Last month we served as judges on the North America Grand Effies Judging Committee. For those of you who do not know the Effies, they are considered the top awards for effective marketing communications around the world. Several rounds of judging submissions in different marketing categories result in a list of finalists for the "Grand Effie" or the award for the most effective marketing across all categories. That's what we were tasked to judge, along with nine other senior marketers representing both the creative and business sides of the industry.
The winner was a surprising choice. It wasn't a multi-million dollar television campaign for a Fortune 50 company, nor was it a digital media program for some new-age service. Instead, the Grand Effie award was given to the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) for a very simple, and cost-efficient word-of-mouth program to encourage student enrollment. Here's what they did.
With enrollment declining 80,000 students in the past 10 years, the school system faced a $305 million dollar deficit, forcing the Governor and The Michigan Department of Education to close 29 schools in 2009. This caused a major public outcry and highlighted the lack of confidence that residents placed in the DPS.
Leo Burnett Detroit created the "I'm In" marketing campaign to drive awareness of the positive aspects of the Detroit Public Schools as well as to halt the decline in enrollment. The main idea of this campaign is that the Detroit Public Schools have amazing and surprising opportunities behind them. This idea was brought to life by the creation of 172 blue doors representing the 172 public schools in the district. The doors appeared at various community events and in a large installation at Hart Plaza in downtown Detroit. Teachers, parents, and students brought the positive message of DPS success to local neighborhoods and encouraged residents to make a commitment to their local school. This commitment took many shapes, including a yard sign that featured a blue door and the phrase "I'm In". Residents could now see which of their neighbors were sending their children to the public schools, encouraging others to join the movement. With only $250,000 in paid media, the "I'm In" program generated over $1.5 million in free press coverage built awareness of the success stories from the DPS. Local and national celebrities, including Bill Cosby, used their status to support the "I'm In" program.
In the end, student enrollment in Detroit actually rose 6,500 in 2010. As a result, an incremental $49 million of funding was generated for DPS, keeping the school system financially viable. The program provided a beacon of hope for Detroit and its public school system.
Here are five lessons we tookaway from the Detroit Public Schools campaign and the finalists at this year's Effies:
1. Cause marketing matters more than ever. We live in a difficult world. Through these difficult times we expect brands to do more for our communities. If they take the lead, we'll reward them. The Detroit Public Schools campaign and Ford's "Drive One 4 UR School" are perfect example of this. People are excited to rally around important causes and brands that engage authentically in this effort can benefit too. The critical factor is to find a cause that authentically relates to your brand's equity and culture.
2. Taking the right posture in an economic downturn can bring success. The economic downturn caused a lot of suffering, but it also created an opportunity for brands to say, "We understand what you're going through and we are going to do something different as a result." Programs that did well in 2010 were ones that understood the impact of the economic crisis and responded to it with the appropriate voice and tone. For example, Hyundai brought compassion and assurance to a new car purchase by offering to refund your money if you lost your job.
3. Advertising is dead, long live advertising. There's a meme in the world of business that consumers do not like advertising and even more broadly, that marketing communications does not work. If there's anything that the finalists and the winner showed is that there's a very direct line from successful marketing programs to an organization's bottom line. The Detroit Public Schools turned around a 10 year decline in enrollment with some paint and lumber. Hyundai was the only car company to grow while their other competitors declined by up to 40%.
4. Resonance, resonance resonance. We live in a cluttered media ecosystem. For a message to break through, it needs to resonate with customers. That's what Apple did with "There's an App For That" campaign, where different iPhone applications were matched with corresponding print publications. For example, the advertisement in Gourmet magazine only promoted food related applications. Simple but powerful. The Detroit Public Schools took their message to the streets, neighborhoods, and local events frequented by the residents of Detroit.
5. Marketing means creating movements. There is no doubt about it that the most effective marketing programs are the ones that rally people, encourage them to serve as social voices for the brands, and make them feel like they are part of something greater.
The Detroit Public Schools is a brilliant example of all that works in marketing in 2010. It had a simple and emotionally compelling idea. It had disruptive and brilliant creative executions. And it leveraged the power of personal persuasion to generate outstanding results. As judges, we had to compare the impact of a national effort like Hyundai "Assurance" with a local effort like DPS's "I'm In." In the end, we made our decision based on the magnitude of the challenge. Many of the finalists required people to change their minds or make major purchases during an economic downturn. The DPS "I'm In" campaign encouraged over 6,000 more people to put their most precious possession on the line — their child's future. That's great marketing.
Shiv Singh is the Head of Digital for PepsiCo Beverages and a regular blogger at Going Social Now. Peter Carter is the Director of Brand Building Integrated Communications-Americas at P&G. To review the work and read the case studies of the campaigns mentioned visit their page on the Effies' site.
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