Same School, Different Goal

Last year I made Meoros Orlando’s first campaign video. One job: explain why a girls’ high school in Orlando has to exist.

Last year’s video

Meoros Girls High School Orlando →

This year they came back with a $400,000 goal and a different problem.

Mrs. Sara Gittelson, board member and co-founder of Meoros, put it in one line: “Let’s face it, when is the last time you watched a school video that wasn’t from your kid’s school?”

People already know why Meoros exists. Last year’s video took care of that. A second “why we exist” video would get a nod from the parents and nothing from anyone else.

The goal this year wasn’t awareness. It was action — funders, ambassadors, parents and students actually raising. So the question changed. How do you get a random person from a random place to care about your kid’s school?

The answer wasn’t a story. It was a feeling: make fundraising fun, and make something people actually want to watch and share.

So we handed the girls the cameras and the questions. They interviewed their teachers, their parents and each other. “Why do you get up every morning to come and teach at Meoros?” “Who is your favorite student?” (No answer.)

They got paid in sugar. We kept the bloopers. We kept the ending, where nobody is sure the camera is still rolling.

If the goal is getting people to raise, the video has to be something they actually want to share — not something they feel obligated to post. That meant building the rollout around how people actually share: vertical cuts, WhatsApp status sizes, subtitles on everything. Not because it’s best practice. Because that’s how this specific audience passes things around.

The teaser went up the day before launch. The girls getting the cameras, not sure what they’re doing, starting to question themselves.

Teaser (blooper edition)

A second campaign isn’t a sequel. When the goal changes, the video should too.