American Red Cross Marking Campaign To Generate $50 Million from Young, Urban Professionals In times of crisis, trust

the American Red Cross to support our communities.

Executive Summary
For the last six years, Angry Banter Media has been continually evolving and changing the way people look at marketing. Weve made a name for ourselves by specialize in social media, internet marketing, guerrilla marketing, and traditional media. We have been successful in getting our name and brand out into the public space and being recognized on our accomplishments, even for such a small company. It has only been recently that the focus of marketing has shifted from brands talking at consumers, to talking with consumers. No one wants a brand that screams at him or her to do something. Consumers want to feel like the brand is working for them and with them. We have seen this trend especially in the new target consumer group, millennials.. Millennials are well connected. They use smartphones, social media, email, and share multimedia at a rapid rate. They watch videos and TV almost exclusively online. Millennials look to brands to connect with them, address their concerns, and work for their loyalty. Ultimately, if a brand can communicate and connect with millennials, these consumers will be loyal to this brand for the rest of their lifetime. However, this relationship can be ruined very easily. Unlike a best friend, a brand saying sorry is a lot harder to sound genuine. Therefore, it is incredibly important to feel your marketing strategy is creative, evolving, and connective with millennials in order to be successful. Angry Banter Media has always strived to make the most creative campaigns and focus on results. We tailor each plan specifically to each client. With our history, research, and experience, we can build campaigns that are not only award winning, but return the investment ten-fold. We have access to some of the largest collections of

data and have the ability to filter and make sense of what target audiences want. We take special consideration in the millennial demographic. We work to connect with this group. We work to set brands up with a campaign that can evolve as technology changes. And we work with brands to help them effectively target millennials in order to be successful in the future. We build brands that last a lifetime.

Background
The American Red Cross has played a significant role in world wars and during times of crisis. Founded in 1881 by Clara Barton and a group of people she knew, the organization focused on first aid, water safety, and nursing programs. After World War II, the Red Cross started the first nationwide blood drive. Currently, the American Red Cross Blood Drive supplies more than 40-percent of the nations blood supply. (RedCross.org, 2013) Today, the American Red Cross works with government agencies, like FEMA, to help plan, coordinate, and provide disaster relief. It also focuses on three other areas key to its mission. The American Red Cross helps military families coping with the struggles associated with a loved one serving overseas. It also works within local chapters to offer classes in heath and safety. Finally, the American Red Cross works internationally with 13 million volunteers in 187 countries to offer aide and resources to over 100 million people every year. With all the good the American Red Cross does, they do face competition for many other organizations. In 2011, there were over 1.6 million non-profit organizations registered to the IRS in the US. (Independent Sector, 2011) The American Red Cross is competing with every other organization, cause, charity, group, and person asking for a donation. There are major organizations that challenge the American Red Cross for donations and support. These include groups like Oxfam, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, and Mercy Corps. All of these organizations support national and international disaster and crisis relief. Additionally, there are many other organizations that support troops and military families. This presents a challenge for the American Red Cross. There are many groups

that are vying for donations, volunteers, and resources from people who are limited in their willingness to donate time and money. Much of what the American Red Cross is known for is its disaster relief efforts. The American Red Cross does a phenomenal job aiding the sick, homeless, and wounded during times of great crisis. It is important for groups like the American Red Cross to fill in the gaps the government leaves open. This service is clearly very important to many people. However, they do not really think about these services until they need them. This presents a challenge to the American Red Cross because when there is no crisis, donations slump, and people do not know about all the other services the American Red Cross is involved in. The biggest factor in the American Red Crosss success is the attention span of the average millennial. There are more and more things that can distract millennials, from cellphones, and social media to television shows and work. The American Red Cross needs to work to connect with millennials immediately and get their attention. Email clients like Gmail show a quick summary of the email with a headline. If the headline is not interesting millennials are quick to delete it before even opening it. Additionally, most millennials use smartphones. With the ability to glance and delete mail on the go it become even more challenging to connect and hold millennials attention. Even if the American Red Cross connects with a millennial, it is even more of a challenge to convert the potential donor into a regular contributor. The economy is slowly getting better. People are still not as willing to donate as they were before the recession of 2008. Millennials face mounting student loans, bills, and other commitments that can dampen their willingness to donate. In 2007, donations

from American individuals and organizations topped out around $311 billion. After donations fell sharply during the recession in 2008 and 2009, donations only started a positive year-over-year trend in 2010. People gave $209 billion in 2010. While it was good news, it was still $102 billion short of the highest giving levels achieved in America. In 2011, the number grew higher with $298 billion being given and it is expected to be higher in 2012. (Weise, E. 2012) This presents an interesting problem for the American Red Cross. People are again more willing to give, and even more so with younger generations. Millennials and young professionals are becoming more and more philanthropic. A study conducted by Achieve and Johnson, Grossnickle, and Associates, found of 6,500 people 20 to 35 years old, 75-percent made a donation to a nonprofit in 2011. (Berkshire, J. 2012) These young professionals have the ability to connect with organizations and grow with them for their lifetime. Based on what an organization does with the less than $100 donation that over half of them made can shape whether or not they will encourage their friends and family to donate. It will shape the amount they contribute. And it will ultimately effect how their children view organizations. This presents a great opportunity for the American Red Cross. Targeting young professionals can build American Red Cross donators for years to come. According to the Millennial Impact Report 2012, there are 80 to 90 million young adults that are classified as millennials. Most prefer to give online, do not want to give or receive messages via SMS, and will learn about an organization on their computer or smartphone. They connect with social media, but do not donate through it. Finally, most will act by being inspired. (Achieve, 2012) The American Red Cross has the ability, the

resources, and the message to achieve this and really connect with the millennial generation.

