The Voices for Children campaign was my first time working with a nonprofit organization and my experience with them is what truly inspired me to pursue a career in marketing/advertising.
During my final semester of school, I served as the Creative Director of our advertising campaigns class. We developed a fully integrated marketing plan for VFC and they were so pleased that they actually decided to turn our vision into a reality.
I was hired as a freelance Project Manager at Principle Creative (the agency representing VFC) where I helped to implement many different aspects of the campaign. In addition to executing creative tactics, I was also tasked with developing copy and layout for the new web site, compiling a database of media contacts, developing a budget, and acting as a liaison between the VFC board members and our agency.
The new media campaign launched Spring 2010.
The following images are comprised of the different visual elements of the campaign that I developed the design concept and copy for.
Print/Web Ad #1
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Print/Web Ad #2
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Select the "Read More" link below to view more images and the entire Creative Strategy developed for the campaign.
Print/Web Ad #3
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Billboard/Web Ad #4
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New Logo Concept
Creative Strategy
In times of economic hardship, the need for social support services is greater than ever. An alarming number of children are entering Northeast Florida’s child welfare system. Tragically, due to state budget cuts, many of the area’s government funded programs have suffered. The Guardian ad Litem program is not an exception, and less than half of these children are provided a judicial advocate. With caseloads that are often too high and resources too scarce, the system causes some children to go without representation.
Voices For Children of Northeast Florida, through the Guardian ad Litem program, supports the rights of abused, abandoned and neglected children within Clay, Nassau, and Duval County’s judicial system. VFC supplements government funding for the recruitment, training and supervision of volunteers who advocate for the best interests of the child. Guardian ad Litems do much more than help abused and neglected children through court proceedings. Advocates spend a few hours each month with one or two children, listening to them and talking to their caretakers. They provide a “voice” for the children, and offer insight to often overburdened state caseworkers on what may be in the child's best interest. This includes-but is not limited to-their emotional and physical well-being. The final goal is a stable, healthy and nurturing home environment for the child. Without a Guardian ad Litem, children may feel forgotten by society and are left to navigate through the system on their own.
As donations have become a less reliable source of funding, Voices For Children needs additional assistance to ensure their mission of supporting the Guardian ad Litem program. To achieve this objective, essential local supplementary resources and support, generated through an effective communications plan, must be implemented.
Research based on convenience sampling in various geographic areas of Jacksonville, including Nassau, St. John’s, Clay and Duval counties, suggests that increasing the awareness of the partnership between Voices For Children and Guardian ad Litem is vital. Since there is very limited recognition of either organization, our strategy focuses on creating a synonymous association between the two programs. Increasing awareness will inspire the public to take action by volunteering, donating, or educating others. The primary focus of our communications strategy is to provide a clear statement of both organizations’ missions through the use of various compelling advertisements. With this objective in mind, a campaign centered on increasing knowledge of this partnership aims to produce, at a minimum, 100 new local volunteers annually while increasing funding for the organization.
Tone Statement
The tone of the campaign is compassionate concern. The advertisements will be consistently bold yet simple, thereby bringing clarity to the cause. In order to influence all levels of society, the entire campaign will have a visually strong presence that motivates the viewer into action. We want to create a sense of urgency balanced by the positive impacts of becoming a GAL. The option to volunteer or donate will be presented, imploring the viewer to make a conscious decision to become involved.
“The difference between being heard and being forgotten---Be their voice.
Logo Design
Logos are the most important part of a company’s identity. Since Voices for Children needs to increase their organization’s recognition, we felt that redesigning the logo was necessary. Instead of using a traditional symbol as their sole representation, we felt that it was pertinent to incorporate the organization’s name into the design. The simple “text bubble” visual complements the bold typeface, thus creating a crisp, clean and memorable logo.
Media Plan
The goals of this plan will be implemented through an integrated campaign with an array of traditional, non-traditional, and interactive communications, in addition to the use of public relations tactics.
Visualization
To not distract from the client’s recently inaugurated current media campaign, print, video, and web imagery will augment and expand upon the previous plan. However, more images of children in various states of abuse and neglect will be used to grab the attention of the viewer, thus encouraging them to become involved.
Outdoor Media
By utilizing an array of traditional and non-traditional outdoor advertisements, we intend to reach a large portion of the community while also prompting further investigation into the organization. This medium includes the use of billboards, posters and shopping cart inserts. Outdoor advertising is one of the most high-impact, cost-effective types of media because it has the lowest cost-per-thousand as it reaches the most people. Awareness and name recognition will increase with the frequency of exposure, thus generating interest in the organization.
Radio Advertising
Radio, when used in combination with other forms of advertisement, is an effective way to reach a specialized target audience. It is also one of the most inexpensive and efficient means of conveying a campaign message. In order to generate awareness and solicit volunteers to visit the Voices for Children web site, we will run a combination of 30 second and 60 seconds spots on Lite 96.1, Sunny 94.1, Gator Country 99.9, The Eagle 96.9 and The Promise 88.1. The ads will be limited to a specific and contained demographic area and can be tailored to the audiences of particular stations.
Community Media
Since the majority of support will come from local markets, the use of community newspapers and magazines is vital. This media choice is affordable yet allows for great flexibility in regards to location, size and timeliness. Full-color advertisements will be prepared for insertion into The Florida Times Union, The Suns, St. Augustine Record, FolioWeekly and Jacksonville Magazine. The use of this medium will be particularly advantageous since the advertisements can also be featured in conjunction with related news articles on Voices for Children or Guardian ad Litem.
Transit Media
Bus wraps and side panels will be designed in accordance with billboards, posters, and shopping cart advertisements. Transit media will help cover the entire market area numerous times throughout the day while providing coverage in prime locations, allowing us to target the highest concentrations of viewers in the city. Bus advertising is an eye-catching, full-color medium that exposes the ad campaign to the masses, with daily exposure in a vibrant, stand-alone environment. This media choice is extremely economical as it has a very low cost per thousand and a high repetition rate.
Print Ads
Brochures and direct mail pieces will be created and sent to specific target market areas, in turn educating the local community. The print ads, though easy to produce, have a higher cost-per-thousand than some other types of media. Nevertheless, we feel they are important to utilize because they allow for intense coverage and selectivity.
Television Ads
Despite the Internet’s steady rise in popularity, television remains the most dominant medium in most households. Commercials reach a much larger audience than local newspapers and radio stations, and they do so during a short period of time. Conveying the message with sight and sound will create more of an impact on the viewer, consequently prompting them to learn more. We plan to air 30-second commercials on the local channel, CW 17, as it reaches the most diverse audience.
E-Marketing
The Voices for Children’s website will be re-designed with a fresh layout that will allow for easier navigation. The new logo will appear on the opening page as well as supplementary pages and links. In addition, images and colors will be updated, however, the overall the content of the site will remain the same.
A MySpace page will be setup as well as a Facebook site. Additionally, previously designed advertisements will be utilized on each of these sites. One of the major myths about social networking sites is that only young people primarily frequent them, when in fact only 30% of membership is comprised of users under the age of 23. The biggest benefit is that they leverage a social networking platform for targeted advertising. Many organizations are just now starting to tout MySpace and Facebook’s ability to promote and create relationships, which is why it is so important that we utilize this innovative type of medium.
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