2024 ADDYS BEST OF SHOW
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GOLD IN COPYWRITING
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GOLD IN PUBLIC SERVICE CAMPAIGN
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2024 ADDYS BEST OF SHOW --- GOLD IN COPYWRITING --- GOLD IN PUBLIC SERVICE CAMPAIGN ---
:30 Broadcast Spot
This campaign was always about changing the world,
but it had to start with changing people’s minds.
The face of the housing crisis isn’t who you think it is.
Habitat doesn’t have an awareness problem.
Habitat has a perception problem.
Everyone thinks that Habitat just gives houses away to people in need.
False.
That’s where our campaign comes in.
Habitat is helping some of the hardest workers in our community get out of unsafe, unstable rental housing and into their own home—with their own mortgage. The kind of people you would never think of as needing a home. The kind of people our community can’t afford to lose. You know what they say about assumptions…
This is a message we needed to craft in a way that our audience would actually care about.
INSIGHT #1
9 out of 10 essential workers, such as EMTs and teachers, don’t make the salary needed to afford a one-bedroom rental.
INSIGHT #2
We spent all of COVID thanking “essential workers.” People still hold a deep emotional affinity for them, feeling the need to return the favor.
Who can’t afford housing?
Read the headline, make eye contact with the human.
Breaking the headline onto either side of the subject’s head forces the reader to look at the human being in the portrait. Nothing shows the true soul of a person like their eyes, and forcing the eyes of the reader to look into the eyes of our hardworking professionals adds a sense of profound gravitas.
Each portrait features real professionals in their field. Their stories are real, and their faces tell us about not just struggle, but hope. But the true impact hits when you learn that each professional is also a real Habitat homeowner. This wasn’t a campaign for actors, and the portraits speak for themselves.
Where’s the Habitat Logo?
This project became bigger than simply an ad campaign right before our eyes. It became a movement, an initiative bigger than any one brand.
Spearheaded and funded by Habitat For Humanity, it became a shared mission of any social commentator or nonprofit that wanted to be a part of it.
Therefore, we dropped the Habitat logo on most of the deliverables, creating a campaign logo inspired by a Gordian Knot—a historical symbol representing an intricate and profound problem. Without the hands of many, it would remain a tangled knot that might never be solved.
The campaign is currently being used within the state and national political spheres to put a “face” to the crisis. You can also find the campaign on CTV/OTT, OOH, print and social.
Read more about Habitat’s incredible mission and follow the story here.