Target Audience
The primary target audience for this campaign will be millennials. This group is defined as young, urban professional, between 22 and 35 years old. In the most recent US Census taken in 2010, it was found there are 62.65million millennials in the US, 50.5-percent are male, 49.5-percent are female. (US Census, 2011) The total average income for millennials 25 to 34 was $36,426 in 2011. (US Census, 2011) millennials are the most racial diverse generation because of immigration to the US; 60-percent are white, 20-percent are Hispanic, and 13-percent are black. (Kiplinger, 2010) It is worth noting the unemployment rate for millennials was 13.1-percent in January 2013, while the national unemployment rate was 7.9-percent for January 2013. (Kingkade, 2013) Most millennials are advocates for environmental and social justice. They are very altruistic. 63-percent say they have volunteered for a nonprofit in 2011 and 41percent plan to volunteer more in 2012. 75-percent gave a financial gift to a nonprofit, 70-percent of them preferring to give online only 15-percent have given using text messaging because its confusing and not trustworthy. (Achieve, 2012) millennials are very tech savvy. 90-percent of millennials use the internet, 75-percent have a social network profile (Kiplinger, 2010), and 77-percent of Millennials have a smartphone. (Achieve, 2012) When looking for ways to connect to nonprofit organizations, millennials use many different avenues. According to the Millennial Impact Report, 65-percent use the organizations website, 55-percent use social media, 47-percent use e-newsletters, 18percent use print media, and 17-percent use face-to-face communications. The report

also found that the biggest pet-peeve for millennials is not knowing how their gift will make a difference. (Achieve, 2012) For the American Red Cross these factors are extremely important to consider when trying to reach millennials. Even in a small survey conducted by Angry Banter Media, we found 37 of 44 respondents in the 18 to 35-age range would like the ability to see how their donation is being used. Our survey also found supporting evidence from the Millennial Impact Report, 63-percent of our respondents have donated to one or more organizations in the last year. They also most preferred to give money through a website or in person. When it came to the American Red Cross, our survey found that we will need to convince millennials the American Red Cross is a cause worth supporting. Of the 44 respondents, 20 have not given to the American Red Cross and 18 only gave during a time of need. When asked if they would consider supporting the American Red Cross during a time of crisis, 14 said they were very likely, 18 said somewhat likely, and 12 are not likely to support the American Red Cross. Finally, the biggest challenge for us and the American Red Cross is showing off all the missions of the American Red Cross. Respondents were all across the board with the type of organizations they support. Most supported disaster relief with 19 of 44; however not far behind were human rights organizations with 14, and animal rights and educational establishments with 13. This means there are a lot of organizations competing for millennials limited income. Angry Banter Medias goal is to change this. We want the millennial audience to make the American Red Cross their number one organization, if not their only organization they support. We will use a combination of social media and online

communications, permission marketing, and promotional material to effectively target and engage millennials with the American Red Crosss message. Angry Banter will utilize the American Red Crosss network of social media sites and its online communications to keep people interested in finding out more about the American Red Crosss projects. This will also serve as a platform to give more transparency in what the American Red Cross is able to do with peoples donations. We will also utilize permission marketing to get people to sign up to receive updates about the American Red Cross. These updates will be weekly emails with stories of triumph, recaps for national and/or local events, and totals of the amount of people helped. There will not be any calls to donate. The goal is to make the reader compelled to support the American Red Cross. Finally, we will have the American Red Cross take an active presence and help sponsor events that see high amounts of millennials - this includes concert events, races, and college campus activities. These sponsorships will range from being the first aid for the event or concert, to encouraging college kids to get involved and teach them about all the American Red Cross does. This will effectively resonate with millennials. By not asking directly for money, our hope is the audience will feel compelled to learn more about the American Red Cross and donate. The secondary target for this campaign is inside the American Red Cross. There are over 500,000 volunteers in the US. This is a significant amount of people who give their time to the American Red Cross. Therefore, we will need to ensure we are tapping them to recruit their friends and family to help the American Red Crosss mission. This demographic is motivated by many factors that have brought them to the American Red Cross. Whether it was altruism, personal connection, community service, or another

reason, they feel a much larger connection to the American Red Cross than someone who donates money. However, overtime volunteers stop coming, some of them may lose interest in the American Red Cross, or do not believe the American Red Cross is truly committed to its mission of helping. This causes issues within the organization. When employees and volunteers feel disengaged, it leads to problems with lack of morale, complacency, and, as the headlines have written, stealing and mishandling of funds and resources. It is well known of the criticism of the handling of funds for recent disaster relief efforts. The earthquake in Haiti, Hurricane Katrina, and the Japanese Tsunami all have received harsh criticism from news outlets, claiming the American Red Cross has not spent most of the relief money (Kahn, 2011), not provided the aid that was promised (Dewan & Strom, 2007), and using the crises to pay bills. (FoxNews, 2011) In each instance, the American Red Cross has responded and defended itself. However the damage has been done and the trust built with the American people has been tainted. By focusing on the internal employees and educating them on what the American Red Cross is doing will help build the American Red Crosss credibility and stop rumors that turn into large stories. We suggest there needs to be an internal website dedicated to American Red Cross communities, highlighting the organization, the local chapter, and all the projects going on within the American Red Cross. This will help keep everyone informed. There should also be dedicated social media pages for employees to talk about what the volunteers are doing in communities. Next there will need to be email bulletins that discuss major project updates, and happenings to inform and engage employees and

volunteers. These will all work to keep everyone more informed and give everyone a better understand of what is going on within the American Red Cross.

