How Descubrir La Comida gets 12,000+ new subscribers/month
An online campaign by Igualdad Animal México
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Overview
Surrounded by 23,000 technology students and 12,000 camping tents, Katya Ramírez found herself in an environment like nothing she’d ever seen. Campus Party is the largest technology fair in Mexico. It took place in an area of 119,000 square meters, where student attendees spent 24 hours a day for three days listening to talks, playing games, exploring new technologies, and demonstrating their skills in talent contests.
Amid this bustle of activity, Igualdad Animal México (Animal Equality Mexico) distributed their leaflets about veganism. For Katya and all the volunteers, it was a satisfying experience. And, it was here that Katya took a moment to acknowledge just how far their Descubrir La Comida (Discover Your Food) campaign had come. She realized that the campaign had no limits. In fact, the campaign was already using social and digital media to draw thousands of people a month to learn more about veganism and try it for themselves.
Descubrir La Comida is an online and community campaign that began in 2015. Its objectives are to educate people about the realities of farm animals’ lives and to support those transitioning to a vegan lifestyle. The campaign runs Facebook ads that lead to a landing page with a 4-minute film about animal suffering in the food industry. There, visitors can subscribe to the campaign’s newsletter. Subscribers receive recipes, information, and support in eliminating animal products from their lives. Volunteers also screen the short film in public spaces and distribute a leaflet. Descubrir La Comida was developed by Igualdad Animal México, the Mexican branch of the international organization Animal Equality, which works with the public, governments, and companies to end cruelty to farm animals.
I am convinced that it is in our hands to put an end to farm animal cruelty, and Animal Equality will not stop until we achieve it.
Katya Ramírez, Educational Programs Coordinator
Goals
- Inform Mexicans about animal suffering in the food industry and the many alternatives that leave animals off their plate through the use of Facebook ads that convert to vegan newsletter subscriptions.
- Reach out to local communities through educational programs and street screenings of the 4-minute film, Descubrir La Comida.
- Continue to support people on the path to becoming vegan with Love Veg, a biweekly newsletter.
7.7M
monthly impressions
2.2M
total monthly engagement
12,000+
conversions (new subscribers) per month
Note: impact stats based on one month (August 2018) of campaign metrics.
From the first moments of the campaign, seeing people’s reactions, I realized that people are naturally compassionate toward animals — they just need to be informed. Since then, I have developed these activities along with our wonderful team of volunteers who have made it possible for Mexicans to know that animals feel, that they can take them out of their dishes, and, above all, that they need us to end the existing food production systems.
Katya Ramírez
Approach
The team is led by Mariajosé Lozano, Communications Coordinator in charge of the online campaign, and Katya Ramírez, Educational Projects Coordinator in charge of all the street screening events and leafleting. A team of volunteers supports their efforts with the public.
A VegFund grant enabled the team to invite people on their vegan journey using strategic Facebook ads. The team tracked monthly data on clearly defined parameters, including engagement and conversions.
- engagement – any action taken, including reactions, comments, shares, and clicks
- conversions – subscriptions to the newsletter. Their reports date back to the beginning of the campaign in 2015.
For their community outreach, the team created a leaflet, “Una Opción Mejor” (“A Better Option”), which they improved upon over time. A new leaflet, “Love Veg México,” is focused on vegan food for Mexican people. The website, Love Veg México, provides additional recipes, information, and support for free. It contains everything a person should know to enjoy a balanced and delicious vegan diet.
Katya gained permissions from city councils to host outreach events in public places, including the heart of cities: train lines. She also brought the campaign into schools, concerts, and fairs, such as Campus Party.
What surprised me the most was that in every school, every government office, everywhere I went to propose these activities, I found an ally of the animals who did everything in their power to obtain the permissions we needed and allow us to develop the activity.
Katya Ramírez
Results
By every metric, the Descubrir La Comida campaign has been an enormous success. The online campaign yields more than 12,000 new subscribers per month. The 4-minute film that the campaign produced boasts about 30,000 views and counting. Volunteers have distributed 300,000 vegan guides to date. And, most important, more than 400,000 people have subscribed to the biweekly Love Veg newsletter. The campaign’s audience — and the Mexican vegan movement — only continue to grow.
Top Tip
Katya says, "The best tip I can give to anyone organizing similar events is to realize that animal protection issues fit everywhere, that our audience is wide because there are still a lot of people who don't know anything about it, that information is the power for change, and that people may impact more people."
What’s next?
After four years of intense work, Igualdad Animal Méxcio has decided to continue to inform, motivate, and support people on their vegan lifestyle journeys. The organization will continue to use social and digital media to invite others to join the Love Veg project, their online platform for Mexican vegan food. What’s more, the goal is to help current subscribers to stick with a vegan lifestyle so that they can positively impact the lives of animals, the people around them, and the Mexican population.
Every time that I cross paths with someone who stops to tell me, “you gave me a vegan guide,” or “you sent me a recipe,” or “I saw a video during one of your street screenings, and since then I no longer eat animals,” I can't describe the satisfaction that I get. Also, some students who received a guide at their university are now committed volunteers. These moments make every day a possibility to help animals.
Katya Ramírez