Last month, we worked with William Holdeman, CEO and co-founder of Social Scene, on our employee holiday celebration. A longtime friend of Payline and our CEO Jeff Shea, William shares a similar belief that it’s important for his company to create a positive impact (and for us to share this positive impact spotlight). We asked William to explain in his words what positive impact means to him. Read below for this month’s positive impact business spotlight on Social Scene.
Build Your Brand & Raise Money For Charitable Causes: Our Positive Impact Business Spotlight
WH: In 2014 after expanding into Kansas City (2013), Social Scene was propositioned to take over a charity bar crawl that had been declining in both attendance and donations over the past few years. We gladly took on the opportunity to not only grow as a brand within the Kansas City market but to also utilize our expertise to create a positive impact. Our concept was restructured to raise prices and offer more value to the attendees. The operational processes were put in place to limit material costs as well as advertising methods to limit cash spend; volunteers were hired to save on labor expenses.
Where this event had been donating $5,000 on average to Pancreatic Cancer with an average attendance between 700-900, Social Scene was able to work within the community to raise nearly $20,000, raise attendance to over 1,300 people in the first year and has since continued to manage the event every consecutive year with a focus on minimizing costs, growing contributions and raising awareness around Pancreatic Cancer.
Event check-in table.
Attendees at a Social Scene event in Kansas City last year.
Volunteers at a Social Scene charity bar crawl event in Kansas City.
In 2016, after seeing success for a variety of charities, Social Scene added this service to its portfolio, giving corporations and charities new opportunities to raise money and awareness around their brands, instead of direct donation dollars by creating content and exposure that in the end will create even more dollars and exposure for their cause. Social Scene has always given a portion of profits back to local charities, but now they can further benefit organizations, utilizing their digital marketing and event production experience.
Social Scene has expanded to 11 cities in the past 6 years of business through this model of digital marketing strategies and the ability to accept cashless payments online for events. It is our hope that more corporations will look to events (experiential marketing) as a means to grow their brand and build a concept around a charity in lieu of submitting a donation, thus allowing both the company and the charitable organization to benefit from exposure and donations.
To learn more about our featured Positive Impact Business Spotlight, visit BeSocialScene.com. Social Scene is an online and onsite experiential marketing firm servicing 11 cities across the country. Their mission is to connect people through social events or online campaigns to build brand awareness and relationships. Be Social, Be Seen! William Holdeman can be reached at william@besocialscene.com.
To learn more about having a positive impact with your business model, reach out to the payment processing specialists at Payline today.
