Event Branding and Design for the YWCA Women’s Triathlon

The Situation

In 2017, YWCA Minneapolis celebrated their 125th anniversary and held their 10th annual Women’s Triathlon. Since these were big milestones to celebrate, the YWCA wanted to boost the visibility of the race, as well as increase racer participation.

The Communications Challenge

Although the YWCA Triathlon was a well-regarded race in the region, they wanted to boost their presence. To make the event more special, they also wanted to give away a branded YWCA item to all race participants, including promotional materials about their training programs.

The Strategy

We brainstormed potential giveaway items and presented a few options. They chose a budget-friendly kit that YWCA staff could send to key media contacts. Since the YWCA already had branded swim goggles on hand, it made sense to include them as part of the eye-catching kit – something unique that was unlikely to get lost at the bottom of a pile!

In addition to the kit, we provided complementary content strategy for the YWCA with a public relations plan, complete with core messaging to support their efforts and align with their brand while also motivating racers. We also developed content for the media kits, which included stories about inspirational women.

Finally, we developed three engagement-focused social media campaigns that included graphics and a clever hashtag for each social post to get people excited about the event. The YWCA staff executed the social posts in the months leading up to the race.

The Results

Because of the combined efforts of the media kit, public relations plan and social media posts, the YWCA team was able to effectively promote the event months beforehand. With this lift, they ended up having the largest number of registrants they had ever had! More than 1,500 female athletes registered, and the race drew more than 3,500 spectators to Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis.