Introduction

During the month of February, we turn our attention to matters of the heart, showering
those we love and cherish with hearts, cards and flowers. This February, the 2015 Elon
University Bateman team also wanted people to turn their attention to Home, and to
realize the impact Home has on every facet of American life. Home is not just where the
heart is; Home is at the heart of core societal issues such as health, education,
individual success and the economy.
Our team developed and launched a national campaign with a theme of Home is where
the heart is. In fact home is where it all starts. It was focused on making a clear and
concrete connection between Home and key societal issues, while also positioning
Home Matters at the heart of addressing the need for affordable housing and better
communities.
Understanding that how the American Dream is defined varies from person to person,
we chose not to focus on redefining it for the audience. Instead, the campaign provided
a platform for leveraging meaningful conversations about matters of the home that
impact each and every American. And it did this while also building even more meaning
and relevance into the current Home Matters tagline of Home is Where It All Starts.
In order to reach as many people as possible during the four-week campaign period, we
contacted digital influencers (well-known bloggers, journalists and other professionals)
who already had large social media followings and asked them to share our campaign
materials with their audiences and prompt discussion about Home Matters and the
national housing crisis. This allowed us to maximize our reach by tapping into existing
pools of Home Matters targets. The addition of Home is where the heart is to the
Home Matters tagline was done strategically to capitalize on the month of February,
during which matters of the heart take center stage. This theme encouraged opinion
leaders and others to share our campaign with immediacy, considering the one-month
implementation timeline.
In order to make the process easy for digital influencers, we created an online toolbox of
informative materials they could easily share with their followers. The digital website
housed infographics, a revised fact sheet, a detailed press release and a promotional
video using real people to tell the story of the specific benefits Home provides.
The Home is where the heart is campaign reached people in all 50 states and
garnered more than 750,000 media impressions. Our materials earned an article in the
Huffington Post, and were shared by influencers with large followings on Twitter,
Facebook and Google+. The video had more than 5,000 views on YouTube, and our
earned media accounted for 41.85% of referral traffic to the Home Matters website
during the month of February. In all, our campaign brought national attention to the
importance of Home and positioned Home Matters as the core organization bringing
attention and funding to these issues.

Situation Analysis and Secondary Research

Our nation continues to suffer from the impact of the Great Recession, which left
countless citizens struggling to stay in their homes. In fact, 70% of Americans believe
we are still in the middle of a housing crisis and the worst is yet to come (How Housing
Matters Survey). The economy has put a strain on families and individuals of all
financial backgrounds. To date, 52% of American adults have made at least one
sacrifice in order to pay their rent or mortgage (Home Matters), and those paying more
than 30% on rent or mortgage have had to make these sacrifices at even higher rates
(How Housing Matters Survey). And that means its time for change.
Wages are stagnant, there is a lack of social mobility, and funding is dwindling for
housing initiatives. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that the 2013
Housing Wage was $18.79, exceeding the $14.32 hourly wage earned by the average
renter by almost $4.50 an hour. In fact, according to a The Daily Californian article,
40% of Americans between the ages of 25 and 60 experience at least one year below
the official poverty line, and 54 percent spend a year in poverty or near poverty.
Major metropolitan areas including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, and
Washington D.C. are experiencing severe homelessness and housing issues that are
forcing people to relocate. When Bill Moyers aired a report on developers in New York
driving out the middle class, hundreds of viewers wrote in to report the same is
happening in their areas from large cities to small towns (www.BillMoyers.com). With
the current economic and political climate, stable housing should be understood as the
key to a healthy, successful nation. However, in recent years, federal, state and local
funding as well as public support has failed to keep up.
Lately, the scarcity of stable and affordable housing has begun to attract real attention
in American media and politics. However, these outlets are not linking all of the relevant
issues together. While they may be talking about healthcare costs, wages, education
and public safety, most have failed to connect the dots in a way that makes it clear that
it all leads back to Home. As a result, the current housing conversation has failed to
gain momentum or result in meaningful action.
While many organizations are working to transform the housing climate in America,
these groups often lack a strong public presence. In fact, most operate on such a small
scale that they fail to attract any significant public attention at all and therefore, dont
receive the necessary funding.
Home Matters is a national movement that promotes the connection between Home
and other key aspects of a healthy life. It informs the American public that a stable
home, and not just a house, is critical to quality education and proper healthcare, public
safety, and personal success. Living in a true Home means being part of a greater
community, one that provides a strong foundation for a successful economy. It is Home
Matters mission build awareness of these connections in order to raise funds to make
Home a reality for all Americans.