SWOT

Brand Position
The American Red Cross is very focused on its objectives, products, and services. Its brand essence is based around one simple message Sleeves up. Hearts open. All in. This is inline with the American Red Crosss values that they try to communicate. The five Cs of the American Red Cross are: compassion through improving the lives of people served by the American Red Cross and treating them with care and respect; collaboration within the Red Cross Organization and in partnerships with other organizations to leave no one excluded; creativity to seek new ideas, stay open to change, and look for better ways to serve; credibility to act as transparent guardians of public trust and honor promises; commitment to being held accountable to meet objectives and deliver the American Red Crosss mission and donor funds. The American Red Cross works every day to better itself and meet these values. When talking to millennials, some of these values do not follow what their values are. They value transparency, a sense of involvement, creativity, and the feeling they can spark change. Therefore when the American Red Cross says it is committed to collaborating within the organization and with other organizations, millennials will feel they are not being included. The American Red Cross is not wrong to continue working with organizations, but they should emphasis the work they do within communities, student organizations, or local groups. This change is framing will connect with millennials because they will see the American Red Cross working with them, rather than with larger organizations they may not be associated with. The American Red Crosss brand is based on one statement, be part of a life changing experience. When emergencies strike, lives can suddenly take a different

path. When you rise to meet the challenge, everyones life begins changing for the better including your own. This statement works for most people, especially older generations, but not millennials. This statement is asking for volunteers, which the Red Cross needs, but ultimately it wants donations. We are not convinced this motivates millennials to donate. We have decided the American Red Cross should rework their statement and use, be part of something big. When crises happen, everyone is affected. Rise up and face the challenge. Do something that will not only change your life, but someone elses. We believe this statement better resonates with millennials. They want brands to talk with them, not at them. This statement should motivate, and excite the target demographic to begin the dialogue with the American Red Cross brand. As stated earlier, millennials are very altruistic, but they do not like the typical call to action that worked with their parents in the baby boomer generation. Millennials want to see innovation, something they can be a part of, something that makes a clear impact in the world. We believe the American Red Cross has these wants, and we are going to show them off. The American Red Cross focuses on five key areas; disaster relief, supporting military families, blood drives, health and safety courses, and international aide and relief. While the American Red Cross has had its share of controversy stemming from misuse of funds, fraud, and theft by volunteers, the American Red Cross has built up a brand that people all over the world trust and support. The brand tries to follow the characteristics of being passionate, genuine, human, and trustworthy. The American

Red Cross shows that through all of their efforts. Like the relief efforts in Haiti after the earthquake and along the East Coast after Superstorm Sandy, including providing shelter, food, and health services in the affected areas. The American Red Cross also collects blood for the national blood to give lifesaving blood in times of It supports the nations military families with means to prepare, cope, respond to the challenges of service. Finally, the American Red Cross is the leading provider of health and
Figure 1: Workers passing out supplies after Superstorm Sandy. Source: Redcross.org

bank crisis.

and

also safety

courses like CPR, First Aid, and Lifeguard training. All this work meets the personality traits, but there needs to be something more. We want the American Red Cross to change its personality. When someone says they are human, it implies a certain quality that while they posses the ability to do great things, they also have their faults. This works against the other trait of being trustworthy. The American Red Cross cannot afford to lose brand equity because it makes a mistake, because its only human. We want the American Red Cross to change human to personable. This gives a much better quality. It says a lot more because now the American Red Cross looks approachable, it still has the good qualities of being human, but it doesnt harm itself by being left open to error.

The second trait we want to change is passionate. We felt if the American Red Cross truly believes in its mission, to have millennials be part of something big and act when crises happen, the passion it wants for the brand should automatically come through. Forcing passion can come off as fakeness. Therefore we want the second trait to be dependable. We want the American Red
Figure 2: Workers in Haiti. Source: RedCross.org

Cross to be dependable when a crisis happens. People who have lost everything wont know

where to begin. If the American Red Cross can position itself to be dependable during these times, millennials will see this and act. They will feel a greater connection to the American Red Cross because now people are depending on them to help in their time of need. Ultimately we want the American Red Cross to be genuine, trustworthy, dependable, and personable. We chose these personality characteristics because we feel they accurately match the message we want the American Red Cross to convey to millennials. These are traits of a best friend; someone who millennials can confide in, someone they trust and can go to. The American Red Cross needs to be a millennials best friend in order to connect with them on a personal, individual level. This way the person feels like the American Red Cross gets it, and is working towards a greater good. Not just looking for a donation. We want to frame the American Red Cross differently. The organization has a long history of service that makes then genuine and trustworthy. We want the American

Red Cross to be the best friend of millennials. We want the American Red Cross to also be personable and dependable. This will give millennials a deeper connection to the American Red Crosss values and goals. Combined with the new mission statement, be part of something big. When crises happen, everyone is affected. Rise up and face the challenge. Do something that will not only change your life, but someone elses. The American Red Cross is ready to target millennials and carry out this campaign successfully.

IC Strategy Statement
In times of crisis, trust the American Red Cross to support our communities.

- Need to help during crisis and help less fortunate - Disaster can strike at anytime to anyone - Sense of community through ARC

Rational Factors
over 100 years as a provides in over 70,000 distasters every year blood bank program supporting more than 40% of America's blood supply training support over 150,000 military families worldwide assistance volunteer network of over 13 million people

Emotional Factors
need transperency for where donation is going want to want to motivated by altruism most likely to feels good to donate to a cause know the ARC will use my donation for something

cares for sick and hurt when public and government aide falls short

Creative Brief
Why are we advertising? Grow donations to the American Red Cross from young urban professionals, ages 22-35 (millennials). To whom are we talking?

