Table of Contents

Opening Letter ............................................................................................ 1

About The Gura Group ................................................................................ 2

Our Ethos .......................................................................................................................... 2

Agency Credentials ........................................................................................................... 3

Giving’s Next Generation ............................................................................ 4

Executive Summary .......................................................................................................... 4

Situation Analysis ............................................................................................................. 5

Target Market Summary ................................................................................................ 10

SWOT Analysis ................................................................................................................ 11

Focus Group Summary .................................................................................................... 12

Brand Positioning ............................................................................................................ 15

Brand Personality ............................................................................................................ 21

Integrated Communication Strategy Statement ............................................................ 22

Creative Brief.................................................................................................................. 23

Creative Deliverables ..................................................................................................... 24

Communications Plan ..................................................................................................... 26

Budget ............................................................................................................................. 33

Integrated Communications Flow Chart ........................................................................ 34

Creative Design & Execution .......................................................................................... 35

Evaluation & Key Performance Indicators ...................................................................... 41

Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 45

References ................................................................................................ 46

The Gura Group www.theguragroup.com

May 15, 2015

Ms. Melanee Hannock

Sr. Vice President, Marketing

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

262 Danny Thomas Place

Memphis, TN 38015-3678

CC: Ms. Shelby Anderson and Ms. Katie Foster

Dear Ms. Hannock,

The Gura Group is delighted to have the opportunity to submit a proposal to manage this

upcoming campaign for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. On a personal level, I have

always deeply admired the noble work that this organization has done, saving children

and making a difference for the past 53 years. I consider it a great privilege that my firm

is under consideration.

The Gura Group sees itself as a fundamentally different integrated marketing

organization. During my many years in corporate life, I found myself increasingly

frustrated with agencies who said they could do it all, only to find they only really

excelled at one particular function. This firm wasn’t created as a personal indulgence, or

to start a “next chapter” in my career. It began because the industry desperately needed a

group that saw the whole picture.

Steeped in technology expertise, but not so myopic we ignore the tried-and-true, The Gura

Group delivers innovative, modern marketing solutions. Our campaign for St. Jude,

“Giving’s Next Generation,” will make an indelible impact on millennials and their giving

habits, enabling St. Jude to continue its noble mission for generations to come.

We welcome this opportunity to collaborate, and greatly hope you enjoy our presentation.

Warm regards,

Joe Gura FOUNDER and CEO

THE GURA GROUP

1

About The Gura Group

Our Ethos

“What sets this firm apart is not just its forward-thinking and deep technical expertise,

but rather a mindset that embraces service, innovation, and value. Any agency can get

media attention. Any vendor can crank out reports and call reporters. Anyone and

everyone claims to make excellent creative collateral.

“Only The Gura Group has the skill, experience, and know-how to bring it all together the

right way: always acting with the best interests of our clients in mind, making

recommendations, and delivering results that drive our clients forward in the public’s

imagination.”

Founder and CEO

2

Agency Credentials

Our firm was founded in 2014, with the charter to be “a different Integrated

Marketing Communications company”.

While many agencies have an inclination towards old-school fashions like public

relations, or new trends like social media, The Gura Group is a company that sees the big

picture. With a holistic view of the client and the communications landscape, the firm

chooses to see marketing as the precise, unique mix of strategies and tactics,

incorporating new media and old, digital and traditional.

Based in Redmond, Washington, in the heart of the Pacific Northwest’s technology

corridor, The Gura Group features a diverse team with extensive PR, digital, social, and

event marketing expertise in regional, national, and global campaigns.

Our Founder

Before launching The Gura Group, founder Joe Gura spent two

decades in communications, broadcasting, and marketing. With a flair

for digital concepts, and a reputation for innovation, Joe left his mark

during tenures at Fortune 100 companies Disney, Microsoft, and

Hewlett-Packard.

During his corporate work, Joe always believed there was a better, more efficient

way to provide clients with excellent marketing results and service. Believing that no

service offered by a marketing firm should be a ‘bolt-on’, Joe envisioned The Gura Group

as a company that would employ only the best subject matter experts in PR, digital,

content marketing, and social media, holistically telling the whole story, with the right

tactics, every time.

Joe Gura has a Master of Science degree in Integrated Marketing Communications

from West Virginia University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communications

from California State University-East Bay. He is a member of the Golden Key International

Honor Society and is a 9-time winner of local Emmy awards in the San Francisco Bay

Area. 3

Executive Summary

Giving’s Next Generation is a bold campaign that will capture the imagination of

the 21-30 audience, and will help build a foundational link between the millennial

generation and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The importance of connecting with this up-and-coming audience cannot be

understated. This generation has officially become the largest in American society, and

will only increase its influence on our overall culture. Just as the Baby Boomers made

their mark in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, so too will the millennials in the years and decades

to come.

All of this puts St. Jude at a crossroads. Detailed research finds that this younger

generation of Americans has lower opinions of large institutions and corporations, and

has its own decidedly different set of ideology when it comes to charitable giving.

Contrasting this attitude with St. Jude’s current approach, it is clear that a new campaign,

one that honors the past, but puts it in context with the present, will help St. Jude remain

relevant in the future.

