"Honor my Grad" helps grads celebrate in 2020

“I can’t imagine being a graduate student this year,” said Bill Ostendorf, CEO of Creative Circle Media. “There is no prom and parents are itching to do something.” 

So Creative Circle launched “Honor My Grad,” following the model of a free, public service listing for any graduate – high school, college, elementary or kindergarten. Upsells allowed parents to publish a listing in print and create a greatly enhanced listing online.

“Our focus group research with parents and school administrators revealed a huge, pent up demand to do something for 2020 grads and this gives parents the option of building a whole page about their kid and then privately invite relatives or friends to contribute,” said Bill Ostendorf, CEO. 

“Many papers got hundreds of grads in a few days and many schools helped them promote the option.”

Creative Circle has also launched an app, What’s Open, to 200 local newspapers and will roll out four more COVID apps this summer. Next up is one honoring the big and little heroes who helped others through this crisis. That will be followed by a pet contest with a coronavirus twist and apps centered on working from home and homeschooling.

“All these apps have a long shelf life and can continue generating revenue and eyeballs throughout this crisis,” said Ostendorf. 

Here’s how Honor My Grad works: 

Like What’s Open, the family fills out a simple, “tell us about their grad” form, which is free. “This is just public service for your kids and your communities,” Ostendorf said. 

The next upsell with a recommended price of $25 publishes the announcement in the newspaper. The third at around $35 adds a photo, other details and allows parents to invite more people to contribute. 

“Many of these apps don’t require much marketing. Newspapers can just put on the website and it will generate some movement. “

 “The key was that we came up with something very customized and unique for each app, that gives it a hook and makes it stand out. Then we made sure to make it easy on the newspaper staff and the user,” said Ostendorf. “We also did some focus group research with each one to make sure we captured the right features and approaches.”