AJLI Launches First-Ever National Advertising Campaign in 108-Years
For the first time in its 108-year history, and as featured in The New York Times, the Junior League has made broadcast advertising available to all 293 Leagues. The newly launched campaign, Let’s Make a Difference, includes a series of broadcast, radio and print advertisements available to each League for use in their community media.
Advertising is an exciting way for Leagues to raise awareness for the work they’re doing in their communities and help recruit prospective members, partners, and underwriters. “Now is great time for the Leagues to raise their profile,” said Debbie Brown Robinson, President AJLI 08-10, citing increased competition from volunteer organizations and a growing need for professional development opportunities in the down economy.
Some background on the campaign:
The ads take old misperceptions about the League head-on with a tongue in cheek approach: One of the two television spots teases viewers, asking if they want to “Do lunch with the Junior League,” then goes on to speak to the Leagues’ childhood obesity campaign Kids in the Kitchen. The creative work was a pro bono project of Beaird & Boone Marketing of Dallas, TX, and the sites and actors for the ad shoots were community projects of the Junior League of Dallas.
The broadcast advertising was created and field tested with the Junior League of Milwaukee as part of a Membership Recruitment Project in 2008. Milwaukee was chosen as the test market because its size and relative demographic richness made it the ideal place to measure campaign efficacy. The ads aired for six weeks during the “Today Show” on the local Milwaukee NBC affiliate while the League tracked web traffic and interest from new members.
Did it work?
The TV ads generated a boon of interest in the League and directly correlated to women joining the New Member class of the Junior League of Milwaukee. The results confirm that the campaign has the right message: JLM’s website experienced a 35% increase in traffic and there was a 500% increase in the number of submissions to receive more information about Junior League membership from the website.
What Now?
From this initial foray into television advertising AJLI moved ahead to create a package of media now available to all 292 Leagues. Whether it’s combating childhood obesity, promoting literacy, or preventing violence against women, Junior League volunteers are at the forefront, working hard to improve our communities. And the Let’s Make a Difference campaign illustrates just that.
This campaign will undoubtedly expand the ranks of the Junior League and make a bigger impact on the quality of life for residents in the Junior Leagues’ respective 293 communities and beyond. It will also create awareness to enlist new members into the organization.
Click here to see the Print ads
Click here to see the TV ads
Click here to listen to the Radio ads
Read the entire New York Times article: click here.