There are 44,332,005 Americans between the ages of 21 and 30. This campaign will

be built around their value system, and help introduce St. Jude to them. Through a

strategic mix of digital, social, and traditional media, St. Jude will find this audience,

speaking to them on their terms, and helping bridge a gap that few large organizations

are able to do in this day and age.

Within one year, the work done within Giving’s Next Generation will have started

a movement, bringing together an iconic, accomplished charitable organization and a

generation coming into its own. We seek to make St. Jude relevant amongst millennials,

but still mindful of its current base.

By modernizing the marketing approach for St. Jude, including the methodical

tracking of numerous performance indicators, The Gura Group will deliver a technology-

driven, highly cost-effective, game-changing campaign.

4

Situation Analysis

Introduction

When examining the socioeconomic realities of non-profit organizations as well as

the ascendant millennial generation, it is very clear that we are living in a time of great

change. Businesses will have to adjust to new marketing paradigms to connect with new

attitudes towards consumerism. More significantly, non-profits must take not just

differing cultural, but also economic considerations under advisement if they seek to build

a fruitful relationship with the next generation.

In the decades to come, it will be the non-profit organizations that made the

critical adjustments now that will be best suited to serve their causes. In this section we

will identify the practices of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and examine the

tendencies of the millennial generation, and find ways for the two to come together.

St. Jude Overview

The vision of entertainer Danny Thomas,

St. Jude opened its doors on February 4, 1962.

At the time, there was no institution dedicated

to fighting childhood diseases, and the child

cancer survival rate sat under 20% (St. Jude,

2012). Donations and innovations then led to

groundbreaking research on sickle-cell anemia

and the prototype for what became the WIC

nourishment program (St. Jude, 2012).

Over the decades, pioneering research and treatment done at St. Jude has

contributed to the overall child cancer survival rate to climb above 80%. Acute

Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) saw its survival rate climb from 4% to 94% since 1962.

The hospital receives more than 67,000 patient visits each year, and, on average, every 11

hours, a new piece of research originating from St. Jude is shared with the broader

medical community (St. Jude, 2012).

Figure 1: The opening of St. Jude

Children’s Research Hospital on February

4, 1962.

5

It’s impossible to do justice to the excellent, inspiring, and civilization-changing

work done by St. Jude in this or any space, but one thing is clear: this progress would not

have been possible without ample advocacy and fastidious fundraising over the past five

decades.

The American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities, or ALSAC, has been the

fundraising arm of St. Jude since 1957. It costs $1.9 million per day to operate St. Jude,

and 75% of that is supported by the private donations that ALSAC helps raise. In all, 9

million active donors and 28 Fortune 1,000 companies provide this support through work

coordinated by ALSAC (St. Jude, 2013).

Becoming the 2nd largest healthcare charity in the United States took a significant

advocacy strategy. From the very beginning, Danny Thomas leveraged his relationships in

entertainment to help get contributions of time and money from iconic figures like Frank

Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Dinah Shore (St. Jude, 2012). In more recent times,

celebrities like George Lopez, Jennifer Aniston, Jon Hamm, Michael Strahan, and the late

Robin Williams have lent their voice to the cause (St. Jude, 2014).

While 4 out of 5 Americans recognize the St. Jude brand, it’s important to note this

awareness can be attributed to just how accessible and omnipotent the St. Jude brand is.

American consumers encounter St. Jude through everyday purchases they make at

Domino’s, Chili’s, CVS, and Target, just to name a few (St. Jude, 2015).

The St. Jude brand makes its way into living rooms and onto web pages each day,

through advertising and promotions such as Mazda’s #Drive4Good campaign (Mazda,

2013), and the American Airlines Kids In Need program (American Airlines, 2014).

With such high-profile partnerships, it would be easy to assume that ALSAC and St.

Jude are well-positioned in the long-term for a robust pipeline of donors. However, it is a

time of monumental change in our culture and society. The Millennial generation, defined

as those born between 1980 and 2000, are coming of age.

6

The Millennial Generation

Generational change is inevitable, and nothing

we haven’t seen before, but this one promises to be

more profound.

Millennials would be noteworthy based on

numbers alone. Also known as the “Echo Boomers”,

their birth rates rose to levels only approached by the

prodigious Baby Boomers themselves three decades

earlier. In 1989, births topped the 4 million mark in the

United States for the first time since 1957, the peak of

the post-war Baby Boom years. That trend would

continue for another four years, until 1993 (Population

Research Institute, 1995). In 2015, the torch will be

passed, as Millennials will be the most populous

generation group in the United States (Pew Research,

2015).

By all accounts, this is not a replay of the baby boom. Demographically, this

generation is more diverse than any other that came before it. 44% of Millennials identify

as a racial or ethnic category other than “non-Hispanic White”. Latinos comprise 20% of

the overall Millennial population, but most of those are born in the United States, and

exhibit a preference for English is a primary language. In all, just 12% of American

millennials are foreign-born, lower than the rates of Baby Boomers (16%) and Generation

X (22%) (Target Latino, 2014).

