#OwlentinesDay
Temple University’s live mascot, Stella, is a great horned owl currently residing in the Elmwood Park Zoo. Temple partnered with the zoo to tell the tale of Stella marrying Sherlock–her longtime boyfriend–in a surprise Valentine’s Day wedding event.
Responsibilities:
Responsible for ideation, project management, creative direction, art direction and social media management.
Partially responsible for decor, styling, execution, copy, content creation and set-up.
Communication Cadence:
Photos, video, graphic valentines and more were shared across Temple’s owned channels.
Pre-Launch
Save the dates were designed as a means of pre-promotion.
Day of Launch
Main university pages and those operated by campus partners presented the below elements to tell the story of Stella and Sherlock.
Wedding Highlight Video
Digital Valentines
Wedding Day Photos
A wedding highlight video was created for YouTube to showcase the day’s events and aid in the storytelling. Zoo handlers acted as the bird’s wedding party and shared insights into the bird’s relationship.
Digital valentines were designed to encourage social media engagement and growth through sharable content.
As with the video, photos allowed for further storytelling and the introduction of the other wedding characters. The Philadelphia Eagle’s live mascot, Noah, acted as the officiant. Screech Owls, Munchkin and Zeppelin, acted as the flower girls. A white ribbon, drawn between Stella and Sherlock, acted as a symbol for tying the knot.
Earned Media
To capitalize on the Valentine’s Day timing of the campaign, we invited media outlets to cover the story.
Results
The campaign garnered over $30,000 in publicity value from five local media placements whose stories had over 13.5 million unique visitors.
In addition to its success in earned media, the campaign acquired over half a million social media impressions and the second highest recorded Facebook reach for Temple’s channel to date.
Disclaimer: all photography was shot by Betsey Manning in partnership with Temple University. All rights belong to both those parties, in addition to the individuals represented in each photo.