SourceCode Communications Wins 2020 SABRE Award for Everlast “Be First”
At this year’s PRovoke 2020 SABRE Awards North America, we’re honored to announce that we’ve taken home the prize for Consumer Campaign of the Year for Everlast’s “Be First” Campaign. The competition was fierce with over 550 entries submitted in this year's competition. Finalists in the category included industry disruptors such as, Edelman, Ogilvy and Current Global.
Everlast, a global icon, selected SourceCode Communications as its first PR Agency of Record in 2019 to launch “Be First,” a global campaign meant to communicate a powerful statement with purpose, authenticity, and ability to appeal to various audiences. Through extensive research we found that the boxing scene was filled with historical figures who were the first of their kind like Sugar Ray Leonard, Muhammad Ali and Manny Pacquiao. When we looked into the boxing scene further, we came across Patricio Manuel, the world’s first transgender professional boxer. SourceCode and Everlast knew there was an opportunity to highlight Patricio’s win in his first professional fight and position Patricio as a ‘first’ just like the legends that came before him. Through “Be First,'' Everlast was also able to target younger generations including Millennials and Gen Z, who are invested in civil rights and social issues.
The campaign’s media strategy included a combination of pre-brief pitching, landing 20 interviews with national top-tier publications along with a social media driven campaign unveiling the #befirst hashtag across all Everlast social channels. You can read more about the campaign case study here.
We would like to congratulate all winners and finalists in this year’s competition and thank PRovoke immensely along with the panel of judges who spent time reviewing our submissions. We’re looking forward to next year’s awards. For additional information on the event and winners, please see the link here.
SourceCode Helps Everlast “Be First”
A global icon, the Everlast brand has been synonymous with boxing and fight sports for more than a century. With goals of reinserting the brand into relevant cultural conversations and engaging a new crop of brand evangelists, Everlast selected SourceCode Communications as its first PR Agency of Record to put the iconic brand back in the ring. Working closely with Everlast, SourceCode launched “Be First,” a global campaign featuring trailblazers in the fight sports community and beyond.
In fight sports, being first means to be the aggressor and the fighter who dictates the pace of the fight. Taking the power of this phrase and the meaning it could have when applied beyond the ring, the campaign highlighted a collection of inspiring stories of fighters who embody this mindset. SourceCode developed an intimate short-film with Patricio Manuel, the world’s first transgender professional boxer, to bring the campaign to life and used the video as a key asset to spread the message of the campaign – challenging people to carve their own paths and dictate the pace of their life, goals, and personal journey.
WHAT WE DID
SourceCode drafted core messaging and adapted it for key targets including national news, business, men’s lifestyle, LGBTQ, sports, urban, and the advertising and marketing trades. More than 50 editors agreed to the embargo and 25 pre-launch interviews with Everlast and Patricio were held including Reuters, CNBC, ABC, NBC, Cheddar, Mashable and Marketing Dive.
Once the campaign launched, to continue building on its initial success, SourceCode worked with Everlast to further the mission of the campaign, highlighting and celebrating new crops of athletes who embody the message of ‘Be First.’ The latest iteration launch was timed with International Women’s Day, telling the stories of three women who are carving their own paths within this male-dominated industry.
RESULTS
“Be First” launched with media outlets hailing Everlast as making history. Over the course of one week, the campaign went viral, generating almost 500 earned media placements across top-tier digital, broadcast, and social channels including CNN, Reuters, People, Men’s Health, Good Morning America, Newsweek, and The Advocate. Web traffic increased 11.2% and has sustained to these new levels since the launch in addition to increases in reach and engagement across all Facebook and Instagram. Equally as exciting was the attention being brought to diversity within boxing. Per Google Trends, searches for “transgender boxer” were at a six-month peak during launch.
-
Nearly 500 earned media placements
-
520% increase in Instagram reach
-
800% increase in Facebook engagement
-
13.5MM earned social impressions via influencers
Saluted by organizations such as GLAAD, the World Economic Forum, and The Human Rights Campaign, “Be First” opened the door for larger future collaborations to help underrepresented communities. Everlast’s global licensees noted the campaign success and have used the content and publicity to re-energize retail partnerships while brand licensees have already begun localizing campaign elements to maintain the momentum in advance of the launch of additional Be First trailblazers.
National Small Business Week: Supporting Small Businesses through COVID-19 (Part I)
COVID-19 has significantly impacted companies of all sizes across the country, and none have perhaps been more shaken by the pandemic than America’s small businesses. According to the Main Street America organization’s Small Business Survey, about 37% of small businesses are at risk of shutting down within the next few months.
In celebration of what would have been National Small Business Week, we are spotlighting three clients that work closely with small businesses. Up today is MakeSpace, a full-service storage company that is redefining the storage experience as we know it by creating storage without the struggle – picking up, hauling, and storing your stuff, then delivering it back to you.
How are you supporting small businesses during the COVID-19 Pandemic?