Economically, the millennial generation has encountered a challenging landscape,

one unlike any other for prior generations. On a macro scale, this generation came of age

during 9/11 (Newsweek, 2009) as well as the Great Recession of 2008. While for any

generations, these events by themselves would be touchstones, but for millennials just

finding their place in the broader world, these events seven years apart were very

impactful (Christian Science Monitor, 2010).

Figure 2: The millennial

generation has now overtaken

Baby Boomers as the largest

generation in the American

population.

7

On a more personal level, millennials are under more pressure than any prior

generation when it comes to finances. 69% of current public and non-profit college

graduates come out of school with an average of $28,400 in debt (Forbes, 2014). This has

led to an economy where entrepreneurship is stunted, and postponement of major

purchases, as well as major life events for millennials, such as marriage (USA Today,

2014). Today, only 26% of those 18-32 are married, compared with 65% in 1960 for the

same age bracket (Pew Research, 2014).

While all of these indicators say now is the time that modern American marketing

is reaching a new era, there are further signs that nonprofits like St. Jude in particular

should re-calibrate their approach. 29% of millennials say they are religiously

unaffiliated, easily the highest figure for any generation. Millennials also are significantly

less willing to trust others as well as large institutions (Pew Research, 2014).

Indeed, this attitude was apparent in focus group studies conducted by The Gura

Group, where very few participants knew who St. Jude was, and most expressed heavy

skepticism about large charities and accountability. Participants also noted that an

organization like St. Jude, which frequently sees their brand co-branded in major national

campaigns with large corporate partners, may give an impression that their personal

donations are not needed since the large corporations seem to be “taking care of” funding

needs, rendering their contribution irrelevant or meaningless by comparison.

In terms of messaging and influence, millennials place greater stock and trust into

what their peer groups and friends think is a worthy cause to support, while being less

trusting of celebrity endorsement and certainly large-brand alignment.

Recommendations

All in all, this is a generation that wants to make a real, meaningful, tangible

impact, and see the results of what they do. Relying exclusively on the tried-and-true,

decades-long marketing strategy to pursue donations and inspire a lifetime of giving is no

longer an option, as generational attitudes have shifted greatly.

8

In general, The Gura Group recommends an integrated marketing campaign for St.

Jude that will do the following:

Sharply focus on tangible impact of giving and local impact.

Deeply humanize the St. Jude brand, framing the story not in terms of celebrity and

humanitarianism, but instead paint a picture of scientific accomplishment, patient

courage, and community compassion.

Cultivate a network of active, social media-centric “champions” of St. Jude that will

share stories and facts from the St. Jude at regular intervals.

This will be a campaign that will markedly different from past St. Jude efforts, but still

reverential of the incredibly accomplished past. The Gura Group looks forward to bringing

together St. Jude with Giving’s Next Generation with this innovative approach.

9

Target Market Summary

Demographics

This campaign will target young American adults, men and women in the 21-30 age

range, with above-average income levels, and at least some amount of college education.

Given the ethnic diversity of this group, those of all races will be targeted in a very

accessible campaign.

Psychographics

In general, these are people that want to make a positive and tangible impact on

their community and the world. They need to see results and be made aware of the true

impact of their contributions. They are not content with the idea of just sending money

and believing they have been helpful. These are people that are generally less trusting and

more skeptical of large institutions like government and large corporations. However,

they are motivated to do good things for others.

The target market currently thinks that St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is a large,

lumbering organization that is a generic “good cause” for celebrities and corporations, but

is largely unaware of St. Jude’s history of innovation and compassionate care for children.

We want the target market to think that a donation to St. Jude is a donation that helps

any and every sick child, present or future. We want them to know that their dollars are

needed, appreciated, and benefit real people every day.

The target market will take action to donate to St. Jude when they are presented with

empirical evidence of St. Jude’s mission as well as results that impact children from

across the United States and around the world.

St. Jude is also competing for this market with numerous smaller local hospitals and

children’s causes in communities across the United States. Besides this, St. Jude is also

competing with organizations such as the Shriners Hospitals for Children, but for reasons

outlined above, Shriners faces the same challenges.

10

SWOT Analysis

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

INT

ER

NA

L

Excellent, well-respected history for medical excellence and innovation.

Proven results for dramatically increasing childhood cancer survival rates.

Well-organized fundraising arm in

ALSAC.

Widely recognized celebrity

endorsers.

Numerous, highly-visible corporate

partners and contributors.

Target market unaware of full context of St. Jude’s contributions.

National footprint means more generic, national messaging; target market does not trust large

institutions.

Celebrity endorsers not as influential with millennials.

Corporate partners and copious co-branding of St. Jude with partners give impression that St. Jude

already has everything they need, rendering personal donations irrelevant or unnecessary.

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

EX

TE

RN

AL

Being the first to firmly develop a

relationship with the highly influential and population-dominant millennial generation will set the

organization up well for decades to come.

Target market passionate about

helping others and making a difference.

Showcase the depth, breadth, and impact of St. Jude’s work by emphasizing local and global results.

Lower income, higher debt keeping

discretionary spending in target market to a minimum.

Target market sees more value in local donations, where progress can

be seen first-hand. Possibility of “Komen Fatigue”;

donors fear that their funds may be used for political purposes,

especially by large organizations.

