Sweet News Helps Girl Scout Troop Started in NYC Homeless Shelters with First Cookie Selling Program

If you need a story rooted in kindness and goodwill to restore any wavering faith in mankind then the success of Girl Scout Troop 6000’s first-ever Cookie Selling Program may be a welcome respite from the negative media chatter across all channels. Here’s the sweet scoop:

Girl Scout Troop 6000 recently kicked off their first ever Girl Scout Cookie Program® with an original goal of selling 6,000 boxes of cookies over a six day period. The new Kellogg's® NYC Café, an immersive brick-and-mortar cereal café in the Union Square neighborhood served as the perfect stage for Troop 6000 to test their cookie selling skills. What is unique about Troop 6000 which is part of Girl Scouts of Greater New York (GSGNYC) is that it is specially designed to serve the thousands of girls living in the New York City homeless shelter system. Each week, Troop 6000 meets in shelters across the city, led by trained troop leaders – women and mothers also living in the shelter. Troop 6000 was established in March 2017 through a partnership between New York City’s Department of Homeless Services, the Girl Scouts of Greater New York and Mayor Bill de Blasio and today includes over 300 members. 

Reilly Connect in collaboration with Kellogg’s, GSGNYC and its PR team blitzed the media to spread the word about Troop 6000’s cookie selling attempt. Hundreds of people lined up each day to open their hearts to Troop 6000 and to satisfy their love for Girl Scout Cookies while helping the girls reach their goal. As the news coverage spread each day so did the lines. By week’s end Troop 6000 had sold 32,569 boxes of cookies thanks to the generous people of New York who came in droves and the monumental positive traditional and social media coverage that inspired them. The coverage came in multiple waves and continued well beyond the cookie selling event to include follow up stories reporting on Troop 6000's success. More than 82 stories were generated across television, print and social media. Stories spread to ten local markets and to date more than 450 million media impressions have been generated. 

The girls of Troop 6000 showed their sales grit, the people of New York stood in line patiently with smiles and warmth to showed their love for the girls and to stock up on their favorite cookies. Our collective PR teams showed our resilience at flawlessly managing the media bombardment. Reilly's video production talent also created shareable video content on the spot to help tell the wonderful success story of Troop 6000’s Cookie Selling program to media who could not attend extending the reach of our efforts well beyond New York.

Girl Scouting build girls of courage, confidence and character to make the world a better place. Girl Souting is for girls and gives all girls a voice. The Girl Scouts of Troop 6000 shouted loud and clear. Their voices were heard and people listened and responded with kindness and generosity. Reilly Connect's teams in New York and Chicago were so honored and proud to be part of this life-changing week for these girls and their efforts to make the world a better place were felt by all.

The Girl Scout Cookie Program® is the largest girl-led entrepreneurial program in the world—and helps girls earn money for educational activities, community projects and travel opportunities. All net revenue raised from cookie sales (100 percent) stays with the local councils and troops. Kellogg® is the parent company of Little Brownie Bakers®, which is licensed by Girl Scouts of the USA, and has been baking Girl Scout Cookies since 1973.

Reilly Gives TheFitExpo™ PR & Social Media Muscle

More than 15,000 fitness enthusiasts pressed the flesh earlier this month at TheFitExpo Chicago—one of the largest, most interactive health and wellness events in the Midwest. The event, now in its third year, included a star-studded celebrity line-up. Topping the list of the buff and tough world-famous athletes were Tae Bo® creator Billy Blanks, 4x Mr. Olympia Champion Jay Cutler, vibrant group fitness instructor Jessie Hilgenberg and emerging talent, professional athlete and trainer King Pito Gator.

“Team Reilly was tapped because of our multi-channel marketing expertise and experience as health and wellness public relations experts,” said Susan Reilly, President, Reilly Connect. “As an experienced Chicago Public Relations Agency, our team ignited advanced  and onsite marketing efforts through a mix of influencer marketing , social media conversations and traditional publicity.”

The two-day event, held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, brought the heat to Chicago to jump start summer fitness for attendees ranging from bodybuilders and powerlifters to jiu-jitsu and karate participants, personal trainers, group exercise instructors and competitive athletes. The Expo provided various types of entertainment including fitness competitions, group exercise workouts, healthy eating demonstrations and family-oriented fun. Around 600 unique exhibitors showcased the latest in health and fitness services and products.

Coverage highlights included: WGN’s Maggie Carlo putting her athletic prowess into play with a live feature segment starring Billy Blanks; King Pito Gator opening up about his personal transformation from being a victim of domestic abuse to becoming a fitness guru on a live talkback segment with ABC7; And bodybuilding dancers, The Brutez, strutting their stuff on Windy City Live sparking coverage engagement across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Team Reilly also took advantage of Snapchat by sharing multiple video snippets of Billy Blanks leading his group workouts.

“It was great seeing fitness icon Billy Blanks reach the eyeballs of almost 75,000 viewers in minutes on Chicago’s very own Snap Story,” said Reilly. “Snapchat gave the event a bump while showing us the power of celebrity influencers.”

TheFitExpo™ is produced by National Fitness Productions and continues to be on the cutting edge of everything fitness. TheFitExpo™ takes place in six markets across the U.S including: San Jose, Anaheim, Ft. Lauderdale, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Chicago. TheFitExpo™ will return to the West Coast at the San Jose Convention Center July 29-30, 2017.