In a sea of polarizing attack ads, the Y launched a campaign to elect Zoe, an adorable one-year-old girl, president…in 2064. Zoe represents the potential the Y sees in every child to one day become the president if they’re nurtured properly and given the right opportunities. Every presidential candidate needs a campaign hub, so we created a dedicated website that explains who Zoe is, what she represents and how the Y helps kids like her get the support they need to be great.

The overall design of the website needed to look and feel like that of a legitimate, modern presidential candidate, all the while maintaining a lighthearted, politically neutral tone. We used traditional colors (red, white and blue) as well as stars, stripes and flags to create a presidential look with a childlike wink to it. Zoe’s homepage contained the launch film for her campaign, a donation section and a stream of online social content tagged with #ZoeForPresident.

The site also included subpages where users could learn more about Zoe and what she represents. Her “Issues” page was the most robust, covering the programs and services the Y provides. Each program was represented by playful animations that visually engaged and informed users.

As with any presidential website, we gave users the opportunity to show their support by purchasing Zoe-branded swag: bodysuits, bibs, rattles, buttons and T-shirts.

Zoe’s integrated campaign has had over 205 million impressions to date and has contributed to social media engagement rates triple the organization’s in 2014. Her whisper campaign alone reached an audience of 31.6 million social users. Together, the Y and Zoe have doubled the number of Q1 online donations as compared to the Q1 average of the past three years; both national and local fundraising efforts will continue for the rest of the year. The most significant marker, however, is in public perception of the Y as a nonprofit, charitable organization. In a tracking study after just a quarter of live media, perception of the Y as both a nonprofit and a charity have increased.