In March 2008, Brett Spitale, the new Vice President of Development for the regional headquarters of the Alzheimer’s Association, tapped us to help with his goal of raising $100,000. We were very eager to help reach that goal.
The gala event held in May 2008 was to announce the formation of a challenge by the Board. The working title was the inimitable The Alzheimer’s Association of Central and Western Virginia Board Challenge. Our first task was clear: give it a name. We came up with The Purple Match Program, purple being the main color of the brand. Then we riffed off of the name for the event collateral. We decided to make the format an actual matchbook to reinforce the name. Note that this was a large enough matchbook to print the perforated annual pledge form onto, as well as provide a useful-sized notepad that recipients could use after their pledge form was filled out.
For the rest of the Alzheimer’s Association materials we had a blank slate. The only request was that integrate the campaign theme of “Champions” that the national chapter was using.
How do you communicate “champions”? We created a set of six signs that are printed with the words “I Am A Champion.” Community leaders and celebrities are all being photographed holding the sign to signify their support. Other chapters had t-shirts printed up with champion-related words on them for celebrities to wear. We opted for the sign to allow our regional celebrities to stay dressed in their work clothes in the context of their workplace. This simple move helped further illustrate the variety of supporters the Alzheimer’s Association has and prevented the need to having people fit into a community t-shirt for a photo shoot.
This theme was applied to a website that is strategically linked to topic-driven email blasts and a postcard series which will be sent quarterly to its 35,000 members. Needless to say, we’ve had a lot of fun working on this campaign and were grateful for the opportunity to stretch out our creativity.
Please leave a comment if you’d like to learn more.
