2006 Public Service Campaign- The Charles Hamilton Houston Institute

Dr. John Odom, President of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute, made it very clear to us that their mission, "Economic Independence for Black Americans", wasn't going to be an easy one to fulfill. There was a lot of work to be done locally, regionally and nationally, but they stood by their motto "Make no small plans," and we jumped at the challenge. Unfortunately, we were shocked to find out some of the statistics about Black Americans in our community, such as:

• Wisconsin incarcerates the highest percentage of its Black population among the 50 states; and Dane County incarcerates the highest percentage of Black youth among all counties in the nation.
• Black students make up just 20% of the student population in Madison, but they're 57% of the students recommended for expulsion, and 53% of students expelled.
• The life expectancy of a Black man is 8.4 years shorter than that of a White man.
• In Wisconsin, Black girls are 14 times more likely to become teenage mothers than any other racial demographic. In fact, Wisconsin leads the nation in Black teenage pregnancies.

The Charles Hamilton Houston Institute uses education and outreach to facilitate economic independence and a brighter future for the Black community. The organization was founded by passionate Black leaders in Madison in 2001, and is based on the life work of Charles Hamilton Houston, the mastermind behind a law-based civil rights strategy in the early 20th Century. One of The Institute's educational programs is the Youth Empowerment Academy (YEA), which is designed to supplement the existing educational institutions and support Black youth who slip through the cracks. Through education, motivation and networking, YEA intends to reduce the failure and incarceration rates among Black Americans and to increase the number of successful entrepreneurs, employees and trades people. The curriculum includes academics, health, business and finance, technology, the arts, ethnic heritage and pride and personal development. STARS (Summer Training for At-Risk Students) is another of the Institute's programs, which assists pre-kindergarten and pre-first grade students who have failed the requirements of admission to kindergarten.

Like all non-profit organizations, funding for The Institute is limited. And, it should be the goal of all non-profits to raise as much capital as they can. But we can't hope that money will magically appear. Key points within the research exposed the real opportunity – to educate the Madison community and present a compelling reason to give money to The Institute. Ad 2 Madison felt strongly that before The Institute could raise money, a strong brand – with strong convictions – must be built. The question that needed to be answered was "Why should I give money to your organization?" It quickly became evident that the primary goal of the campaign was simple: raise awareness of this new institution to better position them for fund development in the future.

With limited resources, it is critical to find media partners and opportunities that will reach the most people. With such a great story to tell, The Institute didn't want to be limited to just a niche demographic. The primary target was Dane County Adults aged 25+ with the following qualifying characteristics: educated, early adopters, socially aware, and persons who seek alternative newspapers and media. These are also the people most likely to donate once they are aware of the cause. Regardless of ethnicity, age, race, income or gender – crime, incarceration and poverty affect everyone. And without specific brand recognition, support becomes more challenging to achieve. The messaging must be relevant enough for the whole community to hear.

Our creative strategy was simple: the campaign needed to speak directly to the community and confront the current situation. With this campaign, The Institute needed to get their message out. Our campaign tagline "Change the Numbers. Change the Community." succinctly positioned our client's mission to our target audience. 

For our campaign we used a wide variety of communications media including:

• Identity package – We modernized The Institute's logo and also created letterhead, business cards and a general information brochure for their interactions with donors, the media and general public.
• TV Spot – A :30 television ad was produced to illustrate the shocking statistics facing our local Black community. A student from The Institute was featured as talent, while a board member was used as voice talent.
• Radio Spots – Two :30 radio ads were created to supplement the campaign. Although we couldn't visually represent the statistics, we still wanted the listener to absorb the facts, so we took a somewhat non-traditional approach to radio and gave the listener "space" to interact with the ad.
• Print/Outdoor/Transit ads – We developed six print ads, four outdoor billboard ads and an interior bus board ad. Within our ads, we used a shocking graphic or headline (depending on size restraints) to capture the viewers' attention.
• Web site/Electronic Media – In our awareness campaign, the Web is the integral call to action in all executions. Therefore, it was important that the Web site have an easily memorable Web site address, so we purchased www.professorhouston.org and developed an entirely new site for The Institute. We also developed online ads for donated online space.
• Collateral – Due to The Institute's focus on education, we wanted to create a piece that reinforced their convictions. We are developing a bookmark to give out at libraries, bookstores and coffee shops – places we know our target audience will also frequent.
• Public Relations – The Ad 2 Madison public relations team created awareness and a positive image for The Institute through press releases, a full media kit and events. The committee performed an active editorial calendar assessment and sent full media kits and additional news releases to Wisconsin's major print and broadcast media

The results during the campaign were:

• Over 3.8 million total gross impressions with a value of over $163,000 in donated media.
• The campaign was valued at over $210,000, including market research, broadcast production, creative development and management, media and PR. The cost to our client came in at $300 – the cost to print the interior bus board signs. All other hard costs and time were donated to the campaign.
• Web site has gained 5,817 hits.
• The Institute had an unaided awareness of just 5% in Dane County, but we were able increase awareness by 40%.

Overall, Ad 2 Madison was proud to develop a campaign for The Institute that created a strong base and brand for the future, providing some strong building blocks for The Institute to use once we were gone. The integrated campaign built brand equity, energized the organization internally and hopefully fostered future media/vendor relationships for The Institute far into the future. Our relationship with The Institute has truly been mutually beneficial. Ad 2 Madison is proud to serve the community through its work with The Institute, and we give our sincere thanks to The Institute President, Dr. Odom, and his board for their commitment, passion and teaching. We're definitely a stronger organization for having been involved in this partnership.

Ad 2 Madison is happy to report that 2006 campaign for The Institute took second place at the National American Advertising Federation conference in Louisville in June 2007. The campaign also earned a Silver 8th District ADDY award.