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Fuse | Creative Brief
BRAND STRATEGY STATEMENT
Parents of young children care about their community’s security, wellness and happiness. They
care about their children’s future and want the best for them and their home. The Heart of Missouri
United Way and its many partners have the power to solve many pressing issues in mid-Missouri.
Becoming involved with HMUW enables growing families be a part of the change they want to see.
Why are we advertising?
The main goal of our campaign is to raise funding and awareness for the Heart of Missouri United
Way (HMUW). We are expanding a three-month campaign into a yearlong campaign, while
maintaining funding that comes in the months of August through November. HMUW serves
Howard, Cooper, and Boone counties in the categories of education, health, income, and crisis
prevention. Every dollar they receive is crucial to support partner agencies.
Who are we talking to?
For the campaign, we chose to target parents with young families. We defined this group as ~26- to
38-year-olds who make $50,000-100,000 annually and are building their families in Howard,
Cooper, and Boone counties. This group has young children under the age of 10 and they live in
suburban areas. They are college graduates, homeowners, and are committed to building the
strongest foundation they can for their children. Viewing philanthropy as a form of self-expression,
identity, and legacy building, they are invested in the health, wellness, and education of their
children. They realize the importance of the impact of the community around them in making that
happen.
What do we know about them that might help us?
Through the research process and our survey of 25- to 40-year-olds, we found several key facts
about our target market, ​New Parents in a New Community,​that helped us establish a direction for
our campaign:
● This group is motivated toward philanthropic acts because of their own
gratitude—gratitude for the blessings they have received in their own lives.

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Fuse | Creative Brief
● Our survey findings also backed up our secondary research in that this group needs to feel
connected to a cause on a personal and emotional level and are often driven by religious
motivations.
● Because of the stage of life of our target, they are naturally more inclined to be
concerned with HMUW’s four areas of service: education, health, income and
safety net.
● Their largest concerns about the community are poverty and youth issues—which match
up perfectly with HMUW’s mission.
● Many of United Way’s partner agencies work for the benefit of children, such as:
○ The Boys & Girl’s Club
○ Big Brothers Big Sisters
○ Mary Lee Johnston Learning Center
○ Harrisburg Early Learning Center
○ Nora Stewart Early Learning Center
MAIN IDEA | What do we want them to takeaway?
We want young families to realize that the services and support HMUW provides play a significant
role in the health and wellness of their children and community. We want this group to understand
that their investment in their community through HMUW is a direct investment in the future of
their children.
SUPPORT
Among the points we identified that would support our decision to target growing families are the
wide range of services and amenities provided by HMUW, the regional and national reputation of
United Way, and the foundation’s connection to community members, specifically families.
EVALUATION
The number one priority for the yearlong campaign is to increase monetary giving by
approximately 30 percent. In 2014, $2.7 million was raised, with a concentration in the last three
months of the year. For the upcoming campaign, we hope to see an additional $800,000 for a total
goal of $3.5 million. To measure our success we will:
● Set donation quotas for each period we run new promotions so we can measure each period
against the initial three-month campaign
● Compare giving outside their three-month period before and after the proposed campaign
Our second priority for the new campaign is to increase awareness, viewership, and engagement
with our media including, but not limited to, social media, the HMUW website in general (CTR
specifically), and the blog. As well as raising awareness to our media, we also value keeping a tight

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Fuse | Creative Brief
watch on analytics to completely understand how people interact with our media to create tactics
to encourage more follows, likes, and shares.
Thirdly, we are adamant about creating a database for past givers as a way to understand giving
behavior for HMUW. Not only is it important to keep tabs on who has given in the past to keep in
touch with them, but also to understand who might be willing to give again in the future, or offer
other ways to get involved following our volunteerism initiative.
TONE
The tone of the campaign will be energetic, playful, and supportive. We want young families to feel
a sense of inspiration to give back to HMUW in a multitude of ways and to feel an obligation to
create a better community for their children, their children’s children, and so on. This campaign is
in favor of creating a lasting legacy of giving within Boone County families.
MANDATORIES
The mandatory creative elements in our campaign include the national United Way logo and the
United Way tagline, “Live United.”
CREATIVE SPARKS
● Everything you need to know you learned in Kindergarten.
● United Way and its partners are rooting for the underdog.
● Your family can help another in need.
● A lasting legacy of community building for your family.
● Spare change for lasting change.
● Community building at all ages.
● The change you hope to see tomorrow, starts today.
● Our generation can start a new legacy of giving.
● The foundation to build a (giving) legacy upon.
● A supportive community to build upon.
● Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.