Seattle Humane is in the middle of a capital campaign to build a new animal shelter, adoption center, and teaching hospital. This would replace their current facility, which has become limiting in its ability to accommodate animals and save lives. Having completed a successful private fundraising phase allowing them to break ground in early 2016, they turned to my team to execute the public facing portion of the campaign, which would push them to reach their fundraising goal of $25 million.
Our approach was simple; band together animal people throughout the region with a memorable, rally-cry campaign slogan, “animal people can”. The message had to accompanied by equally as compelling imagery depicting relatable “animal people” scenarios specifically targeted to key donor demographics.
Early on it was decided that the campaign photography needed to be custom and it needed to be special. It would, in essence, carry the campaign. Our team worked through the specific scenarios we hoped to depict, then turned to the amazing John Keatley, who graciously accepted our shoe-string budget. I worked closely with his team to execute each of the 6 shots we outlined. My responsibilities included wrangling our talent (human and animal), location scouting, scheduling and collecting props and styling sets.
Once we had our campaign photography, we needed to roll it out strategically to ensure campaign recognition and especially, campaign donations. Our marketing strategy included billboards, transit ads, print ads, social media graphics and challenges, yard signs, campaign t-shirts and an informative campaign website, driven to by a robust digital ad buy.
Although the campaign is still in progress, there has been great movement towards reaching the $25 million campaign goal, ensuring that this first-of-its kind facility will be built.
