Background (situation, brief, objectives)
In 2020, we had a goal to reinforce that QuickBooks and its modern business tools can help small business owners navigate challenges to reach success, in whatever form that means to them. QuickBooks promotes racial justice, and we were actively searching for ways to support Black-owned businesses at the onset of COVID. Knowing within this group, BIPOC and female-founded organizations were disproportionately impacted, we prioritized them.
After learning about Compton Girls Club (CGC), founded by Chrystani Heinrich, a librarian at Compton High School in South LA, we immediately partnered with them. Chrystani said of CGC, “In starting this club, I feel like I’m healing ancestral trauma. This is the club my grandmother needed; my mother needed, I needed. The safe space to learn something new.” We set out to put tangible support behind their vision to positively impact the community around them.
Describe the creative idea
When COVID hit, CGC’s in-person workshops, field trips, and access to the safe space Chrystani leased were put on pause. So, Chrystani quickly pivoted and turned to online resources to keep in touch with their young club members, who were searching for ways to stay inspired. Chrystani’s dream was to teach the girls more about business ownership and financial education to turn their hobbies and talents into businesses and a way to earn money. The QuickBooks x Compton Girls Club: Business G.IRL Incubator was to put tangible support behind the CGC mission in giving young women and gender non-binary people the life skills and knowledge not taught in school to become more confident and empowered.
Describe the strategy
With its mission to support small business owners, QuickBooks jumped in to provide tools and support the dual needs of Chrystani and CGC. Together, we created a virtual entrepreneurial workshop that gave these young women the education and skills they needed to start and sustain their own small businesses and give them a big leg up against the financial pitfalls many faces. The QuickBooks Business G.IRL Incubator was a 6-module course that taught 11 young women how to start their own small businesses, guiding them through creating a business plan and teaching them about the power of branding and marketing. To complete the course, each participant pitched their business Shark Tank-style in front of a panel of judges. Upon graduation, each participant received a stipend of $500 to launch their business, along with headshots and printed business cards with their new branding.
Describe the execution (implementation, timeline, placement, scale)
Through this tight partner collaboration, we were able to bring maximum impact for CGC. TBWA\Chiat\Day LA acted as creative consult, creating the Incubator program and orchestrating the different partners involved in the larger “Journey to Success” campaign. QuickBooks sponsored the incubator course and provided speakers, mentors, and judges throughout the event. The Content Collective and Courageous Studios captured content during the sessions and turned it into film assets that could share CGC’s story and spread the word about the work they are doing. Long-form (2:46) and short-form (:30s: 15s) videos were made and distributed through CGC, QuickBooks, and TBWA\Chiat\Day’s social media, plus paid media on CNN’s digital and social platforms. Storytelling featured key QuickBooks products that had enabled Chrystani to navigate the needs of their growing organization and shifted perceptions about the brand as being complicated or “just an accounting tool.”
List the results/outcomes (reach, engagement, impact, sales, achievement against business target)
Through the combined efforts of the agency teams and media partners, we were able to bring awareness to the incredible work of CGC and help shift perceptions of QuickBooks as a brand. Amplification of Chrystani’s story on CNN’s social and digital platforms delivered more than 1.3MM impressions against storytelling assets and 100% positive sentiment. We drove an incredible 19-point lift in Brand Favorability, helping build visibility of the brand’s purpose. QuickBooks manifested its mission of backing small businesses by bringing awareness to Chrystani’s organization. CGC saw over $60k in donations and a 25% bump in the org’s site traffic in the months following the activation (March-May 2021). CGC and the Business G.IRL Incubator were featured in the LA Times both in print and online, showcasing Chrystani, their mission, and a few entrepreneurs who participated in the Incubator. Most importantly, 11 new small businesses came to life.