Three Takeaways from NFM’s “Celebrating Women & Connecting Community” Campaign
What does it take to build a Best in Show Paper Anvil Award winning campaign? PRSA Nebraska’s February program featured Jen Bryan, GM of Content Marketing at Nebraska Furniture Mart (NFM), who took attendees into the background of NFM’s “Celebrating Women & Connecting Community” campaign. The campaign won Best in Show at the 2023 PRSA Nebraska Paper Anvil Awards having scored 199 points out of a possible 200.
In case you missed the event, here are three key takeaways that Bryan shared from her team’s work on the award-winning campaign.
Give People Something They Never Knew They Always Wanted (NKTAW)
When Bryan and her team set out to create this campaign surrounding International Women’s Day, they were focused on three things: How to make this campaign different, how to make it meaningful, and how to give their communities something they Never Knew They Always Wanted (NKTAW).
While she admits the NKTAW acronym may not stick, the meaning of it was significant. How could NFM stay true to its legacy of women in leadership while also inspiring and connecting communities around the idea of empowering women? You can’t stay more authentic to both the NFM story and to the idea of celebrating women than through sharing the legacy of NFM’s founder Rose Blumkin.
Focus on You and Your Community
What started as Blumkin’s store in the basement of her husband’s pawn shop has blossomed into four stores across the nation. Anyone who shopped at NFM during Blumkin’s life knows that she was a fixture at NFM even into her later years. The culture she built at NFM stays true today. Even as a bigger company, NFM remains a local, family-owned business. With this legacy, Bryan saw an opportunity to build on this and branch out to the community.
She and her team developed panel discussion events at all four NFM locations across the nation, invited inspiring women in those communities to participate, partnered with area organizations to sponsor the event, promoted events and the campaign with content customized to different channels, worked with influencers including college athletes, and so much more. The events helped NFM stay true to their legacy while also connecting with the communities in which they did business.
“It's something we love to do every year. It's become a core part of our calendar, a core part of our calendar and activations,” Bryan said.
Get Everybody Involved
Bryan said that NFM’s executive team truly bought into the plan. As a company originally founded by a woman, it only makes sense that NFM has several women on its executive team. Bryan mentioned that the events would even feel disingenuous if that were not the case. These women in leadership positions join in the panel discussions, sometimes as panelists and other times as moderators, showing that every level of the company is invested in these events.
As NFM builds partnerships with community organizations, it opens doors for volunteer opportunities long after the events are over. NFM also provides its staff with 40 hours of paid volunteer time off as well as philanthropic support to programs and scholarships. Oftentimes, these opportunities lead to new panelists from other organizations joining the events in the future.
For more information on NFM’s “Celebrating Women & Connecting Community” campaign and future events, visit www.nfm.com/womens-month. Watch for information on PRSA Nebraska’s next event dedicated to helping you grow as a PR professional by visiting prsanebraska.org.
- By Brandon Bartling, PRSA Nebraska 2024 Social Media Chair
