We Love Our Clients: Variety Iowa
A lot of hard work and heart are put forth by the staff over at Variety Iowa, the charity dedicated to improving the lives of Iowa's own underprivileged, at-risk and special needs children.
We sat down for a little Q&A with Megan Grandgeorge, the first-ever director of marketing and public relations at Variety Iowa to hear more about her and what she does for the charity.
Tell people a little about you and Variety Iowa:
I am Variety’s first-ever director of marketing and public relations, a proud Des Moines resident and a small business owner. I own Le Jardin restaurant with my business partner and husband, Tag.
Prior to coming to Variety, I spent nearly eight years marketing the state’s largest event, the Iowa State Fair.
Variety - the Children's Charity of Iowa is dedicated to improving the lives of underprivileged, at-risk, and special needs children throughout the state. Variety provides funding to non-profit children’s organizations for tangible items, such as building expansions and renovations, equipment, and programming needs.
As the director of marketing and PR, what is your biggest daily challenge?
My biggest daily challenge is keeping our two beautiful new websites (thanks Visionary!) and our social media feeds up to date.
How much of your day is spent doing digital versus traditional marketing?
Variety has a large digital footprint. I spend roughly a third of my day doing digital initiatives.
What does a typical day for you look like?
Days are not really traditional at Variety. We are an event-driven charity, so we are either getting ready for an event or wrapping up an event.
I try to answer emails and check in on social medias in the morning, work on larger projects mid-morning through the afternoon, and get back to emails before the end of the day.
There are usually a half dozen other little interruptions.
Technology changes quickly, but how do you see the web and digital marketing influencing your organization?
I see our websites and social channels becoming storytelling tools. There is a lot of noise online, so you have to have a unique message to be seen and heard.
How does Variety separate itself from that digital noise?
Variety works to improve the lives of children throughout the state. That is an easy cause to get behind.
We are working to leverage our fans and followers by posting relevant content about what we do.I find that any post with a photo of a child we have served garners the most attention.
What strategies or methods do you use to best tell Variety’s story online? Does that change any across platforms?
We are currently in the planning stages and hope to start telling Variety’s stories soon. We grant funds to more than 90 children’s organizations, so we have so many great stories to tell.
My goal is to house our stories on our website and share from that platform. We are currently working with the Simpson PRSSA to craft our messages.
