Driving Inclusivity Forward in The Motor City

The Challenge

SSDM was engaged by Capital Impact Partners to help increase brand awareness for the work being done to revitalize iconic Woodward Avenue in Detroit’s Midtown neighborhood through The Detroit Corridor Initiative (DCI). They needed to get the word out quickly in order to educate, inspire and gain support from a diverse group of audiences, including area businesses, shoppers, and local and national press.

The term “awareness campaign” had many facets, and we were asked to:

• Produce a video to show the neighborhood’s progress, including heartfelt interviews with key principals in the initiative
• Design a landing page to house the video and provide information about the initiative
• Drive people to a landing page by developing a cost-efficient media plan for strategically targeted programmatic ads
• Develop two (2) additional 15-second videos to build early anticipation among audiences for social media and YouTube trailer ads
• Develop search and social media campaigns to raise awareness for the Detroit Corridor Initiative

Our Solution

We took a grass-roots approach to the awareness campaign, visually bringing to life the stewardship of the City of Detroit’s $100 million grant from JPMorgan Chase & Co. as part of its Living Cities Integration Initiative. And, although the entire grant from JPMorgan Chase was sizable, the amount available for marketing was limited.

To make the biggest possible impact, we wrote, shot, produced and edited an empowering video called “The Building Blocks To Inclusive Growth,” that fully captured the energy and momentum being created in the revitalized Woodward Corridor.

Campaign Objectives

Capital Impact Partners needed to engage key stakeholders who could help spread the word about the grand and community development initiative. For investors, developers, potential partners, community leaders, entrepreneurs and business owners we were asked to:

• Generate awareness for the initiative
• Build buzz around the project

Target Audience

• Investors, developers and potential partners
• Community leaders
• Entrepreneurs and business owners

The Work Behind the Results

The video we created was intended for engagement through social media, so we designed it to allow for flexible editing to personally reach each audience with the most appropriate messaging and imagery.

Deliverables for this initiative included:

• Full-length, six minute video
• Two 15-second videos for social-media and programmatic search campaign use
• Strategic and highly-targeted media plan
• Social media campaign
• Programmatic display campaign

Delivering Quality and Measurable Outcomes

A groundswell of enthusiasm erupted surrounding the revitalization project after the video was released. New businesses moved into the community and population density increased by 30%. Most businesses were able to retain their workforce, while 33% also hired additional employees.

Total impressions across Google, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn totaled an astonishing 5.9 million over the four-week campaign.