Primary Research
After assessing the situation through secondary research, we created an online survey
(approved by Elons IRB) and sent it out via social media. We had 183 responses from
31 different states and respondents represented a wide range of income levels and
ages. We also held a focus group of eight people representing different age groups,
backgrounds and occupations. The objectives for our primary research were to:
1. Assess the level of awareness and involvement in Home Matters,
2. Determine awareness of the social benefits of having a home, and
3. Understand the targets definition of the American Dream and how it relates to
Home.
The following were some key highlights from our research:

How Important is Housing?

Research indicated that affordable housing does not rank that high on peoples list of
concerns. When asked to rank the importance of a list of issues critical to the health of
our economy, respondents ranked affordable housing fourth behind jobs, education and
healthcare. The majority of people did
not view housing as a standout issue.

Home Impacts What . . .?

Respondents connected Home with
safety/security, but werent able to make
connections to other important benefits.
From the focus group, we learned that
people have very different versions of
the American dream, but ultimately
equate Home to being stable and
secure.
This word cloud reflects responses to an open-ended survey question. No one
associated Home with education, health, the overall economy or personal success. In
an aided question later, respondents did find these associations important. This was an
eye-opening insight because it revealed that people wont necessarily make the
connection that the Home impacts all vital facets of American life unless it is made for
them.

Renting is Key, Too

Generation and Importance of Owning a Home

Owning a home was slightly

less important to Millennials
than other generations. GenX
rated the importance of home

ownership the highest with 54% stating it is very important, while Millennials and
boomers rated its importance about the same, with 43% of each group saying it was
very important. Millennials were slightly more likely to say it is not very important (18%)
versus boomers (11%). This led to our realization that our campaign should include a
broad concept of Home to include renting as well as owning.

Home Who?
Our findings revealed that there is a significant lack of awareness of Home Matters
and what they actually do. In fact, 97% of respondents had not heard of Home
Matters. However, when given the Home Matters mission, 94% of survey
respondents said it was important or very important. Our survey also revealed that the
majority of respondents opted to learn more (66%) as the way they would be most
interested in getting involved with the movement, rather than following Home Matters
on Facebook (38%) or Twitter (15%). This informed us that we needed to build
awareness of the organization and drive people to the website to learn more.

Personal Connections Count

We showed our focus group respondents the video from the Home Matters website.
While respondents said they felt empathy towards the people in the video, they were left
feeling a bit confused. They didnt like that the video lacked a call to action. Focus group
participants emphasized that, to get them involved in the Home Matters mission, a
video would need to inspire them to think about their own connections with Home.
These findings drove our creative strategy and directly impacted the approach to our
campaignparticularly regarding our video.

Planning
Goals
The primary goal of our campaign was to build national awareness of the notion that a
Home provides so much more than four walls. What makes Home Matters so unique is
that they make the connection between Home and key societal issues such as
health, education, safety, personal success, and the economy. By highlighting
these benefits, the public is better positioned to appreciate and contribute to the Home
Matters cause.
Secondly, we wanted to position Home Matters as being at the forefront of
promoting affordable housing and better communities. Despite the fact that the
current crisis affects so many, the general public knows very little about housing
organizations and what they are doing to remedy the problem. Our campaign aimed to
promote Home Matters across the nation as a vital force in the housing solution.

Target Audience
Our team considered the three audiences suggested by Home Matters (Baby
Boomers, Millennials, young parents) and decided to target all three, as well as GenX.
We chose to include Gen X because, according to our research, this generation rated

home ownership as the highest importance out of all age groups. For all generations,
we wanted to target people who might not be aware of the problem but are in the best
position to do something about it.

Strategy
In order to reach the most people nationally in the shortest amount of time, we chose to
implement a digital media campaign. Rather than trying to build a viral campaign from
scratch, we utilized existing digital outlets and influencers who already have a
significant following. We provided these leaders with a variety of campaign resources,
making it easy for them to understand and share our message with their audiences.
In order to stimulate discussion surrounding the housing situation, we promoted the
unique benefits of Home. We highlighted the relationship that Home has to education,
health, success and the economy. Research showed that respondents only connected
proper housing to safety, but by connecting Home with other vital facets of our lives, the
housing crisis became a relatable, human, and meaningful topic of conversation.
As a call to action, we wanted to drive audiences to the Home Matters website to
learn more, since our research showed people werent interested in going to the Home
Matters social media pages.
We also knew that with a digital campaign we would have to be nimble by following
and capitalizing on hits as they occur. We monitored the campaign closely, and
when someone wrote or tweeted about our campaign, we capitalized on that hit by
sharing it with our other digital media targets.

