Almost one-third of women and almost a quarter of men have experienced some type of physical violence at the hands of an intimate partner, according to the CDC, which means millions of people need protection and help. Through an innovative campaign using purple logoed tassel charms, Bienali Promotions (asi/244803) helped to raise $3.1 million for a prominent Chicago-based insurance company’s Purple Purse domestic abuse awareness campaign. Over 200,000 awareness-spreading Purple Tassels were handed out as part of this campaign, which benefitted 160 Purple Purse Challenge nonprofits and the domestic abuse survivors they serve.

“In designing leather bags, we discovered a tassel is something everyone likes to keep on their attaché, key holder or golf/sports bag,” says Lauri Konik Zessar, president of Bienali, which specializes in women’s beauty and fashion promotional merchandise.

But beyond a great idea, networking helped Zessar win the sale. At a Women’s Business Enterprise National Council conference, Zessar met the supplier diversity manager of this large insurance firm. When the company’s charitable foundation reached out to the diversity manager about the Purple Purse campaign, she remembered Zessar and called her up. “The next thing I knew, her PR firm was in my office selecting purses and unique keychains,” says Zessar. “While they were in our office prepping for the meeting, I showed them the idea of the tassel, which they loved. I brought the tassel to the meeting and the rest was history.”

The campaign was so successful that the foundation reordered the tassels and decided to continue the campaign this year. And while Zessar’s original idea was to put the tassels in retail stores (where similar items like those from Coach sell for $85), the success of the Purple Purse campaign has given her ideas to create tassels in different colors to promote awareness for other causes like breast cancer and heart disease prevention.