Men and women ages 22-35, who are just entering the workforce and want to donate to many causes, but are limited in the amount and to which causes to donate too. They want an organization they feel compelled to be a part of, something that makes them part of the bigger picture. They are cautious to donate because they want some transparency as to where their donations are being spent. What do they currently think? The American Red Cross is a government run organization that is only focused on disaster relief and blood collection. The American Red Cross may not be telling the truth when a donation is made. Recent accusations do not help this. What do we want them to think? The American Red Cross is the best, most trustworthy, organization to support because of its disaster relief efforts, support for military families, training classes, and blood drives. What is the single more persuasive idea we can convey? In a time of crisis, you can trust the American Red Cross to be there supporting our communities. Why should they believe it? The American Red Cross is committed to providing the best services it can with the backing of the worlds largest humanitarian network. Many of the stories on the American Red Crosss website talk about how vital training helped them save loved ones, how the American Red Cross was in their community working with local officials to clean up after disasters and feed and clothe residents who lost

everything. The American Red Cross also has partnerships that make a critical difference during a crisis. What is the personality we want to convey? The American Red Cross is ethical, trustworthy, creative, and personable. Anyone can be part of the larger picture. Are there any sacred cows? The red cross and Red Cross Pin cannot be changed and should be incorporated. They are symbols of the enthusiasm people have when they participate with the American Red Cross. Are there any creative guidelines? We suggest using guerilla marketing, social media, mobile websites, email campaigns, and an internal network to support our media efforts.

Communication Plan
This campaign will articulate to millennials that the American Red Cross is well connected, transparent, and trustworthy; creating an association for millennials with the strategy statement, in times of crisis, trust the American Red Cross to support our communities. This campaign will compel millennials to donate money and get involved in the American Red Cross. Ultimately we believe this is the best plan to surpass the

goal of raising $50 million for the organization. Additionally, this plan will also revitalize the inner network of American Red Cross employees and volunteers. We believe we can communicate our ideas to them and get them on board with our mission. For this campaign we have identified the following objectives for the external target audience: First, the American Red Cross needs to have a presence on social media and websites millennials frequent. According to The Millennial Impact Report, most of millennials prefer learning about a nonprofit through either the nonprofits website or social media. In fact, 65-percent said they learn about a nonprofit from their website and 55-percent said they learn through social media. (Achieve, 2012) There are over 70 million millennials using social media and 80 million using the internet. (eMarketer, 2013) The American Red Cross has the ability to capture this audience and draw them in. Ideally we would like to engage 30-percent of the total target audience 12 times a year, while keeping an active presence throughout the entire campaign. We suggest devoting most of the American Red Crosss resources to social media and web. For starters, we suggest utilizing Facebooks sponsored posts to appear in target users news feed. This will also promote the American Red Crosss main Facebook page. We also want to create an American Red Cross Instagram page. Our survey found some respondents use Instagram as their social media network. Instagram also is very easy to share photos between networks. Additionally, of the people who use Instagram, 67-percent are millennials. (Martin, T. 2012) The American Red Cross will also need to build out its Google+ page. While adoption of Google+ has been slow, the platforms features will pay dividends, specifically Google Hangouts. This

video chat service is very effective in broadcasting messages to large networks of people. Anyone can join, watch, listen, and interact with the presenter. Lastly, the American Red Cross to continue its engagement with followers on Twitter. The American Red Cross already does a great job promoting happenings within the organization, but further interaction would greatly keep the American Red Cross in millennials feed. We also suggest the American Red Cross become more active throughout the web. The current American Red Cross blog needs to be redesigned. Having the Youth blogs design on the American Red Crosss blog will not only help organize the page, but also show brand symmetry. Currently the American Red Crosss blog is very unorganized with random pictures and tweets mixed with official communications and personal posts. The American Red Cross should also build a web application dedicated to designing a donation. Users should be able to select items to pledge, those items are then converted into a dollar amount for the donor to give. The American Red Cross will produce a series of video ads to run before YouTube videos and on other websites. More millennials are viewers of digital videos (70.9 million) than are subscribers to social media networks (69.9 million). (eMarketer, 2013) It is important for the videos to be short and engaging to prevent skips. Lastly, the American Red Cross will have sponsored pages on leading websites that are frequented by millennials. These sites include HuffingtonPost.com and Buzzfeed.com. We will commit $3,164,500 to this section of the campaign in order to ensure it is successful.

Second, the American Red Cross also needs to engage millennials on smart devices through apps and email. E-newsletters and smartphone applications are very important to the success of the American Red Cross. 47-percent of millennials who responded to The Millennial Impact Report, said they prefer to get e-newsletters to engage with nonprofits. It is important that these emails are optimized for smart devices, 67-percent of smartphone using millennials said they check email on their device. (Achieve, 2012) There are 49 million millennial smartphone users. (eMarketer, 2013) Of them, 21-million use apps. (Aptito.com, 2012) In a recent survey, API company Apigee found 82-percent of people believe there are critical apps on their phones they cannot go without for even a day. Some of the most mentioned apps were Facebook and email. (Smith, A. 2013) We would like to reach 20-percent of the target audience 14 times a year, with special attention paid during the holiday season. We suggest the American Red Cross use email newsletters specifically formatted to be easily read on a smart device or on a computer. They should have one main story with a call to action, links to read more on the American Red Crosss website, with compelling visuals, and list events and volunteer opportunities. (Achieve, 2012) The American Red Cross will also need to optimize its website for smartphones and other internet devices - sing web standards like HTML5 will ensure compatibility on almost any device. The website should be scalable and readable, be formatted similar to the email newsletters with most important content first, and include a link to the full site and contact information like social media sites, phone numbers, emails, and street addresses. The last improvement we want to implement is to take the current American Red Cross applications like First Aid Tornado and Hurricane, make them smaller

