228 Accelerator: Long Game Marketing for Equity Centered Changes in Education

Regardless of spiritual beliefs, we all agree any conversation with Caroline Hill means going to church. Highly educated and around 10 steps ahead of most people when it comes to building community in the digital universe, Caroline has a way of connecting with people at a soul level. This is how the Fearless Team knew she was an absolute fit for the co-creation of her brand and marketing strategy. 

She came to us for help with her mission-driven organization, 228 Accelerator. 228 focuses on equipping educators and school leaders with the tools, resources, and community support they need to become experts in designing at the margins and drive equity-centered change in their schools and communities.

Caroline had already found success working with educational institutions, administrators, and partner organizations through curated consulting, and the development of an online course and community for their specific needs. However, she wanted to reach the end user directly: teachers, parents, students, and anyone else interested in equity work. It was also important that this new product offering was accessible to all people regardless of their socio-economic background and location, since she saw the most value in a greater number of people engaging in and activating her equity work in their day-to-day lives.  

The Fearless team worked closely with Caroline to create a new experimental learning offering called the XDesign Experience. This is a uniquely immersive virtual learning experience weaving audio, written, and video content together with somatic bodywork in a monthly subscription format. 

Listening intently to her vision and deeply understanding where her motivation and unique expertise intersects with market needs, we expanded her reach to new users by launching and managing a monthly Twitter space, developing a podcast series, and compiling her archival materials into a virtual resource library.

Creating and managing these top-of the-funnel marketing strategies to pull users into the monthly XDesign Experience and community, along with our regular monthly management of organic and paid social media content, bi-weekly newsletters, and blogs deftly positioned our client for greater brand awareness, more accessible thought-leadership content, and increased opportunities for conversions. 

This project continues to pave the way for Caroline to multiple innovative product offerings that combine education, equity, and the Metaverse, positioning her once again at the cutting edge of this important work.

Most recently, the 228 Metaverse has been hosting Summer School–a weekly hour-long space they’ve been holding to correct and publicly balance dominant narratives and the people’s narratives. It’s been a beautiful way to continue growing 228 Metaverse users, offer engaging discussion sessions with their community, and connect regularly throughout the summer.

As with many things in marketing, the 228 Accelerator strategy is ever evolving. Even as of this week, we’ve done a fresh iteration of the bi-weekly newsletter, Equity Drop. Instead of crafting a completely thought leadership oriented piece, we’re focusing on providing that leadership along with other helpful resources Caroline’s ideal audience would find interesting and useful.

The beautiful and challenging thing about working with 228 Accelerator is the extremely niched audience. While there are many educators throughout the world, it’s often difficult to find those who are interested and engaged in doing equity work,and even more difficult to connect and occupy time in their already packed and busy schedules. However, when there is a connection, users are extremely appreciative of the 228 community and offerings.

The evolution of 228 has been an absolute honor to be a part of on a regular basis. It’s an incredible way to partner with leaders who are committed to doing the work and bring others along with them. We’re grateful to learn alongside 228 Accelerator and to get to play a part in bringing their equity work to a wider audience.