11

Focus Group Summary

The Gura Group conducted a focus group session at Seattle University on Friday,

April 3.

The goal of the session was to ascertain brand awareness for St. Jude, as well as

millennial generation attitudes towards giving to charities. We investigated what

motivates this group to give, and what factors serve as de-motivational. We also discussed

the role of celebrity and corporate endorsement, and if that had any impact on giving

decisions.

Focus Group Participants

The group consisted of nine individuals ranging in age from 21-28. The majority of

the group were undergraduate students at Seattle University; two were stay-at-home

mothers who live in the greater Seattle region. Three were male and six were female. Six

were Caucasian, two Filipino, and one of mixed race. Geographically, all of the group

except one grew up in the West Coast states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and

California.

Focus Group Discussion Summary

The group was not informed ahead of time as to what organization or situation

they would be discussing. After the moderator shared that the purpose was to discuss

charitable donations to a medical non-profit, the moderator asked, “How many in this

room know who Danny Thomas is?” None of them knew.

After being asked their impressions of St. Jude, everyone at the table had an

opinion and had heard of the organization. The general consensus was that the hospital

“helped sick children”, and “Jennifer Aniston was involved.” There was some chattering

that St. Jude looked used a very simple, heartstring-tugging messaging style in their ads,

and this was somewhat old-fashioned and off-putting.

12

The group was asked for motivations to donate to one particular charity or

another. The first consensus to emerge was modern, and easy, fundraising methods. Many

mentioned the ease of helping Haitian earthquake victims by texting a number to donate

$10 to the Red Cross, as opposed to seeing the 1-800 number on a TV commercial, writing

the number down, going to the phone, getting out your credit card, and calling the

organization.

A second consensus emerged where the group agreed that it is important to know

where their money was going, and preferably, they would like to see that their donation

was helping someone near them. To this end, quite a few mentioned they would rather

support Seattle Children’s Hospital than St. Jude because Seattle Children’s is closer.

When pressed on why they had a local preference, many participants pointed to

accountability, and a deep concern that their money wouldn’t be used properly. They felt

if the money was kept in the community, they could at least confront someone personally

if something went wrong. A large national charity located thousands of miles away

wouldn’t have that same accountability, they claimed. They also said that they feel local

organizations value their donors more.

Next, we talked about the importance of celebrity endorsement and its impact on

their decision to donate to a charitable cause. Many were under the impression that the

celebrity was a compensated endorser. Without prompting, the discussion of Jennifer

Aniston popped up again, and many in the group mentioned that while she was nice, she

was relatively out-of-step with modern entertainment, with Friends having gone off the

air a decade ago.

When asked what celebrity they would find trustworthy, there was very little

agreement as names such as Bono and Michelle Obama were passed around. What did

earn consensus was the idea that if a celebrity was going to appear in the marketing

collateral and raise awareness, then that celebrity has to be doing something to help the

patients in the hospital, not just be a “pretty face asking for money”. They group cited the

examples of the musician Macklemore and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson

and said that they admired how those two visited the floor of Seattle Children’s Hospital,

and visited with children individually, on a regular basis.

13

Finally, we discussed corporate partnerships and charities. The group knew that St.

Jude was aligned with numerous companies; several mentioned Mazda, and American

Airlines as examples. However, there was a solid consensus that the group largely didn’t

care what corporations endorsed which charities; it did not make them trust the

corporation any more or less. Most tellingly, the largest agreement and liveliest

conversation came from this statement: “If a charity has a lot of corporate partners, it

makes me think that they have all the money they need.” Furthermore, “it makes me feel

like they wouldn’t value my dollar as much because they already have so much help from

bigger-pocketed donors.”

At the end of the discussion, the moderator shared some facts about St. Jude,

specifically the enormous increase in childhood cancer survival rates between 1962 and

today, thanks to St. Jude research. Also mentioned was St. Jude’s treatment of pediatric

AIDS patients in the 1980s, donations paying 90% of St. Jude daily operating costs, and

that St. Jude patients do not receive a bill. Several in the group reacted along these lines,

“If I knew about that, I would definitely donate. That’s the first time I’ve ever heard that.”

14

Brand Positioning

Current Tactics

Traditional

The marketing strategy for St. Jude Children’s

Research Hospital heavily relies on longstanding

practices of television advertising. The St. Jude creative

tendencies rely on traditional “celebrity talking head”

style, where the famous spokesperson provides an

overview of St. Jude’s work, and then mentions a call-

to-action message to donate, or support St. Jude’s

mission by calling a number or visiting a website (St.

Jude, 2014).

The other traditional approach frequently

employed by St. Jude is co-branding with major

corporate partners. This greatly helps for brand

visibility, and is also extremely economical in that the ad buy is paid for by the corporate

partner itself. In particular, corporate partners such as Mazda have served St. Jude well

by prominently featuring the instrumental role of Danny Thomas in founding the hospital

(Mazda, 2013). By providing this historical context, younger-oriented brands like Mazda

are doing a great service in explaining what makes St. Jude unique.

The Thanks and Giving campaign is a regular holiday-centric event (St. Jude, 2014)

that leverages the power of partnership in conjunction with the all-powerful holiday

shopping season for consumers. Through dozens of retail, restaurant, transportation, and

Figure 3: Screenshots from a St.