than the required 40mb, redesign them to make them easier to use, add a search feature, and add a donate button with a donate pop-up every fifth open. As they currently are, the applications are not very user friendly. We are opting to commit $49,000 to this objective to ensure its success. Lastly, we would like to have the American Red Cross build a large street presence in areas with large populations of millennials. In 2009, over 5-percent of the population commuted to work using public transit, 3-percent walk to work. However, of the people who live and work in the same metro area, 47-percent took public transit and 12-percent walked. (US Census, 2009) Additionally, consumers are actively involved in this media and it can influence peoples attitudes towards the American Red Cross and the brand as a whole. (Wilson, R. & Till, B. 2011) We would like to reach at least of 70-percent of the target audience in each location three times a year. We would like to use lenticular billboard ads around major transportation terminals and high trafficked areas. These ads are made to be different and catch peoples attention. The goal is to disrupt someones view and capture his or her attentio n. The ads would start as a scene of immanent destruction, like a tornado or hurricane. As the viewer walks by, the picture changes to a scene of the aftermath with the American Red Cross on the scene handing out care packs and blankets. This guerrilla-marketing tactic will be placed in areas with a large amount of street traffic like Chicagos Michigan Avenue or New Yorks Time Square. We are planning to commit $1,856,000 to this portion of the campaign.

Touchpoint Creative Executions

Statement of Idea The creative strategy statement for our campaign is In times of crisis, trust the American Red Cross to support our communities. We put a lot of effort into really wanting to communicate that the American Red Cross will always be there, when you need them. Even when there is no disasters or calls to be met, the American Red Cross is there ready to help. Additionally, we wanted to communicate the feeling of inclusion. The use of our takes ownership in the fact we are all in this together. Therefore, we want each touchpoint of this campaign to reflect the same togetherness that our strategy uses. For this campaign, we need to avoid the generic calls to action. Please give money. Donate Today. Now is the time to donate. Millennials hate feeling like a brand is better than them. The last thing we want to do is guilt trip them. That is not the American Red Cross. Every time anyone is touched by the brand, we want them to feel positive, happy, reassured, and motivated to do something more. Our strategy is simple: The American Red Cross is connected to all of our lives. In order to get millennials to understand and connect with our campaign, we have to convey our message through many different touchpoints. We mentioned some of them earlier was we discussed our objectives. The touchpoints we have decided to implement are broken down into sections to make them easier to follow. Social Media Facebook Sponsored Posts

Imagine logging into Facebook to follow the updates of your friends. See pictures of your best friends wedding. You scan your newsfeed and this makes you stop for second. Immediately you feel connected to these pictures of real people being helped by the American Red Cross. The pictures make you feel like these people could be your mom, dad, grandparents, brothers, or sisters. You are drawn in and want to find out more.

Facebook Sponsored Ads

Not everyone logs into Facebook religiously. Some people are casual users who scroll past pictures without giving them a second glance. But on the side, the red American Red Cross button is staring at them, fixed on the side. Even mixed in with pictures of cars and horses, it stands out. It disrupts their experience and they are forced to pay attention. The pitch is compelling. Do something that matters. Right now, youre casually scrolling though Facebook. This doesnt matter, but you are familiar with the Red Cross. Support my community? What happened in your community? Your family lives there. You click on the ad to see what is going on.

Facebook Page This is the current Facebook page of the American Red Cross.

Its pretty terrible. For starters the header image does not tell the viewer anything about the organization. There is a picture of a cat. Why a cat? Who cares about those peoples feet? And the text is not approved by the American Red Crosss brand guidelines. You cant build a successful, recognizable brand if it wont follow the brand guidelines. Something is not working - especially because there are only 514,000 followers. To compare, the MTV show 16 and Pregnant has over 5 million followers. There is something wrong with that. Visitors should see people being helped by the American Red Cross. A collage of images from blood drives, people helping build their community, volunteers passing out supplies. The posts should be engaging, and feel like they are connecting with each persons community. Additionally, posting updates on current projects the American Red Cross is involved in will connect with millennials to see how the American Red Cross uses the donations they receive. This will connect with the millennials and build the trust we want.

Twitter Page

The American Red Crosss Twitter page is good, but it could be more engaging. Tweeting back, retweeting, and direct messages will certainly expose the Red Cross to more people. Also, by maintaining the page with tweets to the website and pictures, the current followers can also interact with the Red Cross. The last benefit of Twitter is the ability to broadcast messages during times of crises to keep people up to date on any relief efforts. A great example is the American Red Crosss response to the Boston bombings.

Within minutes of the explosions, the American Red Cross was tweeting messages of condolences, ways to help, and ways to connect with loved ones. In these moments, it is important to turn to sites like Twitter to get information out quickly.

Instagram Page

As it currently stands, the American Red Crosss Instagram page needs to have more interaction. This service has a lot of interconnectivity that can help expose the American Red Cross to a much larger audience. It is a central place the American Red Cross can post images from the day. From there, people can comment on them, like them, and repost the images to their feeds. The activity is also rebroadcasted on Facebook.

As you can see, when people like a photo, it is put into users newsfeed and on their profile. This will help expose the American Red Cross to even more people who may not see the sponsored posts and ads. Google+

The American Red Cross has a great Google+ page.

The page has a lot of photos, links to more information, and videos. This is exactly what the American Red Cross needs to do across its other social media sites to connect with millennials.

Web

Blog Currently, the American Red Crosss blogs are too unorganized to effectively communicate what is going on within the organization and give millennials, and people in general, a reason to care. We believe there is great potential to communicate the transparency within the organization that millennials want to see. Additionally, there can be many different sections to give people more information about events, volunteer opportunities, and more stories about the American Red Cross than just the ones highlighted on the website. So the first thing that needs to be taken care of is redesigning the blog to be more user friendly. This is the blog as it currently lives:

As you can see, it is poorly laid out. There are no sections for different categories, everything is posted together, and the Twitter updates on the side, seem random and tacky. When compared to the Youth Blog, the design challenges on the current blog are even more apparent.

