How to Create Dance Marathon "buzz" Around Campus
For many Dance Marathon’s, one of the most important, yet sometimes challenging tasks, is to make your organization stand out on campus. Whether you have a big campus or a small campus, years of experience or your program is brand new, each Dance Marathon program has the ability to stand out and create “buzz” about their DM event and local CMN Hospital.
Here’s how: Trinity University’s, TigerThon joined Miracle Network Dance Marathon in the fall of 2017 with their sights set on an inaugural event on February 24th, 2018. Located in San Antonio, Texas, their Dance Marathon will benefit the patients and families at The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio- the only non-profit, faith-based, free standing pediatric hospital in San Antonio, TX.
One of the first things the group of students wanted to do was create a “buzz” on campus about Dance Marathon. Being a first-year program, the executive board was eager to educate their fellow classmates and friends on the amazing things they have in store for raising money for their local CMN Hospital. With that in mind, they decided that the best thing to do was to create unique events and campaigns that would draw attention and get students inquiring about how they can join Dance Marathon.
Their first creative campaign was called “Cartwheels for Kids” where they encouraged and nominated organizations on campus to do as many cartwheels as they could to raise awareness for the event. They had organizations participate and nominate other organizations, creating a buzz around campus and get people talking about TigerThon. The challenge was simple- do as many cartwheels as you can in a row, then nominate three other organizations. If your group/ organization was unable to complete the challenge, they asked for a donation in return.
Incorporating unique campaigns like this to drive awareness on campus can be extremely beneficial in educating students about the cause, and encouraging dancers to register, especially for first year programs.
Their second approach was even more unique than the first. The TigerThon team decided to bring a petting zoo to campus with animals ranging from Llamas to lemurs, and even snakes! This event took place in a central part of campus so that students passing by after class were able to walk up and participate. The buzz from the petting zoo spread quickly and was documented on student’s social media throughout the day. This event strategically took place during the week before finals to offer a fun break from studying.
The TigerThon team is quickly making a name for themselves on campus by being bold and incorporating out-of-the-box ideas to capture student’s attention.
Do you want your Dance Marathon to stand out? Get creative, be bold, and fun- For The Kids!