Jude ad raising awareness for

the Thanks and Giving campaign.

Figure 4: A 2013

Mazda ad highlighting

the car company’s

partnership with St.

Jude, and prominently

featuring Danny

Thomas.

15

media partners, consumers can contribute to St. Jude at checkout or at other times within

their visit. Campaigns like this one give St. Jude an unrivaled footprint in American

culture, giving the charity a highly-visible presence to wide variety of demographics and

income levels.

Digital

St. Jude’s digital media efforts are largely

driven by a website presence at www.stjude.org, and

a YouTube channel. In design, the website is basic,

and in function, it is very utilitarian. There is no

flash animation or use of video embedding on the

home page, and the font design and layout are very

simple. “Donate Now” is seen twice above the fold in

a crimson-colored box, and is the same color as the

“About St. Jude” box in the upper left.

On YouTube, St. Jude maintains a library of

original video content, including patient stories, employee profiles, long-form webcasts,

and commercials. As of April 8, 2015, 137 videos are published to the channel, offering a

well-rounded look into the organization, their activities, their partners, and the impact

they make together. Videos made in the past two years typically run between 1 and 3

minutes, which studies have proven is the best run-time length for online video

consumption (MiniMatters, 2014).

When reviewing publicly-available metrics, it appears clear that web and video

traffic are largely driven by non-digital forces such as traditional media campaigns and

other events. The St. Jude websites draws an estimated 69,277 American unique visitors

per month (Quantcast, 2015), with a notable spike during the “Thanks and Giving”

campaign, where it spiked at an estimated 197,097 unique visitors in December 2014.

There are 5,443 subscribers to the St. Jude YouTube channel, a figure that may

seem high, but when considering that St. Jude is a well-recognized brand that has had a

YouTube presence for seven years, this is low. Videos range from several hundred views

Figure 5: The St. Jude.org home page.

16

to a few hundred thousand views, but typically the ones on the higher end are ones that

have spent time as the “Featured Video” on the main landing page of the channel. Videos

in this position typically have higher view rates, since they automatically play when

visitors first land on the channel’s page.

Social

St. Jude has a well-established presence on Twitter,

with 367,000 followers of the @StJude account (Twitter,

2015). In particular, the account managers do well to

involve various partners in tweets, and often tweet rich

photo and video media. In general, the @StJude account

only tweets about once or twice per day.

St. Jude’s Facebook channel is also very formidable.

The page has over 1.7 million likes with nearly 70,000

page visits. New posts appear approximately once every

few days, largely mirroring the stories and initiatives that

are brought up on Twitter. Almost all posts have a rich

media element to them with photos and/or video. On the

Facebook page, there are highly visible reviews brought up by activists criticizing St. Jude

for partnering with certain corporations; by association holding St. Jude responsible for

the activities of those companies.

For some context about social media reach, it is important to note that due to

frequently-changing Facebook news feed algorithms, the posts from St. Jude do not reach

all 1.7 million Facebook fans each time a new post is made, in fact they may only be

reaching a very small portion of that number (Ad Week, 2015). Tweets can reach the vast

amount of a Twitter follower base, but how easily they reach a user depends on how each

user sets up their Twitter experience, and how often those users log on to the service. The

“impression” rate can often be significantly lower (Marketing Land, 2014). One way to

mitigate this and reach a larger portion of the follower base is to tweet and post more

often.

Figure 6: Tweets from St.

Jude often feature vivid, eye-

catching photography and

video elements.

17

St. Jude does not maintain an Instagram presence.

Recommended Alterations

Modernize the Creative Approach and Execution

Many elements of the St. Jude creative approach are

dated. Celebrities reading to camera under soft light and

asking for donations is an old-school approach that is more

aligned to a generation who remembers when the Jerry

Lewis MDA Telethon was still on TV throughout Labor Day

Weekend. Today’s audiences see less value in celebrity

voices for attracting their attention, however, they do

believe that the image of a celebrity seen actually helping a

beneficiary in their own environment, such as a hospital

room, is a more powerful visual.

This visual storytelling element can, and should, easily transfer to digital media

platforms such as YouTube, a refurbished StJude.org website, as well as social media

platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. To this effect, it is advised that St. Jude

begin its own official blog and add a presence on Instagram, in an effort to more broadly

share their story and connect with millennial audiences.

To Certain Audiences, Minimize Partner Co-Branding

St. Jude’s dozens of corporate partners are a truly valued part of the St. Jude

community, without which so many incredible things and great works would not be

possible.

For new creative targeted at the millennials, the recommendation is to focus more

on storytelling, facts, and impact. Tell St. Jude’s story without any mention of

entertainers; instead clearly note the work of St. Jude through high-impact statistics:

Figure 7: Millennial

audiences cite hands-on

celebrity charity

endorsements like that of

Seattle Seahawks

quarterback Russell Wilson

as being particularly

inspirational.

18

In 1962, the survival rate for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) was 4%. Today, it is 94%.

Every 11 hours, a new piece of St. Jude research is published, helping the medical community find cures.

67,000 patient visits each year. 0 families that receive a bill from St. Jude.