Creative Strategy
We chose to utilize personal narratives from everyday people to tell their own stories
of why Home matters to them in each of the core areas. Our goal was to use these
stories to inspire others to think of their own stories of Home. By featuring personal
accounts, the issue of Home became relatable, memorable, and thought provoking.
Rather than dilute the Home Matters message with added layers, we employed the
existing Home Matters tagline, but connected it to Valentines Day by adding Home
is where the heart is to give the campaign immediacy and relevance for the month of
February.

Key Messages
Tagline: Home is where the heart is. In fact Home is where it all starts.
1. Home is at the heart of key societal issues such as health, public safety,
education, individual success and the economy.
2. The Home Matters organization is at the heart of bringing attention to these
issues, building awareness and funds for affordable housing and better
communities.

Tactics and Implementation

Video
Based on our focus group feedback, we decided to create a video that involved people
sharing their personal memories of Home. We wanted their answers to be honest and
spontaneous, so we set out to Raleigh, North Carolina to film in a park. We re-created a
living room setting with an armchair, table and rug so we could easily ask people to
make themselves at home. We had passersby sit in the chair and pull questions out of
a bowl, like What does Home mean to you? and What was the biggest lesson your
parents taught you? We were able to film a diversity of people from our target audience
telling their personal stories of Home.

Home is a place where you can concentrate on the important

things in life: learning, growing and helping other people
Home Matters video

During video editing, we integrated
these personal narratives with copy
points about the five core societal
issues (education, safety, health,
personal success, economy) to
make the connection with Home.
We also included copy about what
Home Matters is doing to address
these issues and directed viewers
to the Home Matters website to
learn more. By featuring personal
narratives in relation to the Home
Matters message, the issue
became relatable, memorable, and thought provoking for viewers. The video was
uploaded to YouTube and the link included in our digital press kit.

Digital Press List

We developed a list of digital outlets and influencers who had large social media
followings that included members of our target audiences. For example, we included
parenting bloggers to reach young moms, young Twitter/YouTube personalities such as
Katy Bellotte to reach Millennials, working professionals to reach GenX, and more
traditional media outlets such as the Huffington Post to reach GenX and Boomers. We
chose bloggers and other online personalities because we decided that the best way to
reach the entire country was through a digital platform.

Digital Press Kit

Keeping in mind the digital nature of our campaign and our targeted outlets, we
developed a series of materials that could be easily shared on a variety of digital media
outlets. For example, infographics (two versions; horizontal and vertical, the horizontal
version is included below) that encapsulated the five benefits of Home were created for
convenient posting on Twitter or Facebook. A meme that included our heart theme
was created as a teaser for sharing on Facebook. And, we created a press release and
fact sheet for more traditional outlets that might want to write an in-depth story. A link to
our video was also included. We created a Weebly website to house our campaigns
content and then shared the web link with our digital outlets in our pitch email. We
wanted to make it easy for media influencers to access and share our materials.

Launch
We launched our campaign on February 9 to create interest from our targeted press list
in time for Valentines Day. We drafted a pitch email that we sent out to each of these
targets that included a link to our media resources. In addition to emails, each of our
team members also tweeted the video @ members of our targeted list or messaged
them on Facebook. When large hits occurred, we retweeted those hits to our targeted
list for additional sharing.

Objectives and Measurement

Objective #1: EXCEEDED!
Get at least two big digital outlets/influencers (those with followings of more than
50,000) to share our content during the campaign period.
Key Performance Indicators:
We secured earned media in The Huffington Post, with an article titled Affordable
Housing Initiative Demands Action For Historic Rental Crisis We Can't Ignore. We were
able to get Jay Baer, an American marketing consultant and the author of the
bestselling book Youtility, to promote our infographic and the Home Matters website on
his Facebook page, which has over 98,500 followers. He also shared our campaign
materials via Google+. Katy Bellotte, a lifestyle blogger and YouTube star, shared our
campaigns YouTube video via Twitter. Her endorsement allowed us to reach the
Millennial generation and her 48,000 followers. Twitter user Glenn
Thomas, @SoloSupremeTeam, retweeted the Huffington Post article. He has over
101,000 followers on Twitter. In total, we had four big influencers share our content, in
addition to the many others with smaller followings.

Objective #2: EXCEEDED!

