Money Smart Week Recap

Sucess Story: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s Money Smart Week 2011

Challenge
With more than 500 financial education events hosted throughout Chicagoland during the first week of April, Money Smart Week provides a wealth of knowledge to consumers; however, filling those classrooms is a constant challenge as the program continues to grow. For Money Smart Week, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago works with nearly 200 partners throughout the area to provide programming, resources, etc. In addition to filling the classrooms, we also had to help manage the public relations and social media campaigns as well as the expectations of the partners and Fed.

Solution
Our first challenge was to keep hundreds of stakeholders abreast of what we working on and manage their efforts to publicize the many events hosted throughout the city. An FTP site was established that housed media materials, a master media outreach list with assignments, and other important materials pertaining to Money Smart Week.

A team of actors dressed as the Money Smart Week mascot, Ben Franklin, took the streets and El cars of downtown Chicago with the sole purpose of handing out Money Smart Week calendars and talking with passers by. The Team of Bens passed out nearly 20,000 calendars

Through a wide range of efforts to reach out to Chicagoland media and journalists to spread the word in addition to aiding in crafting posts for social networks, the Snackbox team managed the flow of information to the general public. Creativity played a big part of our outreach and included a dozen or so children between the ages of 8 and 12 dressed as “Mini Bens” who appeared on major TV networks promoting Money Smart Week.

Results
Nearly 650 placements were secured in the weeks leading up to Money Smart Week. Key placements include: Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, USA Today, NBC, ABC, and FOX.