Our suggestion is to redesign the blog, and combine elements of both. Here is our mockup for the redesigned blog.

As you can see it is a lot more organized. There are dedicated sections for different categories. We have made a section for the American Red Crosss national blog, as well as the ability to tag and build blogs for different communities. We also have

a section labeled Our Results to communicate the different initiatives the American Red Cross is involved in and adds to the transparency millennials who donate would like. We also built a section ARC Around The Web specifically for user-generated content. The American Red Cross needs a way to showcase people who are sharing their experiences about the American Red Cross. The last major change is dedicated buttons for social media. This will help people find pages and connect easier. The other change we have made to the sections is the inclusion of the word our. We did this on purpose to continue to build on the connection we want millennials to feel when they come to the American Red Crosss blog.

Donation Builder

A feature we want to incorporate on the website is the ability to what peoples donation is equivalent to. Further connecting to millennials with transparency and trust, when they come to the website to donate, we have a series of items and their equivalent cost. Users can choose these items or enter a dollar amount to donate. This will help the user to quantify their donation. We feel this puts a more realistic application towards what people give. If a user gives $20, this will show them that it isnt just a $20 bill that could go to anything. Theyll see the $20 will be used towards snacks for 10 people or 2 hot meals. Emotionally, they feel better about their donation, and it builds a better connection with what they are giving. The hope is this builder makes the user come back later and give more, and remove the guilt of not donating more or feeling that the American Red Cross took their money with no sense of appreciation.

Pre-Roll Video Ad YouTube, Hulu, and news organizations they all play ads on the embedded videos. We suggest the American Red Cross invest in four different :30-second ads to run on these sites at different times of the year. The videos should be quick, interesting,

and communicate the ideas of being connected and trustworthy. The ads should start with black and white photos and videos of the Red Cross throughout the years, from its start until now. The voice over should not be over the top, nor a known actor. The end of the video will simply say, Our history is shaped by you. The American Red Cross. Not only will this leave a lasting impression, but the few words say a lot. We want millennials who view this video to feel like they have an active part in all that the American Red Cross does.

Sponsored Webpages

We want to engage millennials who do not use social media regularly by sponsoring posts on websites like Huffington Post and Buzzfeed. Large numbers of millennials use these websites as their go to sites for news and information. These ads can be banner ads on specially targeted posts or on the homepage.

Email

Email Newsletter

We want to build out the American Red Crosss email list and send potential donors and current donors an update every two weeks. These emails will feature an attention-grabbing headline, one main story with a picture and a short paragraph, and a link to read more. Below that, it will feature two other headlines, links to social media, and at the bottom a link to view in a browser. The positioning of these elements is very important. Millennials get a lot of emails from many different places, all vying for their attention. Our goal is to design these emails to be quickly glanced at and capture the readers attention.

Guerrilla Marketing

Lenticular Ads Imagine youre walking down Michigan Ave in Chicago. You see an ad affixed to a building and you think it is just another ad. As you move closer you realize its a tornado barreling down on a house.

As you walk past the ad, paying attention to the fact that this is not a normal scene, the ad changes to a different scene.

Now you think, wow, this is cool. The American Red Cross has connected with you because they showed you that they are always there for you if I ever need them. And, you are reminded of your childhood when you would get the similar cartoon cards in your cereal. We would like to implement these ads in Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Houston, New York City, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Portland, OR. We have chosen these cities because of their dense population and the high number of millennials. (Carmichael, M. 2011)

Internal Communication Plan

For this campaign we have identified the following objectives for the internal target audience: First, we want to help optimize one internal network of information for employees. The American Red Cross already has an established intranet. It needs to continue to engage employees in order to disseminate information about the campaign. A lot of information can be organized to better allow employees to research and understand the goals of the American Red Cross. Intranets have the ability to allow employees to socialize with other employees, managers can post informal blogs and announcements that better resonate with employees than emails. Lastly, there are many ways to solicit feedback and answer questions via an intranet for a large organization. (Ward, T. 2013) Ideally we would like to reach 80-percent of the American Red Crosss employees by the end of the first half of the campaign. We will commit $1,000 to this initiative. The last portion of our internal engagement plan will be to engage employees through supervisors at each American Red Cross branch. Steve Jobs said that when someone calls a meeting, everyone in the room should be a participant and spectators are not welcome. (Segall, K. 2012) The point of the quote is to communicate large scale meetings are pointless for the American Red Cross. There are just too many people involved 31,424 paid employees and 500,000+ volunteers. (WVU, 2013) Small group sessions that flow down to the volunteers will be a lot more effective than a large all hands presentation. We believe we can reach 95-percent of the American Red Crosss employees by the end of the first quarter of the campaign. We are going to commit $787,500 to this portion of the internal strategy.

Internal Touchpoints Intranet

It is important for the American Red Cross to have a central location to organize information and news about the organization and within other communities. An internal network is the best option for that. We will work with the American Red Cross to ensure the site flows well, is easily accessible, and can communicate the objectives and message we want for the American Red Cross.

Small Group Workshops

We feel that the best way to communicate our strategy within the organization is to use small groups. These groups will start with the national office talking to the regional directors. They will talk to the community supervisors, and so on down the line until every volunteer is reached with a message that is important and matters to them. This is more effective than having large video conference calls. Most of those are wastes of time and only are relevant to 10-percent of the people viewing it.