Develop Stronger Social Media Presence

St. Jude has already made excellent strides in digital owned content with their

YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook platforms. Now is the time to take this to the next level

and invest modestly in advertising in this realm.

A 30-second Internet-only commercial should be developed for YouTube, along

with a small paid publicity campaign throughout YouTube, with the call to action being to

visit the St. Jude channel and donate to ALSAC. This campaign could receive greater

exposure if Google, YouTube’s parent company, would be willing to come to an agreement

to help St. Jude spread their message.

Finally, St. Jude should tweet and post to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram more

frequently, several times per day, on a regular cadence convenient to all American time

zones. Repeating and staggering out messages over multiple days will help get the

greatest exposure possible for St. Jude content and initiatives.

Rationale for Recommendations

To maintain excellent relationships with well-established donors, honor past

corporate commitments, and help cultivate giving’s next generation, St. Jude must update

their storytelling techniques as well as their technology platforms.

Research conducted by The Gura Group indicates that Millennials favor technology

and convenience when learning something new. They crave that information be abundant

and available so that they can consume it quickly, and share with friends easily. To

accomplish this, an overhauled, rich media-centric approach to online platforms and

social media will make this audience easier to reach.

Aiming more stand-alone advertising and promotion towards millennials seems

like a major departure from past practice for St. Jude. However, the unintended side effect

19

of having this many partners is a misconception amongst the public that St. Jude already

has “everything it needs” due to the highly-visible amounts of sponsorship.

Worse yet, many feel like their smaller donation of $25 here or $40 there may not

be as valued when compared to the larger donations made by corporate partners. Given

the relatively limited buying power and income of millennials, especially with their

income-to-debt ratio (Slate, 2014), it is important that their contributions go somewhere

they are needed and appreciated. St. Jude must be sure that this need is met for this key

market, and nuanced messaging is key to accomplishing this.

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Brand Personality

Trustworthy

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is a long-standing monument to non-profit

success with high ethics. 75% of the hospital’s daily operating costs are covered by

private donations, and no family receives a bill for treatment, travel, housing or food.

Those who donate to St. Jude should be rest assured that their funds are being used to

treat a child, help a family, and find a cure.

Determined

Overall, charities perform laudable work. St. Jude, however, is special. By jumping

in headfirst to solve some of the most debilitating, disappointing, and insidious diseases

known to humankind, St. Jude is fearless in their mission. They choose to tackle the

toughest problems, investing in cutting-edge research and world-class care to make a

difference for their patients, as well as society at large.

Relatable

Sometimes being the second-largest healthcare charity has its drawbacks. Many

could see St. Jude as a monolith, an enormous operation with numerous corporate

partners and more money than it needs. Others could see it as distant, operating

thousands of miles away, out of sight and out of mind. However, St. Jude helps people

everywhere, from all walks of life, all races, and all geographies. This needs to be part of

the St. Jude story to help cultivate giving’s next generation.

World-Changing

Before St. Jude, some childhood cancer survival rates hovered below 30%. In St.

Jude’s early days, a study in disease and malnutrition resulted in today’s Women-Infants-

Children (WIC) assistance program. In 1987, St. Jude pioneered pediatric AIDS treatment.

More recently, genetic research is leading to new insights into why certain cancers behave

they do.

The work of the past half-century has impacted everyone. It started at St. Jude.

Where will it go next? How will you help make tomorrow’s miracles happen? 21

Integrated Communication Strategy Statement

Making donations matter, making lives better, and solving the big challenges- that’s why

you should donate to St. Jude.

Tackling the big problems, together- the work you support today will be

helping people tomorrow.

Feel-good donations. Profound impact.

Make a donation that helps a patient today, a researcher

tomorrow, and children everywhere for years to come: Donate to

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

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Creative Brief

Client: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Date: May 15, 2015 Type: Multi-platform Campaign Page: 1 of 1

Why are we advertising?

To convince millennials to begin a lifetime of donation and support of St. Jude.

Whom are we talking to?

American millennials, specifically the segment aged 21-30.

What do they currently think?

Many haven’t considered regularly giving to one cause or another, for an assortment of

economic and social reasons. The audience is also somewhat suspicious of large, distant

institutions and is more willing to favor local causes, or at least those where they can see

firsthand what impact their donations have.

What would we like them to think?

That St. Jude is an excellent charity to support, and one where their donations are valued

and have tremendous impact.

What is the single most persuasive idea we can convey?

A donation to St. Jude today helps a child tomorrow, and everyone in the future.

Why should they believe it?

St. Jude has an exemplary, decades-long track record in helping children beat cancer,

finding new and innovative cures, and contributing cutting-edge research that has

changed the face of modern medicine.

Are there any creative guidelines?

Standard guidelines from the St. Jude style guide regarding colors as well as appropriate

use of the logo. The Gura Group recommends copious use of rich media, gripping

photography, and highly-relatable, humanized storytelling techniques.

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Creative Deliverables

Traditional

Broadcast TV Spot

Simple 30-second broadcast spot that tells the story of St. Jude through far-

reaching human impact. Looking to highlight major declines in cancer rates. Production

style: celebrity voiceover (uncredited) over rich video, ending with call to action for more

information. Ads would run during programming with high 18-34 viewership, such as that

of The CW network.

