Case Study: How to Promote an Event More than Six Months Away Successfully Featuring Friends of Our Florida Reefs

SWhat can marketing and consistent communications return for your business or organization? 


For our client, Friends of Our Florida Reefs (FOFR), it got them two years of successful turnouts and debris collection for their annual tri-county reef cleanup with minimal marketing. 


In 2025, our client came to us with a task. 


They wanted to host a multi-county cleanup across South Florida, where dive operations from each county would take divers out all at the same time to remove debris from Florida’s Coral Reef. 


The goal was community involvement, more attention placed on Florida’s Coral Reef, and of course, a good turnout, both from divers and debris removed.


The first reef cleanup in this format was hosted in 2025. 


Using social media and email marketing alone, Conscious Content Clips was able to garner 87 participating cleanup scuba divers to remove 136 pounds of debris for FOFR’s reef cleanup event. 


They were incredibly pleased with the turnout! 


In 2026, we said, let’s make it bigger. 


Another dive boat was added, bringing us up to six dive boats across Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach County, and we added a same-day after-party. 


Let’s not spoil how it ended just yet. 

Promoting an Event Six or More Months Away

Not only did Conscious Content Clips promote the FOFR cleanup, we helped plan it too, both years, but that’s a story for another time! 


For now, let’s focus on how we promote an event six plus months away, maintain excitement, and ensure a good turnout. 


We would like to say first off, as any good marketing launch does, we love to drum up excitement, but the reality is, the first thing you really need to know is who you’re marketing to. 


FOFR’s audience is largely made up of scuba divers, ocean enthusiasts, and coral lovers. 


In fact, we know that one of the main questions FOFR gets is followers looking to get involved with FOFR in a scuba diving capacity. 


FOFR’s annual reef cleanup is the only such opportunity, so we really leverage that insight to entice the audience. 


Once the main details are secured, like date and time, we launch a few posts with minimal information about the event, but more of what they should expect. 


This is the “save the date” posts. 


Like for FOFR they should expect a fun day alongside the coral conservation community collecting debris, spots are limited, and you must be a certified scuba diver.


After the final details and logistics are confirmed, around 3-4 months away, we release a few posts with those details, with the call-to-action driving interested participants to sign up for the “waitlist”. 


By creating a waitlist, we’re able to get data points on those who are bought in, create exclusivity and reward participants who took the extra step by contacting them first with registration information, and we have captured emails of our most locked-in audience members.


Once the registration specifics were confirmed with the dive shops actually executing the event via their dive charters, we shared the registration links with the waitlist three days before we shared it on the FOFR website and social media channels. 


This caused boats to fill up quickly, some selling out within the first ten days of registration being open to the waitlisters. 


This is the system we used in 2025 to launch this format of event for FOFR and it resulted in 87 participating divers and 136 pounds of debris removed. 


In 2026, we used this same strategy and actually produced less content, yet it resulted in 100 participating divers and 321 pounds of debris removed from Florida’s Coral Reef. 

The Conscious Content Clips Event Social Strategy

How were we able to produce less content for a client yet get a better turn out than the year before? 


The short answer is that we laid the marketing foundation that first year, which was followed by a seamless cleanup that put it on the radar for the divers who had missed out. 


The long answer is that FOFR has a dedicated team of sustainability marketing professionals dedicated to their success, and the CCC team had a huge part in making this event a reality. 


After the reef cleanup, we were able to use that content for the rest of the year to periodically plug the event and use it as engaging visual content. 


This helped build hype around the event throughout the year. 


By the time the waitlist came back around the for 2026 cleanup, officially called the 15th Annual Southeast Florida Reef Cleanup, due to many years of holding cleanups, but not to this magnitude, it didn’t require much priming.


There was less content made this year to promote the event, yet there was a better turnout and it was a larger event with an added boat and after-party. 


This was simply because we structured the sponsorship tiers differently this year, something else CCC coordinated and executed, and we did not include free content to anyone besides the highest-tier donors.


Right before the event, about two to three weeks out, that’s pretty much all you’ll see on FOFR’s feed and in subscribers’ email inboxes.


A clear formula that works for us when it comes to events: at least one video and static post right before the actual event as one final push, the week of, and a post-event, ideally short-form video, recap right after. 


Now, that’s not the only content made right before and after — that’s the bare minimum strategy. 

Your Event Marketing Checklist

Let’s recap the Conscious Content clips Event Marketing Strategy and give you a checklist you can follow for future events. 


☑  Know who you’re talking to and the kind of person that likes the type of event you’re hosting


☑  Create “Save the Date” content early to drive hype and get the date on their calendar sooner


☑  For paid events, release full event details and create a waitlist to drive exclusivity and reach them directly


☑  Use your email list and socials to send out consistent messaging about your event


☑  Email the waitlist first with registration details, a discount for signing up early, etc. to reward their action


☑ Wait a few days and then publicly announce your event is open for registration on socials, add it to your website, and email your full list


☑ Keep hyping up your event until registration closes/event happens


☑ Use the CCC event posting formula: one video and one static post the week of the event, and one recap hype video right after (within 3 days of the event taking place)


☑ Capture enough content during the event to use in next year’s marketing and repeat! 


Is that a lot of steps? Yeah. 


Do you have to do it yourself? No way! 


You have Conscious Content Clips, a team of dedicated sustainability and marketing professionals who know what shots to take, what your audience is looking for, and how to speak to that directly.


Let us take the marketing part off your plate so you can focus on executing the event and running the rest of your business or organization. 

We work on a project basis, like for events, or on a retainer basis. 

Visit www.consciouscontentclips.com/start-here and fill out the brief form so we can start the conversation.