Tools were made to fix things that are broken, but what if the broken thing was a child’s access to parks and playgrounds; could tools fix that? To find out, we put our tools in the hands of The Detroit Mower Gang – to help combat the city’s problem of overgrown and abandoned playgrounds. We created an event called the Craftsman Mowtown Mowdown. Now an annual event in Detroit. Most importantly, our event brought together volunteers from across the country and helped unite Detroiters willing to fight on behalf of the city’s children in need. We did this because Detroit matters.

Following the creation of the first annual “Craftsman Mowtown Mowdown,” we launched a video on Craftsman’s YouTube page documenting the event. It was supported with ads that brought awareness to the campaign and drove views to Craftsman’s social channels for other Detroit Matters content. Additional content lived on Craftsman’s website where people could submit other grass-roots community ideas for Craftsman to support.

The video generated over 1.6 million video views and 1.4 million engagements online, and reached of over 5.5 million media impressions. On Instagram alone, our influencer-driven activation reached over 1.8 million people and experienced a CPM that was 70% below the benchmark. Shortly after the launch, Craftsman saw a 12% increase in unaided brand awareness and even sparked excitement in a new generation of homeowners (19% increase among millennials). It also spawned a second initiative with disabled veterans in California working with an organization called Warfighter Made and the activation Every Vet Matters.