Radio Spot

Available in 30-second or 60-second increments. A celebrity voice (unidentified)

discusses the various advancements St. Jude has made in medicine, and then pivots into

how all of that was possible because people donated. People like you. Spots would run on

popular local radio stations in the 18-34 demographic, as well as digital services like

Pandora, Spotify, etc.

Transit Billboards

Simple, rich photography of a patient, or former patient from the same geographic

region as the advertising placement. The ad would briefly identify them by first name and

home city, mention a relevant St. Jude talking point (“no family receives a bill”), and point

viewers to the stjude.org website. Billboards would appear in bus and subway ads in

young-person centric neighborhoods near universities or major youth-leaning

neighborhoods.

Digital

Video Internet Spots

Simple 15-second spots that would emphasize the short-term and long-term impact

St. Jude has: a child today, the world tomorrow, and ending with a call-to-action to visit

the St. Jude website. Spots would run on YouTube, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and

numerous news media sites such as Buzzfeed.

24

Promoted Social Media Posts

Tweets and Instagram posts that would promote stjude.org by telling the stories and

using rich photos of current and former patients, similar to the transit billboard approach.

Social Media Ads

Targeted Facebook ads appearing in the right rail of news feeds highlighting basic

facts about St. Jude, and the importance and impact of donating.

Integrated Social Media

Social media postings in text, photo, and video form on Facebook, Twitter,

Instagram, and YouTube that follow an editorial calendar cadence in alignment with paid

messages, and also designed to reinforce the “good feelings” of giving.

Cooperative/Partnerships

Regional Champions

Through regional relationship-building, work with local celebrities such as radio

hosts, athletes or musicians and cultivate their support for St. Jude. When possible, create

locally-targeted digital media placements highlighting that local celebrity, and have that

person encourage them to donate to St. Jude.

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Communications Plan

Overview

Throughout all communications strategies and tactics, the real-world impact of a

donation to St. Jude will be emphasized and clearly demonstrated. Connecting with

Giving’s Next Generation will require a diversified approach of new, technology based

techniques, as well as well-focused traditional media outreach. The end result will lead to

more of the target audience donating to St. Jude than ever before.

Target Audience

The American millennial generation, specifically those aged 21-30. This campaign

will target men and women equally, and most directly target young professionals. All

millennials, however, will find something to identify with in this campaign.

Timeframe

A 12-month period, beginning July 1, 2015, and ending June 30, 2016. The campaign

will reach peak intensity in November-December and again from February through April.

Objectives

Raise awareness amongst millennials for St. Jude and their contributions to society.

Encourage the target audience to donate to St. Jude regularly.

Cultivate an ever-growing community of donors, with the early adopters behaving as brand ambassadors.

Strategies

The Gura Group will employ a three-pronged strategy of paid, earned, and owned

media which will tell a holistic, deeply social, and thoroughly relatable story of what it

means to support St. Jude.

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Paid Media

The most well-known and traditional of the three strategies, the paid media

strategy for St. Jude will revolve around television, radio, print, and digital advertising

techniques. To extend the impact of the campaign amongst the millennial audience, we

will focus more effort than before on digital strategies.

Owned Media

A restructured stjude.org website, as well as a new, interactive digital experience

for “Thanks and Giving” will be the cornerstone. Beyond this, St. Jude will begin regularly

publishing a blog showcasing the miraculous stories that take place every day on their

campus. A refurbished YouTube channel will also follow the same editorial structure.

To promote this content and raise mindshare, three tightly integrated social media

channels on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram would be activated. These channels would

regularly promote the blog and video content, plus raise awareness for various St. Jude

initiatives and actively participate in the broader community.

Earned Media

Leveraging the larger network of St. Jude corporate

partners, as well as influencers that have broad appeal in the

millennial community, St. Jude will work to equip business

and celebrity partners with social media resources that will

enable them to be true “super fans” and ambassadors for the

St. Jude cause. Using these credible third-party voices will

drive awareness and donations for St. Jude.

In addition, St. Jude will make it a point to share

stories from others who mention St. Jude on social media,

for example re-tweeting people who mention donating or

receiving care from St. Jude.

Figure 8: Golden State

Warriors head coach Steve

Kerr wears a St. Jude lapel pin

during a nationally-televised

NBA Playoff game April 20,

2015. Image courtesy Bay Area

News Group.

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Thanks to this effort, as well as a holistic owned media strategy outlined above, we

expect to strategically drive media coverage with well-timed original digital content from

St. Jude.

Tactics

Traditional Broadcast Advertising

A series of 30 and 15-second spots will be created, and targeted towards

programming that resonates with the target audience. This includes both over-the-air and

cable network programming, on programs that have significant following and interaction

on social media such as Scandal. Programming that is popular on social media, including

live sports in proving to be popular within the millennial community (Vision Critical,

2014).

On radio, a series of 30 and 60-second spots will be developed, customized, and

targeted towards Top 40 radio stations. These spots will feature a tone that inspires hope

and profiles those who benefit from St. Jude donations, from researchers to doctors and

nurses to families and patients.

