Featured Spotlight Winner Chellie Phillips
VP of Communications and Public Relations, CCC
Coweta–Fayette EMC
Spotlight Category: Best of Social Media
Title: Operation Round Up Awareness Campaign

Q: What was your main goal with the creation of this video?

A: The video served a couple of purposes. One, of course is to encourage more people to participate, but the other was to put a personal face on how these donations really impact lives. We wanted our members to really see how these donations impact the individuals and organizations who receive the funds. Our CSR’s also have access to our library of videos, so when people call in and ask about the program, they can share these out. We’ve found the videos increase sign ups more than just sending someone a flyer with information.

Q: What is your selection process for deciding how to use your Operation Round Up funds?

A: We have an outside board that reviews the applications and
decides which ones to fund. Board members are assigned applications and they go and research the organization and meet with them before their board meeting and report back to the board. So each applicant is vetted before a recommendation is made to fund a request. The members of this board are not members of the EMC board.

Q: What was the biggest challenge with this project?

A: Coordinating the filming. We wanted to show Kimberly on
campus in her college setting so people could really get a feel for how the
donation impacted her daily life. So the shoot was done during a normal college day. That meant students walking around, environmental distractions, etc…

Q: How did you judge the successfulness of the video?

A: Increase in the sign ups since the video became public in July, comments from social media and the community.

Q: What lessons did you learn while making this video?

A: The best stories are about people. When her father sent the tweet
thanking us for the chair and showing Kimberly graduating with honors from college, we knew we needed to show the membership. Hearing in Kimberly’s own words about the impact Operation Round Up had on her and her future was better than any ad we could create. People respond to people and this was a great reminder that 50 cents or less a month can have a lifetime impact on someone.