Social media was a vital ingredient for success. We started the conversation on Buzzfeed, Twitter and Facebook to spark awareness and create a community of eager participants. Our partnership with Thunderclap allowed individuals to make a social pledge while generating massive social impressions with limited commitment.

Within the socially-rooted Farmville 2, Facebook’s game for digital farmers, we hosted the first community challenge asking players to grow 150,000 pounds of virtual pineapples – a new crop – to match the donation to Wholesome Wave. Users could also purchase an exclusive water spinach crop for $0.99, and all proceeds went directly to Wholesome Wave.

For mobile, we implemented a simplified 2-click path to donate. Ads linked users directly to their personal text application, where they could easily text to donate with an additional push of a button. We also worked with many partners for editorial content and offline extensions, building influence through education.

Our goal of generating 150,000 pounds of produce donations was achieved quicker than expected, nearly two months early!

The campaign also surpassed all awareness goals, in some cases by 10 times the benchmark.

The Farmville community in particular responded with great enthusiasm with nearly 264 million pineapple crops grown (more than twice the challenge goal). More importantly, these gamers raised $57,350 to be donated to Wholesome Wave through sales of the limited edition crop, which equates to more than 43,000 pounds of produce. Last, individuals exposed to the Farmville campaign reported being 253% more likely to purchase Naked Juice products.