Passion. Smarts. An eye for creativity. These are the critical elements that help social media managers flawlessly execute a social media strategy. But how do you level up to serve a wildly impactful global non-profit like Geena Davis Institute (GDI)? The Institute is a pioneer of influencing equitable portrayals of gender, race/ethnicity, LGBTQIA+, disability, age 50+ and body type in entertainment and the media. They have done this work for the past 20 years, and have no intention of slowing down, making the need for a thoughtful and purposeful social media presence of the utmost importance. 

Gatesman began working with GDI in July 2023 as social agency of record, enhancing social media strategy while executing community management and developing content creation inline with the Institute’s vibrant rebrand. 

When the Gatesman team learned that LA-based GDI would be in the ‘Burgh for the 2024 Steel City Con, we couldn’t help but contain our excitement for unique content creation. Institute founder and chair, and Two-Time Academy Award Winning Actor Geena Davis had a jam-packed weekend that included a panel session and multiple fan meet-and-greets, so we knew we needed to be efficient and effective in the delivery of our content capture plan, while ensuring it connected back to GDI’s mission.

Some of Geena’s most popular movies are what fans love her most for. Roles in films like A League of Their Own and Thelma & Louise empowered people around the world, especially women, to test their own courage and try new things. With empowerment as the underlying theme of content generation in mind, Gatesman set our sights on a plan that included dynamic video, compelling static imagery and elevated collaborative partner content that supported the following themes: 

• Moments of star power: GDI’s followers love Geena and we want to give the people what they want! We set our sights on bringing Geena’s fun, smart and badass personality to life.  
• Moments of inspiration: We wanted to mingle with the crowd and attendees, especially those adorned in gear from A League of Their Own, Thelma & Louise and Beetlejuice.

• Moments of reflection: We were eager to get sound bites during the panel discussion where Geena and Thelma & Louise co-star Susan Sarandon talked about how this film changed the industry landscape, flipping the script and putting females into heroic leading roles. 

• Moments of unexpected creativity: Taking advantage of our “agent” credentials, we found the event panel emcee, and asked him if he could hype up the crowd so they could be featured on GDI’s social media. Moments later, we found ourselves running across the stage capturing video of hundreds of people cheering and anxiously awaiting Geena’s arrival.

• Moments of collaboration: The above content capture was matched with smart tagging and collaboration strategies with the event and key attendees to boost overall visibility. The more we generate eyeballs on the content, the more we can increase the impact of GDI’s mission.

A great social media strategy for GDI requires our team to be flexible and nimble in execution, while challenging ourselves to always be proponents of driving inclusivity and progress. While there was not a direct one-to-one connection of the Steel City Con event back to GDI’s mission, we found ways to creatively deliver our audiences what they expect from us from an inclusivity and empowerment perspective. A great social media strategy for GDI will also continue to implement best practices such as bringing to life key milestones, Institute run events and timely, topical and relevant trends and conversations. 

If you’re interested in following along our journey to propel GDI’s inclusivity mission forward on social media, tap that follow button here: https://www.instagram.com/geenadavisorg/. And also stay tuned! We will soon be on site for the 10th Anniversary of the Bentonville Film Festival and will also be featuring a spotlight on the Institute’s vibrant rebrand.