THE W.A.R.

Projectwww.thewarproject.org

Table Of Contents CREATIVE BRIEF

ABOUT THE W.A.R. PROJECT

PRINT

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6

7-9

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GUERILLA MARKETING

TELEVISION

DIGITAL

OUTDOOR | EVENTS

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Creative Brief OBJECTIVE: The goal of this campaign is to establish awareness of both the mental and physical impacts (PTSD) on service members after they come back from their deployments.

STRATEGY: As a campaign, we want to say to our audience that they should not forget about what service members are going through, because even if they are not overseas: they are still facing personal battles mentally and physically from their terms of duty.

AUDIENCE: Beyond just the family members and close friends, we want to extend the awareness to people who might not have personal connections to someone in the military. Despite this, the audience should care because the Individuals’ personal sacrifices to protect our audience are what brought on his/her own battle afterwards. The goal is for the audience to recognize that this could very well be their parent, sibling, friend, neighbor, etc. and even though it might now be: it matters that they start to care about these service members.

CHANNELS: We will use a guerilla-marketing tactic to spread awareness across various platforms. Our outdoor campaign will be conducted by creating awareness signs for yards. As well, we will use print and create a 30 second TV ad. Additionally, we will have a 2-minute digital video and make digital info graphics.

TACTICS: The tone of this campaign is serious, but optimistic. Strength is an integral aspect of these men and women, along with their battles, and should be incorporated in the campaign.

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COMPETITION: Various programs, such as USO, American Red Cross, Operation Homefront, and others that centralize around assistance to service members will be our primary competition. The brands mentioned above are leading the genre because they have established prevalence and dominance over the past few decades. Their name recognition gives them an advantage, but our mission is different because it focuses on the awareness of these issues. Rather than solely focusing on the service members, we want to integrate the unconnected individuals into this campaign.

Engagement: People will contribute and become involved by donating their time, putting forth effort to be courteous of veterans (especially around specific things, such as Fourth of July. We want to bridge the gap between people who want to help out, and people actually knowing how to help.

EXTENSIONS: People’s word of mouth will help provide a solid foundation of followers within the military community. Overtime, we can host events for the service men and women after we raise money through donations.

LAUNCH: We are going to get to where we are capable of hosting events for the service members by launching a full-force, integrated campaign throughout various media. We are not limiting our campaign to one specific platform, and therefore will help gain recognition more quickly.

About the W.A.R Project A recent study found veteran suicide rates to be as high as 8,000 individuals a year. This statistic correlates to

the widespread increase in cases of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) overtaking the minds of veterans. According to an additional study done by RAND Corporation, 20% of U.S. Iraqi/Afghanistan veterans have

PTSD and/or depression. However, 50% of these men and women who host this illness do not seek assistance, and of those who seek treatment: only half claim they receive adequate

treatment for their PTSD. The Warrior Ailment Resilience (W.A.R.) Project was created to spread awareness of this life threatening mental condition that has consumed

the minds of so many veterans. Through an integrated campaign, the W.A.R. Project will use print, digital, guerilla marketing, a TV spot, as well

as outdoor advertising to help citizens outside the immediate realm of service men and women’s lives to understand the

magnitude of PTSD. In addition, the W.A.R. Project will host a firework-less Fourth of July event for

veterans to attend at various locations around the United States, in order to

allow those who have served to enjoy a holiday they fight

so hard to maintain for all citizens.

THE W.A.R.

Projectwww.thewarproject.org6

Print Our campaign has multiple dimensions for print advertisements. In the initial phase of the print ad campaign, we would use the soldier and the sunglasses ad as well as the rear view mirror ad to promote the idea of what these soldiers have “seen” and still are seeing. Components of sight will cause us to intrigue our audience in the ways we show how these veterans see things that aren’t there (or have episodes where they think something is happening and it isn’t).

