Announcing the Launch of Our New Advertising Campaign
By Lori Warren, Senior Director of Marketing
Back in 2011 our organization underwent a strategic planning process, which resulted in significant changes to the way we fundraise and make grants, and a refocusing of our work around three specific roles. This change spawned the need for a “brand refresh,” and provided us with the opportunity to tell the Federation’s story in a new way that would honor our 102 year history, and position us to succeed in a dynamic and highly competitive philanthropic environment. Last summer we delivered the brand framework which gives us the tools we need to convey a powerful and consistent brand image in a wide variety of mediums, and we’ve been applying it religiously ever since.
And now we have an ad campaign that brings that brand framework to life. For the first time in our Federation’s history, we partnered with an outside, award-winning advertising agency – Engine Company One - to develop our advertising campaign and a design a media plan that gets the ads in front of our target consumers effectively and efficiently (on a modest budget).
The Campaign
The campaign consists of a number of ads, each which build the brand while focusing on a key aspect of our grantmaking and fundraising strategy. The first ad - “4000-year-old-startup” - establishes the brand idea - that innovation and common purpose are part of the Jewish culture, part of the Federation’s history, and an effective means for building a thriving Jewish community. The tongue-in-cheek headline and use of the terms “startup” and “angel investors” further connects the Federation to the culture of innovation that is so closely identified with Silicon Valley and the Bay Area.
The art direction is fresh yet refined. The design conveys a graphic storytelling approach, which further reinforces the brand image (because after all, a culture rooted in a 4,000 year old history has a lot of stories to tell) and allows us to include a fair amount of body copy in digestible, inviting portions.
The second ad in the series, “Good Return” continues to build the association between innovation, the Jewish culture and the Federation by positioning Jewish “inventions” as providing a good return on investment. This ad introduces our Philanthropic Services as a means to increase impact, and align charitable goals with Jewish values. The remaining ads in the campaign will focus on the Four Funds overall, the grants we make under our Israel & Global work, and the issues addressed under the Bay Area Initiatives Fund.
Media Plan: Getting the Ads in Front of the Right People in the Right Places
You can have the most distinctive and compelling ads around, but if the right people don’t see them, they won’t do much good. That’s why we developed a media plan – a document that describes the objectives, strategy, tactics, resource allocation, schedule, and media mix for reaching a particular audience. The objective of this campaign is to reinforce the loyalty of our existing donors, and reach out to a new, younger demographic. As such, the media plan is has a significant digital component along with print and a few key outdoor locations.
Our new billboards, located in downtown San Francisco and along Highway 101.
In addition to Facebook, our ads are running for a three month period on websites that reach Bay Area Jews including Forward.com, HeebMagazine.com, Kveller.com, HipsterJew.com, JoyofKosher.com and many others. When people click on the ads (which are basically headlines) they are taken to a landing page which includes body copy and options for getting more information about the Federation.
Ads on Jewlicious.com
The Power of Community
With the launch of this new campaign, our rebranding journey is almost complete. The brand represents the passion and commitment of an entire community to build a vibrant Jewish future and make the world a better place. In that way, it’s a beautiful expression of the Power of Community.
