CreateAthon marketing blitz helping area non-profits

WEST COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - Some advertising professionals in West Columbia won't be getting a lot of sleep tonight as they participate in the CreateAthon, a 24 hour marketing blitz intended to help Midlands non-profits.

With some 'outside the box thinking,' and bag loads of snacks, Teresa Cole and her team at Riggs Partners have helped more than a few non-profit groups in the past 16 years.

"We wanted to come up with a way that would make it easy for us to say yes to a large number of non profits and at the same time conduct that work in a way that was easy and fun for us to manage," Cole said.

So the advertising team came up with CreateAthon, a blitz focused on helping a handful of groups come up with everything from brand images to fundraising ideas.

"It is crazy, exhilarating, panicky, and terrifying and the most fun you've ever had professionally," Cole said.

In years past, they've helped groups like The Therapy Place, a Columbia-based 501(c) 3 organization focusing on speech, occupational and physical therapy for kids with special needs.

"We find that we're all at our best when we are passionate about this organization that are doing such great work in our community and that is what pulls us through the night," Cole said.

The process has been so successful it's spawned more than 70 others across the country, and now the world.

Fiji will also host a CreateAthon this year.

All of them, burning the midnight oil to shed light on some charitable groups that could use the attention.

"It's like being Santa Claus when they come in and see their work the next day and it's an incredibly joyful experience for us," Cole said.

Eight groups were chosen among More than 30 who applied to be CreateAthon clients this year.

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