Sticking Your Neck Out For The Zoo
At HOMAGE, we take April Fool's pretty seriously. We designed a shirt (see below) that looked like a vintage cause-driven graphic. Add some funny, fake social media to it, get some shares and laughs and call it a day? Nah, we took it about 27 steps further. And this thing really took on a life of its own. It started with a rallying cry from Jack Hanna to join the movement and make the giraffe our next state animal "because the white-tailed deer just doesn't cut it anymore".
The PSA Video
This video kicked off the entire campaign. With Jack Hanna on board, it made things even more believable. And, man was he a sport! And a riot! He was so fun to work with and write for. He got so into it that he personally reached out to his friend, Governor Kasich, to ensure that his office would back us.
CAMPAIGN STATS: 100K views / 175 comments / 700 reactions / 262 shares / Over 6,000 SIGNATURES!
Landing Page from all channels
Online signatures from the campaign came at over 5,000! We're considering actually taking this to the Governor's office. We sold out of tees in a couple days and it was so successful that we had to send an email thanking people, but explicitly stating this was a joke.
In-Store Petition
Over 1,000 people actually took the time to sign this thing with pen and paper. And each received a "backer kit", including a bounce back coupon.
The Tees
What started it all. Inspired by a vintage button, but no understanding of where the phrase came from, we invented our own back story and it just kept building and building until this thing took on a life of its own. Oh, but we did sell out of tees and donate a couple thousand dollars to the Columbus Zoo & The Wilds.
The Backer Kit
If you purchased a t-shirt, you received a free sticker and button and were encouraged to share the campaign with friends and family.
Early Settlers on the Ohio Social Post
Another "old" photo that makes you second guess yourself. In fact, we had some people in our OWN OFFICE fooled with some of these (won't name names *cough cough mary cough*)!
Giraffe Mound Social Post
Continuing the story from the video that giraffes did in fact inhabit parts of Ohio hundreds of years ago.
The Email
When you use a subject line like "Jack Hanna wants you to Join The Movement", segmented to a Columbus audience, you're gonna get about a 70% Open Rate.
We set up the campaign, explained the WHY, had quotes from Jack, laid out the simple 1,2,3 of joining, enabled share buttons from the email, sent people to the site to purchase the tee, receive a backer kit and sign the petition. And, we included a little history lesson for good measure.