WHAT WE DID
Campaign Strategy / Branding / Graphic Design / Messaging & Copywriting / Media Coordination & Buying / Website Programming / Radio Interview / Social Media Plan, Execution, Advertising, Reporting & Analysis / Marketing Consultation
Tortoise Group is a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 1982. The organization educates and advocates for the protection and well-being of the desert tortoise in Greater Las Vegas and Clark County, Nevada. They provide adoption services, community outreach, tortoise clinics, yard consultations and educational programs to benefit desert tortoises and their advocates.
The client came to Canyon Creative with a specific directive. Their goal was to create a PSA campaign that promoted the primary message of “No Backyard Breeding of Mohave Desert Tortoises.”
In Clark County there are an estimated 150,000 tortoises living in backyards. And they multiply like crazy. Many people don’t know how to take care of a tortoise, much less dozens of tortoises. Hoarding becomes a huge problem.
Plus, backyard-bred tortoises can carry a highly contagious and lethal upper respiratory disease. Illegally dumping tortoises in the wild is not only bad for the released tortoises, but can be devastating for wild tortoises. Add to that, a Mohave desert tortoise can live 80 – 100 years!
Being a non-profit meant that we needed to be very careful with where we recommended spending their money. We had to come up with cost-friendly ways to get the message out and provide viable solutions to the issue.
After brainstorming specific messages, we created a new section on the home page of their existing website introducing visitors with teasers about the problem with the headline “We Love Mohave Desert Tortoises, Too.” This linked to a landing page where people discover information specific to the dangers of backyard breeding and how they can help.
LISTEN TO THE RADIO SPOTS
We developed a 15- and 30-second radio promotions featuring a reference back to the website, utilizing a male voiceover artist with a professional and sincere voice. Lotus Broadcasting featured 2,856 radio spots on six of their Las Vegas radio stations. Additionally, Sarah Mortimer, Executive Director of the Tortoise Group, was interviewed on Lotus Broadcasting’s KXPT Neon and Beyond show by radio personality Steph MacKenzie.
LISTEN TO THE RADIO INTERVIEW
We also created a four-month social media plan for posts on Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter) and LinkedIn, as well as an advertising campaign for Facebook and Instagram. This included creating artwork and videos, scheduling posts and advertising, monitoring and reporting.
The campaign was very successful. In the first month alone, there were nearly 24,000 new visitors to the website and of those, over 16,000 got there via the social media channels. Facebook and Instagram clicks went up 575.7%.
The client is very pleased with the results and asked Canyon Creative to continue into the coming year.
“Canyon Creative has been a delight to work with on Tortoise Group’s Backyard Breeding Prevention Campaign. Our team was thoroughly impressed with the innovative and direct messaging Canyon Creative came up with to deliver our core ideas. Canyon Creative is professional and dependable. Tortoise Group attributes the success of this campaign to the creative ingenuity and hard work of Canyon Creative.”
Sarah M. — Tortoise Group