We will run our print ad campaigns in national magazines and newspapers due to the fact that this is such a national issue, and holds no specific geographic region hostage individually. Print media that target both men and women, such as TIME magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post will be our ideal platforms to promote the campaign.

In the next phase, we will post a series of campaigns where people are dressed in their “everyday” outfits, but still have an aspect of their service uniform. In this regard, we are representing that their time in the service is still an integral part of who they are, even if they are going about their everyday life.

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Once the W.A.R. Project establishes itself and name recognition, we will phase in the ads similar to the one we have of the soldier entering his home, stating, “The toughest battle begins at home.”

Guerilla Marketing

Around various cities, we will place guerilla marketing efforts in order to establish a shock-factor in the audience. We will create a cutout image of a soldier sitting down on bus stop benches, with the phrases, “Take a look through my eyes” and “Sit here” underneath. People may sit in the spot of the soldier, and then be able to look across and see the pictures of a burning car (in order to resemble something similar to what current soldiers dear in Iraq and Afghanistan) as well as soldiers entering a jungle, like they did in Vietnam. The logo and website are on both the bottom corner of the war scenes as well as on the bus stop itself, so people will know where to go to receive more information.

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Guerilla Marketing With smart phones and all the various technology people use to access the internet so quickly, we believe that they will search www.thewarproject.org almost immediately. Additionally, we will create booths that people can walk into in various places that have 360° view of the actual area they are currently in, however, with added scenarios. There will be images of snipers, fires, explosions, etc. that will help indicate what a veteran with PTSD might have flashes of in their own minds, while in these exact same places. In the booths, we will have information for people to receive on the W.A.R. project and its initiatives.

Television A man is in his office doing his work, he packs up his stuff and heads out the door. There is an invisible line he crosses when he exits the office building, and he is suddenly in his military uniform - holding his gun and is about to perform a “breach and clear” (when they enter the homes of a potential terrorist). When he goes through the house’s door, he goes through another invisible line, and he is back in the parking lot of his office about to enter his car. The screen will then fade to black and say, “The toughest battle begins at home,” followed by our slogan: “Helping those who’ve seen so you don’t have to.” Another black screen will appear with our logo, and our website underneath for people to visit.

Our Television spots will run during primetime on various networks that appeal to both ideologies, such as: Fox, CNN, NBC, as well as CBS. We will run our ads twice during the week (Monday and Wednesday) as well as on the weekends (Friday, Saturday and Sunday).

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Digital Website mock up and an info-graphic mock

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Additionally, we will create a 2 minute video about a soldier with PTSD. It will be a mini documentary and just how PTSD has effected not only his life, but theothers around him. We would like others to get a look inside a soldiers mind and to understand how big a problem PTSD is in our communities. We would follow him around and catch his PTSD when it naturally happens and well as any other thoughts he has go through his head. At the end, like the TV commercial., the tag line and logo would come up.

We plan to run this on online television outlets such as Hulu and CBS. We will launch the video during PTSD awareness month and will use it as a learning experience for others. We hope that both soldiers and the general public will watch it. We believe that it will help soldiers who need help come forward, and other to be more aware and help out with the cause.

For digital advertisements we decided to do a series of info-graphics posted on social media as well as create a website that is a resource for individuals to learn more about PTSD.

Outdoor | Events We decided to take a non traditional approach to outdoor advertising in the form of yard signs. They would be included in care-packages for families with returning veterans or current veterans and promote PTSD awareness. They would request other to be courteous of fire works and other things that could set soldiers off. We also decided to create an event for the soldiers who can’t enjoy one of our countries most patriotic days, the 4th of July. Fireworks set a lot of soldiers PTSD off, so we created a Firework-less Fourth of July Event in Big Cities around the country. We will host an event two days before the actual Fourth of July, all soldiers will be invited, and it will be a big party that honors the 4th, but doesn’t set off fireworks.

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Kate Campbell & Nichole Wierschem THE

W.A.R. Project

www.thewarproject.org

THE W.A.R.

Projectwww.thewarproject.org