How Optima Planner Unlocked Fresh Marketing Ideas With Interns — Just in Time for Kickstarter

The Challenge: Creative Innovation in a Time-Crunch

As Optima Planner prepared to launch a Kickstarter for its new daily planner product, founder Linda faced a common startup challenge: keeping up with content creation while wearing a dozen other hats.

“I think content strategy has always been a challenge for us, and especially when you're trying to scale a business,” she shared, “it's not always at the forefront of what we want to do.”

Linda knew the brand needed fresh marketing assets and innovative ideas to fuel launch momentum — but didn’t have the bandwidth to manage a lengthy onboarding process or micromanage junior help.

The Solution: Bringing In Fresh Perspectives with Trylrun

Optima Planner used Trylrun to quickly spin up a social media marketing internship program, bringing on two interns who could plug into the business with structure and clarity from day one.

From the start, the focus wasn’t just about getting help — it was about gaining new energy and ideas that would resonate with Optima Planner’s audience.

“I thought Trylrun did a really good job bringing in two great interns. They were much closer in age to our target demographic,” Linda said, “so it was a very good way to bring younger talent and fresh perspectives to help us understand our product positioning”

Execution: Fresh Eyes, Real Impact

The two interns took the lead on a series of creative initiatives — from short-form TikTok videos to Instagram content and campaign ideas Linda hadn’t previously considered.

“It was really nice to have younger interns coming into the business,” she said. “They know what's trending. They know, like the hottest like TikTok songs or trends… that was really helpful.”

And the results spoke for themselves.

“We created a lot of really cool content. We've got a lot of engagement on social media that we can utilize,” Linda noted. “We're tapping [that content] for the Kickstarter campaign now.”

One standout moment? A channel Linda had completely overlooked.

“I personally wasn't thinking about Pinterest, for example, as a marketing channel, and one of our interns suggested that. And I just thought it's really awesome that they have initiative and the insight to bring to us. And so I thought that was fantastic.”

The Outcome: Content, Confidence, and Campaign Momentum

By the end of the internship, Optima Planner wasn’t just left with a folder of content — they had a new toolkit for how to communicate with their audience, shaped by authentic, real-time trends that their interns ran with.

Trylrun’s platform gave Linda the structure to bring in new help without taking on more overhead — and gave the interns room to contribute meaningfully and independently.

Why It Matters

Intern programs are often seen as simple support roles, but they can also serve as creative catalysts that unlock new ideas and strategies. With the right structure, interns can bring much-needed innovation to marketing efforts.

For Optima Planner, this meant:

• Innovative content and marketing strategies that caught the attention of their target audience.

• Interns who were empowered to take creative risks and bring new ideas to the table.

• A minimal-effort, high-impact approach to marketing during a critical launch phase.

By combining guided structure with the freedom to explore fresh perspectives, Trylrun enabled Optima Planner to leverage their interns as a valuable source of creativity — setting the team up for success with their Kickstarter launch.