National Girl Scout Cookie Day boosts awareness of girls’ education

You would be hard pressed to find someone in the United States who doesn’t like Girl Scout Cookies.

The beloved Thin Mints, Samoas, Tagalongs, and other favorites bring in $790 million in sales each year. 

But while Americans love and anticipate cookie season, few consider that the cookie program teaches young girls important lessons about business and financial literacy, and is the largest girl-led business in the world.

To inform the public about the importance of the cookie program and its role in educating girls, the Girl Scouts of the USA declared Feb. 8 National Girl Scout Cookie Day.

For its work in planning, promoting, and launching National Girl Scout Cookie Day—the first nationwide Girl Scout Cookie media initiative in the organization’s 100-year history—CRT/tanaka wins first place in the Best Event PR category of PR Daily’s 2013 Nonprofit PR Awards.

The goal of National Girl Scout Cookie Day was to celebrate the five skills girls develop through the cookie program—goal setting, decision making, money management, business ethics, and people skills—and encourage people nationwide to join in the fun. 

The best way to tell the public about these skills was to have the Girl Scouts themselves show them off. CRT/tanaka organized several Girl Scout Cookie pop-up shops in high-traffic areas around New York City where girls from local councils sold cookies and reported, via social media, about the skills cookie-selling teaches them.

CRT/tanaka also arranged a partnership with Sweetery NYC, Zagat’s No. 1 rated food truck, to create a co-branded truck with Girl Scouts on board that sold even more cookies throughout the city.

Media received a “save the date” prior to the event so they could plan to attend and interview the Scouts. Apart from interviews with Girl Scouts of the USA CEO Anna Maria Chávez, the girls served as their own spokespeople.

The New York Girl Scouts sold more than $18,000 worth of cookies on National Girl Scout Cookie Day, and landed national broadcast segments on “The Today Show with Kathie Lee and Hoda,” “Fox & Friends Morning Show,” “CNN en Espanol,” and “Bloomberg Radio.” The Girl Scouts also earned print coverage in The New York Times, Gothamist, CNN Eatocracy, Huffington Post, and more.

The Cookie Day produced a 48 percent increase in mentions of Girl Scout Cookies in January and February 2013, and a 25 percent increase in Girl Scout mentions in the same time as compared to 2012.

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