Care4Kids

Care4Kids was a six-event series across the state of Iowa in 2023. The series was created by the Iowa Insurance Division (Division) in conjunction with their Save4Later initiative to educate child care providers and organizations in a sales-free environment. Speakers and panelists presented information on the state resources available to child care centers and in-home providers. The panels covered a wide range of topics but included information on insurance coverage options, advice on business structure, and other resources for providers of all sizes.

Care4Kids event organizers and Division worked with the LS2group marketing team for extensive marketing and branding services. LS2group designed and developed all creative needs for the event series including event naming, branding, messaging, copywriting, collateral design and production, and more. Our team also designed, sourced, and ordered staff apparel such as t-shirts, lanyards, and name tags. LS2group created and produced event signage including posters, retractable banners, and directional signage as well as mobile back-lit stage backdrops for consistent setup across varied venues.

The Division also contracted with the LS2group event planning team to manage logistics and on-the-ground support. Services included venue contracting, catering, set-up logistics, run-of-show development, communication with speakers and vendors, tear-down logistics, and more. LS2group communicated the progress of all event planning items and updates to the Division on a regular basis. Additionally, LS2group secured a one-year contract with C-Vent for event registration, website, and mobile app services. LS2group developed the event website and managed the registration process for sponsors and event attendees.

In addition to marketing and event management services, LS2group managed the public relations and advertising effort for all six Care4Kids events. LS2group designed, developed, and placed a paid media campaign across the state inviting child care providers to attend the event in their area. The paid media plan included targeted digital display, paid social media, organic social media posts, and strategic direct mail flights. The marketing team at LS2group also provided results analytics for all paid media.LS2group’s public relations team also developed a media communications (PR) plan including news releases and media advisories to alert news outlets about the event. The team secured more than 20 earned media placements across the state and several interviews with spokespeople from the Division.

The six Care4Kids events were held in Des Moines, Cedar Falls, Council Bluffs, Sioux City, Cedar Rapids, and Davenport. In total, 397 people, representing 244 providers, attended the events.

Public relations were incredibly successful, with a total of 2.6 million impressions across the state. Additionally, a new website was developed for this initiative, hosted by the Division. The website served as a digital hub to house resources and panelist information as well as easy registration for the event. Providers were able to receive three hours of HHS training credits by registering separately through iPower. Since the launch of the website, nearly 6,500 new users have visited the site a total of 7,500 times. A Care4Kids mobile app was developed for the attendees at the live events. The mobile app served as a way to network with other attendees as well as provide another way to ask live Q&A questions to the panelists. A total of 153 users downloaded the app, with 114 logins.

LS2group also utilized email, direct mail, digital display ads on mobile devices, and social media to market the event and generate interest. Campaign results included 19,852 email opens, 4,581 direct mail recipients, 227 QR code scans with 162 total clicks, and 1,643, 883 total impressions on digital display ads. The social media campaign was incredibly positive. It not only promoted the six events but created buzz around Iowa’s strong commitment to child care providers. As the event sponsor, all posts were shared on the Division’s social media pages. The social media campaign resulted in 1,234,060 total impressions, 152,637 total people reached, 14,851 total clicks, and 157 total post engagements.