Focus Group
Objective The objective of this focus group will be to understand participants feelings and attitudes towards the American Red Cross. The focus group will also discuss current cause marketing tactics effectiveness. Finally ending with a discussion about the proposed American Red Cross marketing campaign.

Participants We will need eight to twelve participants. The participants will be in the target demographic of 22 to 35. We want a mix of nationalities, sexes, and races.

Questions 1. What do you know about the American Red Cross? 2. How do you feel about the mission, [MISSION STATEMENT], of the American Red Cross? What would you improve? 3. What cause marketing campaigns do you remember? 4. What about them made them memorable? 5. After viewing the new American Red Cross campaign, what is your first reaction? 6. Do you feel the campaign connects with millennials and will motivate them to get involved in the American Red Cross? 7. Would you donate to the American Red Cross after seeing this campaign? If so, how much? If not, why?

8. If you could design a campaign for the American Red Cross, what would you include? Script Open: Welcome everyone! Im Eric Pribramsky and I will be conducting this focus group. As you all fill out the brief questionnaire about yourselves, I want to cover a few things before we begin. First, there no wrong answers. We want honest feedback. If you dont get something, let me know. If you have a suggested improvement, let me know. This focus group is designed to get your feedback about cause marketing and the new campaign for the American Red Cross. Second, if I ask a question that you dont understand, just ask me to explain it. I have no problem giving definitions, or expanding on a topic. Third, try to keep conversations relevant to the topics at hand. It is very easy to get distracted, but, I, and I am sure all of you, would like to get on with the rest of your day. Finally, if you have ignored everything else I have just said, please listen to this be respectful of each others thoughts and opinions. You may disagree or not like an answer someone gives, but wait for your turn to speak. This works best if everyone speaks one at a time. Now, unless there are any questions, I will start the audio recorder and begin. Questions 1-4 Middle: Ok, now we are going to shift gears. I am going to show you the new campaign for the American Red Cross. While looking at this presentation, consider the goals for this campaign. First, the campaign is designed to engage millennials and motivate them

to donate money to the American Red Cross. Second, gain $50 million in donations over the next year. Lastly, the campaign should also motivate those already apart of the American Red Cross to get behind the campaign and get excited about it. If you have any questions, please hold them until the end and write it down and the corresponding slide. Question 5-8 Close: That finished this focus group. Thank all for your participation and cooperation. If you think of anything else that you did not get to address here, please do not hesitate to contact me via email or on my cell. Both are on these business cards. Your answers will be used to help make changes to the campaign to make it more effective in completing our objectives. The research will be complied and available for viewing and download May 21st on the Angry Banter Media website. Thank you again. Please take home any leftover refreshments and a complimentary Angry Banter Media gift bag at the door. Get home safe. Feedback The focus group gave excellent feedback. They really liked all the touchpoints in the creative campaign. Their feedback was in line with our assumptions when discussing Facebook ads and other social media. There was some push back when the donation builder was first pitched. Many participants felt the American Red Cross was lying by not saying the donation would be for specific things. So we agreed that have a dollar amount representing certain items would be less misleading while still communicating the point. The last idea that was not included in our initial campaign was

donor t-shirts. The focus group liked the idea of being able to get a physical object to thank them for their donation. The t-shirts would also help increase brand awareness. Unfortunately given the current budget, t-shirts are too expensive. However, it is something to consider for a later campaign. Overall the focus group was a great success. The PowerPoint presentation is included in the appendix.

Evaluation
Pre-Execution We would like to test the reach of current social media and web initiatives by the American Red Cross. We will look at Facebook, Twitter, the American Red Cross blog, and the current American Red Cross website. We plan to budget $2,250 to this method. We feel it is important to understand what the current reach of social media and web initiatives of the American Red Cross are in order to see if our goals are obtainable. We would also like to test the current email delivery and open rate of American Red Cross emails among donors and volunteers through awareness. We would like to solicit surveys to current subscribers and questionnaires on the American Red Cross website. We plan to budget $2,000 to this objective. It is important to know how many people are looking at the emails and if they are responding to them. We want to measure the brand perception of the American Red Cross. We feel it is necessary to survey and find out what millennials think of the American Red Cross and whether we are able to change, or if it needs to change, throughout the campaign. We plan to budget $2,500 to this objective. Lastly, we want to measure the frequency people interact with the American Red Cross, especially millennials and people during times of non-crises. By knowing how many times a person see the American Red Cross, we can better gauge whether or not the American Red Crosss current message is being received. We plan to budget $2,250 to this objective. Post-Execution

After the campaign, we first want to measure the American Red Crosss brand perception. We will use surveys to see if millennials view the American Red Cross more favorably. We plan to budget $2,000 to this objective. We also want to measure the success of the redesigned email delivery and open rate of American Red Cross emails among donors and volunteers through awareness. We would like to solicit surveys to current subscribers and questionnaires on the American Red Cross website. We plan to budget $1,500 to this objective. We want to measure the reach of all the social media and web initiatives we have developed. We hope to see more connections on social media sites and more visits to the American Red Cross website. We plan to budget $2,000 to this objective. The last objective we want to look at is whether the frequency of millennials interaction with the American Red Cross has increased. This will tell us if we have broken through to millennials and if they are seeing the American Red Crosss marketing efforts. We plan to budget $2,500 to this objective.

