united way mbwc campaign

Traditional Non-Profit Breaks Mold,

Goes for Millennial Gold

@MaryBethWest @MBWComm @UnitedWayKnox

Introduction

• Overview of the Client: United Way of Greater Knoxville

• Overview of Mary Beth West Communications, LLC

• How the Campaign Evolved

• RFP

• Research

• Creative and PR Plan Development

• Community Outreach

• Results Achieved

• Questions

Client Overview: UWGK

• Founded locally in 1922

• Raises money from the community and allocates to agencies that provide health and human service programs.

• 2014: 45 partner agencies offering 97 programs, serving 100,000 people (1 in every 4.5) in Greater Knoxville

• Now (2016): 50 partner agencies offering 108 programs

http://www.uwgk.org/

Agency Overview: Mary Beth West Communications, LLC

• Based in Alcoa, Tenn. (Greater Knoxville)

• Founded in 2003 as a public relations consultancy, focused on strategic communications

• Evolved services to include creative / digital development –but always with a focus on an integrated approach, inclusive of public relations strategies

http://www.marybethwest.com/

United Way’s Situation – Challenges & Opportunity

Donor decline over recent years (experienced both locally and nationally)

Given recent recession, fighting for share of voice

United Way message has always been “complicated”

Noted lack of engagement among younger demo (A18-24)

High donor churn

Loss of donors upon retirement

Summer 2014: Unprecedented opportunity with funding for a major campaign ($250,000)

Issued a competitive RFP for agency services

RFP Differentiator: MBWC’s Inclusion of Public Relations in

Recommended Work Scope

• Required services as stated in the RFP: Creative development

Media (traditional, nontraditional, and digital) recommendations

Media planning

Media buying

• MBWC response included strong PR / media relations element recommended to aid in the educational and call-to-action process … not just doing paid media

Market Research

In spring 2014, Knoxville-based Bryant Research had conducted a study, “Survey of Knox County’s Awareness of and Propensity for Giving to the United Way of Greater Knoxville”

• Telephone survey • Adults living in Knox County, Tennessee (ages 18+)

• Used quotas based on US Census data for:• Gender

• Age

• Sample size: 609

• Margin of error (ME) of +/- 4.0% at the 95% confidence interval (CI)

http://www.bryant-research.com/

Market Research

Key Insights from Bryant Study:

• UWGK had a key non-profit competitor in the marketplace for mind share (Knox Area Rescue Ministries – KARM) and with a younger, fairly well-educated donor base and current giving patterns among local residents.

• Roughly 1-in-5 of those who did not give to the UWGK in the past 12 months said it was because they gave to other organizations.

Market Research


• About half of respondents recalled mention of the UWGK in the news. • Most impressions (73%) of the UWGK news were positive.

• Those with positive recall were more likely to report they trust the United Way of Greater Knoxville.

• Just under half of those surveyed recalled ads for the UWGK.

Market Research


• Just over half of those aware of the United Way of Greater Knoxville perceived the organization as helping people with “basic needs.”

• The majority of respondents were uncertain, however, regarding the organization’s impact on health, education and income as defined in the survey. • Six in ten of those who have not given to any charity in the past 12

months indicated they would donate to an organization if it made a difference in health.

• Current UWGK allocations were in fairly close alignment with non-givers’ priorities. This presented a messaging opportunity as well.

Market Research


• Higher levels of uncertainty coupled with lower concentrations of distrust among 18 to 35 year olds signaled opportunity to create positive impressions and to build trust.

• Among the core summary implications:• Build rapport and preference among the next-generation donor.

• Create additional channels for direct giving, effectively increasing overall giving and ultimately decreasing reliance on workplace giving, e.g., understanding the role social media might play in directed giving

Market Research: 2014 Millennial Impact Report

• Sponsored by The Case Foundation• The most comprehensive and trusted

study of the Millennial generation (born 1980-2000) and their involvement with causes

• Study began in 2009 and includes 50,000 participants

• Aims to fill a knowledge gap that existed in the non-profit / activist field: How does the Millennial generation connect, involve and support causes?


