The ability to act and think creatively is an increasingly valuable asset in today’s fast-changing world. When Procter & Gamble’s Bounty team learned that schools across the country were cutting children’s art programs due to the recession, they decided to get involved with a targeted philanthropic effort that brings to life their brand purpose of empowering moms to encourage hands-on creativity and learning by doing for children. After all, children’s art is a great fit with Bounty’s 'quicker picker-upper' heritage and brand purpose, and Bounty knew that while parents like the idea of arts programs, many fail to encourage them at home simply because kids + art = a major mess.The Bounty team identified two ways to offer kids a fun opportunity to express their creativity and artistic talents outside the home: 'Make-A-Messterpiece', a 10,000-square-foot facility in the Chicago suburb of Glenview where children could participate in an array of art and science projects; and 'Building Bounty-ful Bridges', a celebrity-studded, six-city children’s mural-painting tour created in partnership with the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation (founded by brothers Russell, Danny and Joseph 'Rev Run' Simmons). Our carefully choreographed events and local and national media outreach resulted in top-tier national coverage, 751,292,397 media impressions and unforgettable hands-on art experiences for tons of happy, messy kids!

Phase I: Our national media launch began with a press announcement at a New York gallery. In attendance: Russell Simmons, Grammy-winning singer Mary J. Blige and 25 children from the local Rush Foundation creating the first 'Building Bounty-ful Bridges' mural panel.

Phase II: For the Make-A-Messterpiece opening children from the local Rush Foundation group created the second mural panel. We reached out to media around Chicago and Reuters covered the event with a national exclusive.Phase III: For our local media tour we conducted media outreach in New Orleans, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and then closed the programme by with an event for local youth and Procter & Gamble executives to create the final mural in Cincinnati. Artist, media spokesperson and lead mural-maker Amanda Williams helped youth from Rush Philanthropic organisations created new panels. We had additional celebrity assistance from Russell Simmons, Joseph Rev Run Simmons and fashion designer Tory Burch.

Objectives/Results:a) Generate national and local print, broadcast and online media coverage for the launch of the Bounty Make-A-Messterpiece facility and the 'Building Bounty-ful Bridges' mural-making tour resulting in 250 million media impressions.Our programme garnered more than 751 MM media impressions, including top-tier placements in Reuters, USA Today, VH1, CBS News, CNBC, The Washington Post, the Star, the New York Daily News and many more.b) Increase consumer awareness about Bounty.15,540 families, including 17,790 children attended the Bounty-sponsored Make-A-Messterpiece facility alone.