According to the CDC (The Centers for Disease Control and Protection), three children die every day as the result of drowning. And drowning is still the second-leading cause of death among children ages 1–4.

I don’t share these tragic statistics to bring you down.

Instead, I’d like to introduce you to Goldfish Swim School (Goldfish).  

Since 2006, Goldfish has been teaching kids how to swim and be safer in and around water. With more than 65 locations open or in development across 23 states and Canada, they are proud to serve over 70,000 students every week.

Goldfish believes it’s their responsibility to educate parents in the community about the importance of water safety to prevent accidental deaths. Day in and day out, they work to ensure kids’ water safety skills are sharp year-round, through continuous lessons, so little ones have the tools they need to be confident and smart in the water. Because learning to swim is an essential, life-saving skill—not an optional activity like ballet or soccer.

Goldfish was founded in the Detroit metropolitan area and has earned a strong reputation and brand awareness through the years. However, seeing their success, other swim schools have continued to enter the marketplace.

What’s a PR agency to do to help Goldfish stand out?

Let’s take a closer look.

Our chief priorities during this campaign to ensure Goldfish was strategically positioned to broaden its network and engage new customers included:

• Keeping swimming and water safety top of mind among media, bloggers and influencers during a time of year when these topics are not covered
   
• Generating new blog and social media angles to reinforce Goldfish as the authority on water safety and swim lessons
   
• Identifying brand ambassadors to share messaging beyond those who are already familiar with Goldfish

Goldfish’s approach was designed to achieve these priorities by:

• Amplifying Goldfish’s unique value proposition: a proprietary curriculum that focuses squarely on water safety
   
• Positioning co-founder Chris McCuiston as a water safety expert and resource on the topic within Detroit

With first-hand experience, these ambassadors acted as enthusiastic advocates and were eager to talk about Goldfish with their networks. In the first six months of the campaign, we were able to generate:

• 385 pieces of coverage
• Coverage that was 100 percent positive in tone
• 19,822,198 overall impressions
• 11,500 social media engagements

While the results speak for themselves, the most exciting part of this campaign is the satisfaction of knowing that more children will learn how to be safer in and around water—and lives will be saved.

Now that’s the power of PR.