We are offering free storage to small businesses affected by COVID-19. This pandemic has unfortunately forced many businesses to close down, and we know that some extra flexibility may help them re-open successfully when this is all over. For a limited time, small business owners can bring their items to one of our facilities for three free months of storage.
What advice would you give to the industry about how to support your customers?
While customers are spending more conservatively, they’re also looking for new products to fit their radically altered lifestyles. It’s important to offer your service or product in the safest and most convenient way possible. We updated our policies to offer no-contact appointments, making it more secure for our teams to serve customers while maintaining social distance. Businesses need to evaluate their entire customer experience to accommodate the new reality.
What has MakeSpace been doing to maintain company culture working remotely?
A big part of building a positive (work)space is the frequent gatherings, events, and traditions that make the office feel more like a community. But it can be challenging to preserve workplace culture when everyone is working remotely. In an initiative led by Office Manager Laura Iskaros, VP of People Megan Lyons, and the MakeSpace Culture Committee, we’re using Slack, Google Hangouts, Zoom, and other online tools to preserve culture while maintaining social distance.
-
Happy Hour Hangouts from Home → a daily 5-6pm happy hour open to all employees to have a beer, show off their homes/children/pets, and just socialize and wind down after a day of work.
-
Pet Parade → weekly on Tuesdays, a Google hangout open to all pet owners and pet lovers to show off their fur friends!
-
Remote #Brew-Crew → took a MakeSpace culture staple and made it remote! Rather than going out for a coffee with members from different teams, this time you make yourself a coffee at home and have a video chat with them. Small groups of five, twice a week. It’s a fun and easy way to be social from home.
-
Remote QOTD → using a free Web Whiteboard service, we ask a daily QOTD ranging from “What album do you recommend for WFH isolation?” to “What’s the best meal you’ve made since working remotely?” and everything in between!
-
Simple Habit partnership → partnered with Simple Habits for a 45-day unlimited access to Simple Habit’s wellness professionals, guided meditations, therapy, coaching, motivational talks and much more.
SourceCode Gets in the Ring with Everlast
NEW YORK—August 21, 2019—Everlast, the preeminent brand in boxing since 1910 and the world’s leading manufacturer and licensor of boxing, MMA and fitness equipment, has selected SourceCode Communications as its first public relations agency of record. The Everlast brand is synonymous with fight sports and has tasked SourceCode to ideate and execute on upcoming campaigns and broaden awareness for the company’s products, owned media entities, and ambassadors.
The relationship officially kicked off in July, with the agency focusing on launching the next iteration of Everlast’s Be First, a global integrated campaign challenging consumers to carve their own path to success. The campaign is a play on the well-known boxing term “Be First,” which is associated with dictating the pace of a fight, making your opponent follow your lead. The scope will consist of campaign development and execution, events, ambassador and influencer management, and media relations.
“In recent years, the Everlast brand has transformed from a boxing company to a leading fight goods and lifestyle sports brand, fueled by a full-fledged media entity focused on sports culture. As our brand continues to evolve, so have our communications and PR needs,” said Chris Zoller, Vice President of Marketing and Product Development at Everlast. “The SourceCode team brings an impressive track record of executing successful, creative campaigns for consumer brands -- we are extremely excited to work with them.”
Everlast joins SourceCode’s growing consumer practice, a diverse group of category leaders and disruptors in their respective industries, such as car sharing marketplace Turo, LGBTQ+ dating app SCRUFF, and FemTech brand Elvie. The practice currently consists of 12 retainer clients and seven staffers.
“As we continue to scale the agency, we’ve prided ourselves in adding truly innovative companies to our consumer and B2B roster of client partners,” said Greg Mondshein, Managing Partner at SourceCode Communications. “The Everlast brand is iconic and the work they are doing is humanizing the world of boxing in a way we haven’t seen before. We couldn’t be more humbled to partner with them.”
SourceCode Communications is experiencing a banner year. The NYC-based shop has doubled its team since January, housing 17 full-time employees. In addition to its growing consumer practice, the agency’s B2B division (ranging from AdTech/MarTech to enterprise security) has grown by leaps and bounds with new clients including Pindrop, Cloudreach and more.
Please check out our feature story in PRWeek here.
SourceCode Shortlisted for Two North American SABRE Awards
We're excited to announce we've been shortlisted for two North America SABRE Awards for work with Elvie and Casaza. The 2019 North American SABRE Awards, which recognizes Superior Achievement in Branding Reputation and Engagement, includes around 300 campaigns on its shortlist, selected from among more than 2000 entries.
Our campaigns with Elvie and Casaza are indicative of the work we do across the board for our clients. Both campaigns were focused on actually moving the needle for clients through a creative omni-channel marketing campaign. They each featured both online and off-line activations and used the power of provocative subject matter and timely news hooks to drive each respective business forward.
The finalists were announced on Monday, March 26th and the winners will be unveiled on May 7th at Cipriani 42nd Street in NYC. For more information please see the link below:
Congratulations to all the finalists!