Northfield Area Veterans Memorial
From Grass Roots to Stone and Steel: Developing a Plan and Exceeding Goals
The Situation:
Members of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion posts needed a grass-roots campaign to build community awareness of their plan to create a local memorial honoring military veterans. To raise funds for the Northfield Area Veterans Memorial, the committee planned to sell engraved paving stones, but their first effort to solicit contributions stalled at only about 100 paving stones. This was not enough support to realize the aspirations of the committee.
The Communications Challenge:
To develop a systematic communications strategy to build positive community awareness of the Memorial project and attract additional financial support.
Strategy:
A direct-mail campaign to sell engraved paving stones; a media relations effort to place stories in regional newspapers, radio and community television for increased visibility; a graphic identity program to guide publications and reinforce key messages about the project; a website featuring the Memorial design, the many supporters of the project, and dedication information; and a carefully sequenced series of save-the-date and personalized invitation mailings to build community awareness. In the run-up to the formal dedication ceremony, Neuger Communications Group produced a commemorative book honoring the volunteers who created the Memorial, the veterans honored by it, and the family and community members who provided the financial support.
Results:
A 5,000 piece direct-mail solicitation effort that increased the sales of engraved paving stones ten-fold (now over 1,000 and still climbing) and attracted contributions from local businesses and organizations, nearly doubling the original financial goals. The increased revenue allowed the veterans to add features to the Memorial. Media relations pitches resulted in placement of a series of stories and a special ad-supported newspaper supplement recognizing the dedication, live broadcast of the dedication ceremony on radio and television, and feature stories in the Minneapolis Star Tribune and on NBC-affiliate KARE-11 television. The dedication event attracted an audience of more than 1,500 people, more than three times the expected attendance.
The dedication took place under sunny skies, temperature of about 60° F, quite unusual for early November in Minnesota. We can’t claim credit for controlling the weather, but everyone was delighted that we didn’t have to use the contingency plan we had developed to move to an indoor location in the event of inclement weather.
