Five years
after their corporate headquarters and flagship store were
destroyed during the Loma Prieta Earthquake, 
Goodwill was able to
rebuild on a new and much more visible site on the corner of
Mission and South Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco. Much of the
public relations and marketing focus centered on upgrading
Goodwill’s image and positioning while concurrently promoting the new
headquarters, flagship store and corporate identity. There were
five primary organizational goals:
-
Introduce
and establish a new corporate identity.
-
Increase
media visibility in Northern California.
-
Develop
new corporate and media partnerships.
-
Elevate
the frequency and increase the amount of consumer and corporate donations.
-
Augment
retail sales and increase the number of stores in each county.
WMG
designed and implemented an intensive campaign called The Power of Work involving the following elements:
-
To
promote the new corporate image in a broad range of media.
-
To
creatively stretch a modest advertising budget and upgrade the creative in print and television.
-
To
introduce the new corporate headquarters via a gala event
designed to promote Goodwill's new goals.
-
To
plan and implement a memorable grand opening celebration of the
new flagship retail store located adjacent to the headquarters.
To stretch Goodwill’s advertising budget and
to upgrade advertising creative
and production, WMG contacted the San Francisco Advertising Club's Advisory Council. After a
formal presentation to the Council, Goodwill was selected
for an 18-month pro bono advertising make-over.The award-winning
firm of Anderson & Lembke Advertising was assigned to handle
Goodwill's account. By the end of the campaign, Goodwill received
more than one million dollars in pro-bono/donated services and
media placements including:
-
Six
full-page black and white print ads.
-
Three
30-second and three 60-second television commercials.
-
Placements
in Time, Newsweek and US World Report.
-
Placement
of the variations of the print campaign on billboards and bus
shelters in San Francisco.
-
Placement
on billboards in San Mateo and Marin Counties.
To
leverage Goodwill's advertising, WMG generated additional coverage
by conducting a national publicity campaign for the advertising
program. One tactic used was coordinating the placement of
one of the television spots in two movie theaters, running as a "short"
between movie showings. It
was the first time a television commercial ran in a movie theatre.
To
introduce the corporate headquarters, WMG conducted tours of the new
facility. The tours were targeted to other non-profits,
city and state officials, design and architecture media, non-profit
and philanthropy media, retail writers and editors, columnists, television and radio reporters, and
producers. The resulting coverage included several four-color feature stories in national trade
publications, as well as extensive print and television coverage in
Northern California.
The
most memorable element of the entire campaign was the Grand
Opening Power of Work Gala. WMG solicited and successfully secured
the following:
-
Free
design and production for an award-winning invitation.
-
Over
200 silent auction and raffle prizes.
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Food
and beverage donations from hotels and restaurants for 1600 people.
-
Complimentary
staging, lighting and audio-visual equipment.
-
Production
of a fashion show using donated producers, choreographers, models, dressers and designer clothes.
-
Three
bands performed at no cost.
-
Media
sponsorship from KGO TV for coverage
of the event, public service ad production and placements and
the participation of TV anchors Cheryl Jennings and Don
Sanchez as co-hosts of the evening.
-
Media
sponsorship with the San Francisco Business Times for free
advertising.
-
Corporate
sponsorship with the San Francisco Giants, which enabled us to
obtain the Giants’ president, Peter Magowan, as
event co-host.
-
50
volunteers from the San Francisco Marriott to work check-in and press tables
-
Donations
of name badges, goodie bags, clean-up personnel and equipment, etc.
The event
attracted 1600 guests and was covered by every major media outlet in the Bay Area.
WMG
media-trained all Goodwill spokespersons and coordinated all media
coverage. The Power of Work campaign won WMG a First Place award from the
San Francisco Bay Area Publicity Club and an Award of Distinction
from Sales and Marketing Executives International.
For the
final stage of the campaign, WMG planned and executed a three-day
event to celebrate the opening of the Flagship Retail Store. It
involved a breakfast
reception on opening day, a ribbon cutting ceremony with the
presentation of an official San Francisco mayoral
proclamation by Mayor Frank Jordan, three members of the Board of
Supervisors, the Police Chief and the Fire Chief, among
others.
WMG
secured
dozens of stories on the design and architecture of Goodwill's new
facilities, as well as the training
programs involved in running the operation. The response to the
campaign was tremendous.
Sales records for the first week of operations exceeded projections by 175%.
For
over four
years, WMG performed creative, aggressive,
pro-active and effective strategies to position Goodwill as one of the most dynamic and growing non-profit
organizations in the Bay Area.
WMG's
campaigns ultimately opened the door for Goodwill’s business
partnership programs which allowed the agency to place graduates in
companies such as The Gap, Nordstrom, San Francisco Hilton, San
Francisco Chamber of Commerce and Fresh Choice Restaurants.
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