Generate at least 500,000 media impressions in 30 different states during the campaign
period.
Key Performance Indicators:
We secured a total of 752,646 media impressions throughout our campaign. We
secured 477,295 media impressions via Twitter; 146,974 media impressions via
Facebook; 5,086 YouTube views; 30,291 impressions from Google+; and 93,000
impressions from Huffington Post article. Our content was viewed in every state in the
U.S., and was seen internationally as well.

Objective #3: EXCEEDED!

Have our video viewed by at
least 1,000 members of our
target audience by the end of
the campaign.
Key Performance Indicators:
Our YouTube video was
viewed 5,086 times during the
month of February. In addition
to reaching people in all 50 states, it also reached an international audience, including
the United Kingdom, India, Singapore, Brazil and South Africa.

Objective #4: EXCEEDED!

Have at least 2,000 members of our target audience interact/engage with our content by
the end of the campaign.
Key Performance Indicators:
The Huffington Post article drove many people to the Home Matters website,
accounting for 41.85% of the referral traffic to the Home Matters website in the month
of February. The organizations website also saw a dramatic spike in website visitors on
February 14 and 15, the day of and the day after the Huffington Post article was
published. The huffingtonpost.com link attracted viewers to the Home Matters site who
each viewed an average of 4.22 pages, compared to the average of 2.39 page views
per visitor for other inbound links. The article alone received over 2,300 Facebook likes,
202 Facebook shares, was tweeted 232 times, and garnered 347 comments relevant to
the housing situation. Comments included personal opinions regarding the causes of
the affordable housing crisis, how renting is prevailing in different areas, the importance
of home ownership, and the politics of affordable housing. Our digital press kit was
viewed 968 times by 627 unique visitors. Of all those who posted our content on Twitter
or Facebook, those posts received 2,339 likes or favorites and 255 retweets/shares.

Budget
For our Home is where the Heart is. In fact, Home is where it all starts campaign we
operated under a budget of $300. Most of our budget was spent on developing our
creative materials and producing our entry for the judges. After we developed the
concept for our video, gathered film props, created interview questions and scouted out
the filming site, we hired an Elon student to help us with videography. We also had a
sign printed that said, "Make Yourself at Home" as a prop for our living room setting. We
utilized an online software program for developing our infographics. The remainder of
the budget was spent on producing our entries. We were $12.36 under budget and
received no in-kind donations. We spent our budget on the following items:
Item
Make Yourself at
Home Poster
Videography

Cost
$28.81

Date Paid
Details
1/27/15
Item used in promotional video

$50.00

2/18/15

Visme 1-month
Account
4 Flash Drives

$28.00

2/1/15

$34.03

3/17/15

Printing for 4
booklets

$146.80 3/18/15

Total Budget Spent: $287.64

We hired Elon student Mia Watkins to film

& help edit our Bateman video
1-month account was purchased to create
our campaign info-graphics
Flash drives to provide judges a convenient
way to watch the YouTube video
Print booklets to submit to judges

Amount Under Budget: $12.36

Conclusion
By highlighting the connection between Home and key societal issues and positioning
the client as being at the forefront of promoting affordable housing and better
communities, the Home is where the heart is campaign brought to light the importance
of the national housing solution Home Matters provides. We promoted the
organizations unique mission via opinion leaders and national media, not only reaching
thousands of people, hitting every state and internationally, but further encouraging
them to learn more and visit the Home Matters website. We sparked meaningful
dialogues and generated national attention that could materialize into significant
progress.
The Elon University Bateman teams campaign garnered 752,646 media impressions,
earned an article in the Huffington Post, and reached the vast audiences of several
influential media leaders. Our promotional video had over 5,000 YouTube views, and
our earned media accounted for an outstanding 41.85% of referral traffic to the Home
Matters website during the month of February. We exceeded even our own
expectations and brought national attention to
the importance of Home, positioning Home
The one thing that does make a
Matters as an essential organization in the
difference to me, in life, is always
fight to remedy the American housing crisis.
having those memories from
We greatly enjoyed using our campaign to
bring Home Matters a fraction of the
where we sat at the dinner table.
attention it deserves. Home does matter, and
Home Matters video
now hundreds of thousands of people are

aware that Home Matters, too.

Regulations Note:
The Elon University Bateman Team received special permission from PRSSA to leave
our video up on YouTube past the February 28 deadline because it was embedded into
the Huffington Post article. The team did not wish to leave Huffington Post with an
inactive link that might damage their reputation. The Elon team did not count any hits on
the video after February 28.

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