Millennials tend to:

• Support issues rather than organizations

• Prefer to perform smaller actions before fully committing to a cause

• Be influenced by the decisions and behaviors of their peers

• Treat all their assets (time, money, network, etc.) as having equal value

• Need to experience an organization’s work without having to be on site

Our Focus

Develop a campaign that would reach Greater Knoxville consumers for general awareness-building and 2014-15 fundraising campaign reach… but also with a concerted focus on Millennials to build UWGK’s giving pipeline for the future

Audiences

1) Millennials

2) 35-54 year-olds

3) 55+ year-olds

4) Business leaders (those responsible for corporate giving programs)

5) Young leaders groups

6) Media outlets

Overarching Strategies for Engaging Millennials

• Create various channels for engagement

• Develop networks / tap into “Young Leaders” and “Young Professionals” groups within area civic and professional organizations in the community, such as Chambers of Commerce

• Talk about multiple social issues

• Develop sleek, up-to-date online giving options

• Provide an ability for Millennial donors to share the impact of their contributions with friends and colleagues

Key Campaign Elements

• Online Interactive Quiz: What’s Your Giving Style?

• Millennials are avid users of social media, and they bring a social media sensibility to their charitable giving. They have developed online identities through which to express who they are and what they care about. They value feeling connected to peer and professional networks, and they want to be able to share the causes they care about with friends and colleague.

Online Interactive Quiz

• What’s Your Giving Style? • An online, interactive quiz with 4

question sets that would lead participants to a giving profile identifying with their answers to the questions

• Sassy twist for a younger generation, with a serious call to action at the end to pay attention to the city around them

• http://givetoday.uwgk.org/

http://givetoday.uwgk.org/

Online Interactive Quiz: What’s Your Giving Style?


• Video Series• Personal, video story-telling unveiled the seriousness of the

issues at hand. They uncovered the lives of UWGW beneficiaries before UWGK and the transformation that occurred since being touched by UWGK. They tugged on the heartstrings, opened eyes and allowed users to see the real work UWGK is doing in the community.

• Millennials don’t give because of who you are and how passionate you are about your cause: they give because of what you’re doing. They want to know that what you’re doing is making a real difference and improving lives.


• Video Series – developed multiple videos telling personal stories of UWGK’s impact

EXAMPLE: Jordan’s story…


• Flash Tattoos for UWGK Females

• Flash tattoos were a trend running through the Millennial female crowd… beautiful, metallic, jewelry-like temporary tattoos that even celebrities were donning. We leveraged this trend with a campaign for UWGK.

Flash Tattoos

• Using the “chain link” concept to represent the value of being “united,” we shared these flash tattoos in local retail locations and hot spots throughout Knoxville (UT Campus Pedestrian Walk, shops on Market Square, through friends of Millennial-age employees, etc.), with custom-print instructions packaged with the tattoos telling users to share their images with hashtags: #UnitedKnox#LiveUnited.

Flash Tattoos


• “Friends Don’t Let Friends…” Yeti Cooler Giveaway Campaign for UWGK Males:

• Guys love a Yeti cooler. They are rugged, durable. They keep things cold for days and are virtually indestructible. We want to leverage this love with a campaign for UWGK.

• We used social to advertise the campaign, along with a poster series in hot spots throughout Knoxville (UT Campus Pedestrian Walk, shops on Market Square, football tailgates, etc.). Hashtag: #YetiUnited #liveunited.

Yeti Cooler

UT Campus Visits / Social

Other Campaign Elements – Gen Xers

• Workplace Campaign “Toolkit in a Box” -- included materials and social tools, as well as a “timeline for execution,” so that each workplace was using the same materials, in the same way, at the same time

• Interactive Calculator – a web app that showed this demo exactly where their money at a granular level is going and what it is doing to produce results

Toolkit / Workbook

Interactive Calculator(http://calculator.uwgk.org/)

http://calculator.uwgk.org/

Interactive Calculator

Bottom-Line Impact of Campaign

• UWGK Young Leaders Society development and growth

• Society has grown from 185 donors pledging $150,000 (in 2013) to 3,000+ donors pledging $418,000 (2015)

• 1,621% growth in number of “Young Leader” donors

• 278% growth in dollar-volume of contributions from YL donors (the financial impact from Young Leaders donor group alone fully paid for the 2014-2015 promotional campaign, with $18,000 to spare)

Bottom-Line Impact of Campaign

• 2013: UWGK raised $12 million

• 2015: UWGK raised $13.15 million

• Knoxville News Sentinel UWGK “Best of” edition: UWGK placed 3rd among favorite charities

• First time for UWGK to rank ever in this listing in 93 years

• Other ongoing benefits to UWGK

Closing Comments

• Research – integrated insights

• Role and importance of public relations inclusion in creative campaigns

• Generating creative messaging and approaches to meet the needs and expectations of Millennial audiences

• Measuring bottom-line impact