A PR and social media campaign around a share offering that won over 361 investors five days early
A PR and social media campaign around the equity crowdfunding offering for Las Vegan's vegan chocolate raised PLN 999,999 from 361 investors five days ahead of schedule — on the back of 37 posts reaching 123,935 people and 18 influencer partnerships.
Our client
Manufaktura Czekolady (Chocolate Story) is a pioneer of bean-to-bar chocolate production in Poland — an expert in craft chocolate made without pre-made ingredients or artificial additives. Las Vegan's is their ambitious side project: a fully vegan BIO&ECO chocolate, wrapped in compostable, eco-friendly paper instead of the traditional foil and plastic film — the first brand on the market to do it.
To fund the rollout and promotion of the new line, Manufaktura's subsidiary opted for a share offering in an equity crowdfunding model, running from October to December 2020 on the Crowdway platform. The audience for the campaign was therefore not only fans of vegan sweets, but above all prospective retail investors.
The challenge
Social Lama's brief was to run the PR and social media campaign behind the Las Vegan's share offering — to convince 361 people, in a short window and with no paid budget, to buy shares worth PLN 999,999 in total, even though the company had no financial track record yet.
- Reaching the campaign's six key audiences — craft chocolate lovers, retail investors, Manufaktura Czekolady's customers and business partners, shoppers who buy Polish, eco-minded consumers, and the vegetarian and vegan community.
- Planning and running a two-stage PR and social media campaign — from posts and regular webinars with the management board, through a video, to the campaign website.
- Engaging the vegan and eco community through partnerships with influencers and the admins of topical Facebook groups.
- Ongoing media monitoring and answering prospective investors' questions for the entire duration of the offering.
Results
Las Vegan's
Instagram/Facebook
Website
Our approach
Regular webinars with the management board
On November 5, 2020, the first webinar with the Las Vegan's management board went live on Facebook — from the start of the crowdfunding offering the sessions ran on a fixed schedule, every Wednesday. We handled the announcement copy, the run of show, and prepping the company's representatives to go on camera.
We also watched over every webinar as it ran — from publishing the event and sending invitations to moderating and answering viewers' questions in real time, including direct questions about buying shares.
Bringing vegan influencers on board
We set up barter partnerships with 18 vegan influencers, who posted about the Las Vegan's offering in their own feeds and Instagram Stories, becoming the brand's voice online.
That put word of the campaign straight in front of an engaged, informed community — in a natural, word-of-mouth tone, with no paid ad budget.
Reaching the vegan and eco community
Word of Las Vegan's reached vegan and eco groups on Facebook with more than 335,000 members between them — thanks to partnerships with the admins of Poland's largest groups in the space, such as "Wegetarianie i Weganie Polska" (Vegetarians and Vegans Poland) and "Co jedzą polscy weganie" (What Polish vegans eat).
On the brand's own social channels we published 37 posts about the Las Vegan's offering, reaching 123,935 people in total.
Coverage in trade and international media
News of the Las Vegan's share offering made the homepages of influential news sites, among them Rp.pl, Spidersweb.pl, Roslinniejemy.pl, Wegetarianie.pl, and Strefainwestorow.pl, and pieces about the brand also ran in print.
The campaign picked up international reach — The First News, an English-language outlet, also covered the story of Las Vegan's as the first brand to swap traditional foil for compostable paper.
Traffic growth and a successful offering
Over the course of the campaign we recorded a clear rise in traffic to the Manufaktura Czekolady website — visits grew month over month and in December 2020 hit their highest level of the whole year (94,631 users, 460,270 page views).
The main goal of the PR and social media work was met 5 days ahead of schedule — 361 investors backed Las Vegan's SA, taking up shares worth PLN 999,999 in total. Interest in the products ran so high that from December 10 to 31 the company had to suspend sales in its online store because it had run out of stock.