Dare to Care
A four-course marketing strategy and donation campaign for one of Louisville’s most trusted charities.
The Challenge
We were honored when Dare to Care came to us to help their marketing better reflect the growing issue of hunger, and their current trajectory and standing in the community as a leader.
As the largest food bank in the region, Dare to Care is one of Kentuckiana’s most trusted and needed charities. In 2021 alone, through their robust network of local partner agencies, they provided tens of millions of meals to Louisville and the surrounding 13 counties in Kentucky and Indiana.
Following our strategy-driven processes, we dished up Dare to Care with a wholesome marketing strategy and creative execution in the span of six weeks!
Since it had been six years since they last retooled their marketing, our recommendation was to give their audience a refresh while maintaining relationships with their tried-and-true donor audiences. We developed a campaign strategy that aligned with the expanded media landscape and built an audience of younger prospective donors.
The resulting campaign spans broadcast, streaming video and audio, radio, out-of-home, and social media throughout Louisville and the surrounding 13 counties.
The Concept
We listened closely to Dare to Care’s marketing and strategy stakeholders, better understanding what hunger means to Kentuckiana in 2022.
In a grassroots effort to understand the Dare to Care brand, we toured their Community Kitchen and met with members of their staff who spend each day figuring out how to use every pound of food and every dollar donated to feed the most people.
We leveraged our extensive experience with other nonprofits to provide Dare to Care with a new perspective of their position in the community and how successful non-profit messaging and targeting has evolved since they last updated their messaging and marketing a half-decade ago.
This new perspective lead to our contemporary approach inspired by a trending social media style; the transition.
The Strategy
Working in deep collaboration with Dare to Care’s small-but-mighty development and communications teams, we created a new audience profile that would begin to expose them to the next, younger generation of donors, while retaining their current faithful givers.
With considerable changes in the media landscape in the past six years and a new focus on younger prospective donors, we expanded their reach to include streaming TV (notably Hulu), cable, streaming audio with Spotify, and finally a considerable focus on YouTube and TikTok. (Paid search, social and email communications are of course part of the mix as well!)
What resulted was the most sophisticated and widest-ranging media campaign that Dare to Care has ever seen.
The Creative
Working with our partners at One Eightyº Productions we produced: 10, 15, and 30-second video spots for television, streaming, and social media — fitting our concept and copywriting to the wide-ranging needs of the current video environment.
In addition, we developed headlines for print ads, out-of-home billboards, and transit shelter designs.
Finally, we developed a robust copy bank and image assets for varied use for organic and paid social media.
The Results
In addition to this work of developing a marketing strategy and creative execution, Dare to Care has also taken the first step towards a promising future where all of Kentuckiana helps feed those most in need.
This campaign will run from October 2022 until the end of the year. We will update this case study with relevant metrics when the campaign is finished.
