Toward the end of last summer, we were encouraged to participate in a contest sponsored by Intuit where a small business could have a shot at winning a Super Bowl commercial. We were definitely the underdogs, but we figured, why not? If anything, it would build awareness of not only our Spray Pal brand, but about modern cloth diapers in general. We had a great time playing along, met a lot of really cool new people and business owners, and definitely helped more people realize that cloth diapers aren't the plastic pants and safety pins of not too long ago.
In fact, we actually surprised OURSELVES with how awesome we did in this contest. The first two rounds were based simply on popular vote, and out of tens of thousands of small businesses that entered, Spray Pal stayed in the TOP 10 most popular spots for almost the entire time! The lowest spot we ever hit toward the end was #14, which is still completely and mind-blowingly AMAZING considering how niche our product is! We had so much love and support from our friends, family, and facebook followers (which at that time totaled around 4,000 people). I think the fact that we were up there amongst the big dogs made people realize that cloth diapers are becoming more and more mainstream.
Part of our strategy in trying to win this was to use social media as a means to promote cloth diapers and make people aware of the cute, economical, and natural side of diapering. We had hoped to get some celebrities involved, maybe convince one or two of them to try out cloth diapers on their own kids. That part didn't actually pan out, but there's still hope! Celebrities are having babies all the time, right? ;) Not that you need a celebrity to prove that something is better for your baby, for the environment, and for your wallets, but, you know, it helps get the message out to the masses a lot quicker.
In our pursuit of building awareness, we made up the hashtag #makeclothmainstream and encouraged people to use it with their adorable cloth diaper photos and tag people who they thought might help get the word out. Since then, in less than a year, there are already almost 9,000 posts with this hashtag on instagram! It's seriously amazing to see our community come together like this and help spread the word about cloth diapers. I think we all dream of the day when cloth diapers will become the mainstream choice. :)
In an effort to continue this movement, we have created a Facebook group where you can ask questions and have discussions about anything cloth diaper related. Feel free to join us if you are interested in learning more or if you have any questions as you move along in your cloth diapering journey! You can CLICK HERE to request to join the group and one of the admin will get you added!