Conclusion
This whole campaign is about restoring and building trust and connections with the American Red Cross. We feel our campaign works to build these relationships that connect with millennials. Our strategy combines social media, with web, with email marketing and an exciting guerrilla strategy that will be sure to draw attention. Additionally we have the strategies that will help connect volunteers and American Red Cross workers with our campaign to successfully rally behind our message. They will further help convince friends and family to get involved and donate. We want to hook people for life, not just one donation. We hope that there will be an immediate response from each tactic as it is implemented. We will be able to use tools to continually monitor tactics effectiveness. We will also be able to tweak messages and choose wording that connects better than before. Finally, Angry Banter Media will be here for you every step of the way, from start to finish. We will see every tactic, objective, survey, and tactic through. We believe we have the best campaign for the American Red Cross. We have created a campaign that will engage millennials, generate over $50 million in donations in the next year, and engage everyone involved within the American Red Cross. Angry Banter Media has years of experience with all the touchpoints of this campaign, and the research to back it up. Choosing Angry Banter Media to carry out the American Red Crosss marketing will help shape the organization to be profitable for years to come.

Appendix
Online Survey Questions Q1: Have you donated to a non-profit organization or cause in the last year? Q2: When considering how to donate money to a cause or organization, what method do you prefer? Q3: When considering a donation, which do you prefer, a set donation amount or the ability to choose your own denomination? Q4: For organizations like the American Red Cross, donations decrease greatly when there is not a disaster or time of need. From the choices below, what would encourage you to donate during times when there is no immediate crisis? Q5: Why have you given money to the American Red Cross? Q6: How likely are you to donate to the American Red Cross during a time of crisis (natural disaster, terrorist attack, etc.)? Q7: To what type of organization do you most often donate? Q8: What is your age? Q9: What is your gender? Q10: What social media platforms do you use most?

Focus Group PowerPoint Presentation

References Achieve. 2012 Millennial Impact Report. The Millennial Impact. Retrieved from http://cdn.trustedpartner.com/docs/library/AchieveMCON2013/TheMillennialImp actReport2012.pdf Aptito.com. (2012, May 23). Smartphone apps how many people use them? What is your restaurant missing out on by not offering one? Retrieved from http://aptito.com/blog/2012/05/23/smartphone-apps-%E2%80%93-how-manypeople-use-them-what-is-your-restaurant-missing-out-on-by-not-offering-one/ Berkshire, J. (2012, June 12). 75% of young adults gave to charity last year, study finds. The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Retrieved from http://philanthropy.com/article/75of-Young-Adults-Gave-to/132217/ Carmichael, M. (2011, March 10). Advertising age finds the cities with the most millennials. Advertising Age. Retrieved from http://adage.com/article/adagestat/advertising-age-finds-citiesmillennials/149347/ Dewan, S., & Strom, S. (2010, August 7). Red Cross faces criticism over aid program for hurricane victims. The New York Time. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/10/us/10redcross.html?pagewanted=all Ellis, B. (2012, November 13). Red Cross donations top $130 million for Sandy relief. CNNMoney. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/2012/11/13/pf/sandydonations-red-cross/index.html eMarketer. (2013, March 21). How digital behavior differs among millennials, gen xers and boomers. eMarketer. Retrieved from http://www.emarketer.com/Article/How-

Digital-Behavior-Differs-Among-Millennials-Gen-Xers-Boomers/1009748 FoxNews. (2011, March 16). American Red Cross official defends fundraising efforts. FoxNews.com. Retrieved from www.foxnews.com/us/2011/03/16/american-redcross-official-defends-fundraising-efforts/ IndependentSector. (2012). Scope of the nonprofit sector. IndependentSector.org. Retrieved from http://www.independentsector.org/scope_of_the_sector Kahn, C. (2011, January 11). Haiti aid groups criticized as money sits unspent. NPR. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2011/01/11/132807059/haiti-aid-money-liesunspent-drawing-criticism Kingkade, T. (2013, February 6). Millennial unemployment in January 2013 rose much faster than national rate. Huffington Post. Retrieved from www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/06/millennial-unemployment-ratejanuary_n_2612956.html Kiplinger. (2010, December 1). How generation y will change the future. Kiplinger. Retrieved from http://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/business/T019-S001-howgeneration-y-will-change-the-future/index.html Martin, T. (2012, December 11). Pinterest vs Instagram - which is better for marketing? Converse Digital. Retrieved from http://www.conversedigital.com/digitalstrategy/should-my-company-be-on-instagram-or-pinterest RedCross.org. (2013). Our History. American Red Cross. Retrieved from http://www.redcross.org/about-us/history Segall, K. (2012, April 26). What I learned about great meetings from Steve. Entrepreneur.com. Retrieved from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/223424

Smith, A. (2013, February 26). 85% of smartphone users would rather give up water than mobile apps. Mashable. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2013/02/26/smartphone-users-giving-up-mobile-apps/ Solomon, M. R. (2011). Consumer behavior: buying, having and being (9th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education. USCensus. (2011). Commuting (journey to work). Census Bureau Homepage. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/hhes/commuting/data/commuting.html USCensus. (2012). Current population survey annual social and economic supplement. US Census Bureau. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/cpstables/032012/perinc/pinc08_000.htm USCensus. (2011, May 1). Age and sex composition: 2010 census briefs. Census.gov. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-03.pdf Ward, T. (2013, January 1). The social intranet study summary report. Prescient Digital Media. Retrieved from http://www.prescientdigital.com/downloads/2012%20Social%20Intranet%20Stud y_Summary_Prescient%20Digital%20Media.pdf Weise, E. (2012, November 27). Charitable giving increased slightly in 2011. USATODAY.com. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/11/26/charitable-givingincreased-slightly/1728027/ Welch, C. (2013, May 3). Anti-abuse campaign uses lenticular printing to show different ad to adults, children. The Verge. Retrieved from http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/5/4302950/abuse-campaign-lenticular-printing-

delivers-different-ads-adults-kids Wilson, R., & Till, B. (2011). Effects of outdoor advertising: Does location matter?. Psychology & Marketing, 28(9), 909-933. Retrieved May 16, 2013, from the Business Source Premier database.