What’s within you is stronger than what’s in your way.
That’s the mantra behind No Barriers USA, a nonprofit committed to helping people live without limits. But even for an organization based on overcoming insurmountable odds, the COVID-19 pandemic posed a troubling dilemma.
The 2020 No Barriers USA Summit – which seeks to provide a life-changing experience by surrounding people with an uplifting community and powerful messages of hope – simply wasn’t going to happen in its traditional, in-person format. No Barriers made the difficult decision of changing the Summit to a 100% virtual event. Though No Barriers would give up face-to-face interaction, they didn’t want to sacrifice any other features that make the event the transformative experience it’s meant to be.
So they turned to Stone Ward for help.
On a mission to attract as many participants as possible to the now virtual Summit, Stone Ward began strategizing ways to increase visibility of the event while fostering a relationship with both current and new followers.
Since COVID-19 changed the way brands must communicate, we knew our content had to look less like an advertisement and more like something uniquely engaging and entertaining. Our focus was not on selling an idea that you had to sign up for this experience, but on conveying the message that you simply could not afford to miss this life-changing opportunity.
No Barriers Summit Website Graphics
In content creation, we concentrated on highlighting the inspiring list of speakers and performers, which included “Queer Eye’s” Karamo Brown, Surfer Bethany Hamilton, Veteran and “Dancing With The Stars” winner J.R. Martinez, body-positive activist and star of TLC’s “My Big Fat Fabulous Life” Whitney Way Thore, and musicians ranging from the band MAGIC GIANT to “America’s Got Talent” alumni, Mandy Harvey and Kodi Lee – and many more.
After rallying an impressive attendance, we also enhanced the experience through social media content creation and community management during the live, two-day virtual event via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
No Barriers Social Graphics
This engaging content helped foster conversations among our audience, emphasize the No Barriers Life, and introduce potential new listeners to the No Barriers Podcast. We even found ways to provide additional entertainment for Summit attendees by creating an exclusive Spotify Playlist and Facebook Profile frame to complement the Summit experience.
Through compelling ideas, eye-catching creative and expert community management, we were able to break many of our own barriers and successfully promote what we like to call The Virtual Summit of the Year.
“The Stone Ward team did an amazing job producing content for our first-ever virtual No Barriers Summit, keeping participants excited and engaged both before and during the Summit.”
— Stevie Dinardo, No Barriers Director of Marketing.
