Hallegrace Heros' big social media moment
The Situation
Launching a new brand’s social media account from scratch is no easy feat, especially in the nonprofit and apparel realm. But when it came to hallegrace, the mission was deeply personal. The hallegrace pajama line began in honor of Halle Temple. Starting when she was just six years old, Halle faced Ewing Sarcoma, a rare bone cancer, three times before passing away in May 2020. Halle’s vision was comfort and encouragement for children undergoing cancer treatment. Despite her passing, Halle’s friends and family worked tirelessly to turn her hallegrace dream into reality. The pajamas launched on Aug. 18, 2024, which marked what would have been Halle’s 29th birthday.
In tandem with the pajama launch, we launched the hallegrace heroes Instagram page to help share the story and promote these unique pajamas. Our early awareness efforts focused on creating authentic, heartfelt content that would resonate with pediatric cancer patients, their families, and a broader community of supporters. A key participant in our campaign was Brielle Bird (briestrongerthancancer), a pediatric cancer patient whose journey inspired many people and ultimately became one of hallegrace’s most impactful social media partners.
What We Did
Our team built a storytelling-driven social media strategy, focused on pairing product awareness with real stories of strength. To connect with the online pediatric cancer community, hallegrace gifted several pajama sets to patients with prominent accounts across the country. Before sharing Brielle’s photo, hallegrace had already collaborated with her and other pediatric cancer influencers, including Nicole Dodge (nicoledodge) and Pryce Redmon (prayersforpryce). Those early partnerships generated a combined reach of more than 400,000 people, over 2 million impressions and $674,000 in earned media value.
As we continued to interact with all the hallegrace Heroes online, we noticed that Brielle’s account posted a photo of her wearing her hallegrace pajamas. From there, we shared the photo on the hallegrace account and in return, Brielle and her family reposted it to their followers—it was an organic chain reaction, rooted in our hallegrace Heroes campaign.
The post:
- Showcased Brielle’s journey authentically, showing her strength alongside the mission of hallegrace.
- Highlighted how the pajamas bring both comfort and hope to patients during treatment.
- Humanized the brand and sparked community engagement through a real story.
The Results
The impact was immediate and strong. In just two weeks since the post of Brielle in hallegrace pajamas:
- 175 new followers joined the hallegrace Instagram account.
- More than 1 million impressions were generated with a 25K% increase compared to previous posts.
- 19,891 engagements were recorded.
- Audience size grew by nearly 72%.
- The single post delivered an estimated $187K in earned media value, with more than a 4,700% engagement rate.
This single post demonstrates the significant impact authentic storytelling can have on social media. By homing in on the brand narrative through real patients’ stories like Brielle’s, and by laying the groundwork through earlier influencer partnerships, hallegraceheroes quickly gained visibility and experienced rapid growth. By continuing to gift pajamas to pediatric cancer patients and sharing their journeys, we were able to build not only awareness of hallegrace and the Instagram account, but also a lasting emotional connection with the followers.
In loving memory of Brielle Bird (2016-2025).
