,” 2020). With the number of people that use Instagram, there is a great chance
that viewers would come across the promotion of this marathon. According to a Nielsen Total
Audience Report, American adults spend an average of about four hours a day on the Internet on
an app, so social media would be a great way to reach more people. (“The Nielsen Total,” 2018).
This campaign will also use paid advertising on social media platforms to redirect people back to
St. Jude’s Instagram page.

Tactics:

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● Ask already participating runners to post and share graphics promoting the marathon, as
well as the “Adopt a Box” graphic to attract potential donors and spectators.
● March 1: Instagram giveaway of St. Jude’s merch to increase the Instagram following at
a quick rate.
● April 1 - May 1: Use the hashtag #stride2savelives to create a contest with user-generated
content. People will post photos of themselves while training for the marathon and
running with the hashtag and the @stjude account tagged to raise awareness of the
marathon to their followers and direct them back to the St. Jude page.

Traditional Media Tactics:

● January 15th: Mail postcards to all the runners from previous years asking them to
participate again, and the approximately 410,000 people within the target
demographic in Tennessee (Suburbanstats.org, 2020).
● January 25: Run magazine advertisements that promote the marathon, which will
all include a handle (@StJude) to St. Jude’s social media page. This will be in
magazines such as ​ESPN The Magazine​, ​Time​, ​People,​ and ​National Geographic​,
which are popular among the target audience (Bredholt, 2011). This campaign
will target men 40-44 years old and women 30-34 years old, the demographic that
is most likely to participate in the marathon (Connick, et al., 2015).
● January 30 - February 30: Appear on talk-shows such as ​The Today Show,​
Goodmorning America,​ & ​The View.​
● February 20: Hang flyers in coffee shops (possible coffee shops: Otherlands
Coffee Bar, Tamp and Tap, Bluff City Coffee & Bakery, as well as coffee chains,
like Starbucks)

3. Raise awareness of the marathon by using traditional and social media to drive
website impressions

Objective:

● Increase the number of runners to 35,000 people, and the number of spectators to
54,000 people.
● Increase the number of visits to the marathon page on St. Jude’s website by 35%.

Purpose:

Social media plays a large role in providing information each day, and by using various
platforms, the chance that more people see the graphics and become aware of the Marathon is
increased. Again, according to a Nielsen Total Audience Report, American adults spend an

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average of about four hours a day on the Internet on an app. (“The Nielsen Total Audience
Report: Q1 2018,” 2018). According to Pew research, around 7/10 U.S. Adults use Facebook.
With this much time spent on apps by the public, people will be very likely to see the promotion
of the marathon. Also according to Pew research, roughly ¾ of Facebook users and around 6/10
Instagram users visit these websites at least once daily. Social media is a great tool to reach a
vast number of people, and this could be a great tool to get donations and participants for the
Marathon. According to the AdStage Benchmark Report’s recent evaluation of social media
advertising metrics show that the click-through rate (CTR) for Facebook is 1.11% and Instagram
is .22% in the second quarter of 2020.

The annual marathon is the largest one-day fundraiser for St. Jude. In 2019, St. Jude
raised more than $12 million and the goal of this campaign is to increase this amount. In 2019,
26,000 runners and 40,000 spectators attended the event, and the campaign hopes to also want to
increase this number. The number of runners that participate in the New York Marathon is
53,000; therefore, many other marathon runners exist and are willing to travel and this campaign
hopes to attract their attention.

Tactics:

● January 9 - June 10: Create graphics promoting the Marathon that can be posted regularly
on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat so that the number of runners increases to
35,000 people, and the number of spectators to 54,000 people.
● January 10 - June 19:Paid advertising will be used to specifically target the target
demographic, 40-44-year-old males and 30-34-year-old females, on Instagram on
Facebook. Through paid targeting, people that have an interest in running will also be
targeted.
● February 1- April 1: Use Instagram famous runners like @mira.rai, @takethebridge, and
@runnersworldcoach to be influencers for the marathon to encourage the sign up of their
followers.
● May 20: A promo video will be used to catch the attention of potential runners and
donors on Facebook and Instagram.

Traditional Media Tactics:

● January 10: Create a press release to announce the date of the marathon.
● The strategies for the “Instagram awareness” objective, the magazine advertisements,
talk-show appearances, and flyers placed in coffee shops, will also help direct potential
donors to St. Jude’s website.

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Budget:

● Two social media interns- $3,000

● Three running Instagram influencers: $15,000
● Professional promo video- $2,000
● Instagram giveaway and #Stride2SaveLives contest prizes- $1,000
● Magazine advertisements- $10,000
● Print postcards and flyers-$10,000
● Paid targeted advertising on Facebook and Instagram- $5,000
● Additional expenses- $4,000
● Total- $50,000

SAMPLES OF CONCEPTS:

Instagram Story:

People can post this on their Instagram story, accept donations from donors via Venmo or
CashApp, and then the original person who posted this graphic can donate all of the money to St.
Jude.

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Logo:

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Promo Video for Instagram and Facebook:

If this video doesn’t play here is a link to youtube! ​https://youtu.be/EqTj9f6z0IU

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Facebook ad targeting runners:

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References:

Bredholt, R. (2011, June 22). The most read magazines in America. Retrieved from
https://www.cision.com/us/2011/06/the-most-read-magazines-in-america/

Connick, M. J., Beckman, E. M., & Tweedy, S. M. (2015). Relative age affects marathon performance
in male and female athletes. ​Journal of sports science & medicine​, ​14​(3), 669–674.

G​ramlich, J. (2019, May 16). ​10 facts about Americans and Facebook.​ Pew Research Center.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/16/facts-about-americans-and-facebook/

Instagram: number of users in the United States 2019-2023. (2020). ​Statista.

Social media fact sheet. (2019, June 12). Pew Research Center. Retrieved November 19, 2020, from
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/

St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. (2016). ​St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital Quick Facts &
Figures.​ St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.
https://www.stjude.org/content/dam/en_US/shared/www/fundraising-programs/legacy-giving/St-
Jude-Year-in-Review-one-sheeter-2016.pdf

St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. (2020). ​Fundraise for St. Jude.​ St. Jude’s Children’s Research
Hospital. ​https://www.stjude.org/get-involved.html

St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. (2020). ​Tri Delta for St. Jude.​ St. Jude’s Children’s Research
Hospital.
https://www.stjude.org/get-involved/school-fundraising-ideas/college/greek-organizations/tri-del
ta.html

Suburbanstats.org. (2020). Current population demographics and statistics for Tennessee by age, gender

and race. Retrieved from

https://suburbanstats.org/population/how-many-people-live-in-tennessee

The Nielsen Total Audience Report: Q1 2018. (2018). ​The Nielsen Company.​

The Adstage Paid Media Benchmark Report: Q3 2019. (2019) ​Adstage.

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