Digital Advertising

A suite of 30 and 15-second spots will be created specifically for digital advertising

on platforms such as YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. These spots will be

specially crafted for digital consumption, designed to get the attention of viewers more

quickly, in the critical first five seconds of the spot. Research has proven that these

platforms are very popular within the target audience, in some cases overtaking

traditional broadcast consumption (New York Times, 2014). These platforms also provide

our campaign with another advantage that will help create a deeper connection.

Thanks to the detailed amount of data that online services collect, it is immensely

easier to exactly target precise segments of the millennial demographic. While digital

advertising will be seen by all segments of the 21-30 age group, it can also be adjusted so

that heavier rotation of ads appear in front of subgroups that may not be as responsive to

the campaign at first.

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Digital advertising also encompasses using the collateral produced for broadcast

radio on digital music platforms such as Spotify and Pandora. In addition, the digital

advertising tactical approach will include spend to promote the YouTube channel, Twitter

handle, and Facebook presence for St. Jude.

Display Advertising

A series of display ads will be created primarily for transit use in major cities,

targeted towards the dominant commute mechanism for the target audience in a given

market. For example, subways in New York, highways in Texas, and busses in Seattle.

These display ads would feature detailed, rich photography that humanizes the true

impact of a St. Jude donation.

Technology: Web Refresh, Blogging, and Social Media

The stjude.org website will be overhauled to more prominently promote the stories

of St. Jude and the impact it has. The website will also become more mobile-friendly as

part of this redesign. Also, The Gura Group will work to install quick-donation functions

as part of each page of the new site, in cooperation with popular money-transfer service

Venmo, which has a tremendous credibility within the target audience for quick and easy

money transfers (Bloomberg, 2014).

Original blogging will be added as a tactic, with an accessible, humanized

communications approach sharing the latest news from St. Jude, features about St. Jude

patients and research initiatives, and contributed blog posts from the perspective of St.

Jude corporate partners and celebrity spokespersons about their everyday experience

helping support St. Jude.

The blog will have a comprehensive content plan, complete with an editorial

calendar designed to pair the greatest stories and impact points with key dates in the St.

Jude calendar.

Further integration between key dates, the new stjude.org, and blog presence will

take place with social media. The editorial calendar that applies to key drivers for the blog

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will also tie into existing social media channels on Twitter and Facebook, as well as an

added social media channel on Instagram.

Internal Communications

All of the tactics outlined above are important towards driving a greater

understanding of St. Jude towards the millennial community. However, St. Jude’s greatest

brand ambassadors are neither the celebrities nor

the corporate partners that work with the

organization. They are the doctors, nurses,

researchers, administration, staff, and fundraisers of

St. Jude that work around the country every day to

help deliver miraculous results for children.

To engage this constituency, a modified

version of the owned content approach will be

directed towards St. Jude employees. A disciplined

editorial calendar highlighting employee

perspectives, organizational priorities and

announcements, and initiatives will be presented

through an intranet portal, employee-facing videos,

and email-based newsletters. The content’s timing

will mirror the cadence of the major public-facing

calendar, but the content itself will be presented in a

more employee-centric fashion, and frequently offer

ways a St. Jude employee can share information more

effectively with family, friends, and colleagues.

The success of the internal communications pillar will make a key difference,

turning “just another thing marketing is doing” into a battle cry for the organization at

large.

Figure 9: A before-and-after summary

of integrated marketing tactics under

plan outlined by The Gura Group.

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Frequency

The frequency of messaging in this campaign will have two distinct levels on the

marketing “throttle”. A peak intensity period will see double to triple the regular

marketing activity level. Peak intensity periods of the campaign are defined as follows:

An eight-week period beginning Friday, October 30, 2015 and ending Thursday, December 24, 2015.

A nine-week period beginning Sunday, February 28, 2016 and ending Saturday, April 30, 2016.

The peak intensity periods are selected to support St. Jude initiatives and also to

capitalize on a critical time of year when the millennial audience will have additional

disposable income. In the fall of 2015, a peak intensity period for the campaign will

support the Thanks and Giving effort, while the spring 2016 income tax refund season will

also see a ramp-up of marketing efforts.

In terms of collateral, high-frequency marketing will have several touchpoints per

week, appearing regularly and available nearly daily to the target audience. Marketing

tactics that will appear at a high frequency are as follows:

Digital Advertising

Blogging

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

Medium frequency tactics will appear to the target audience only a once or twice

per week, under regular intensity levels. These are the communications tactics that will

be used on a medium frequency basis.

Broadcast Advertising (Radio)

Display Advertising (Medium Markets)

Targeted Social Advertising

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Low frequency tactics will have touch points with the audience that include touch

points for the target audience several times in a month. Low frequency communications

tactics will be:

Broadcast Advertising (Television)

Display Advertising (Large Markets)

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Budget Overview

LINE ITEM AMOUNT PCT.

Broadcast Advertising $3,750,000 25% Television $2,250,000 15%

Radio $1,500,000 10%

Digital Advertising $3,000,000 20% Digital Video Services $1,500,000 10%

Digital Music Services $1,500,000 10%

Social Media Channel Promotion $750,000 5%

Display Advertising $2,250,000 15% Large Markets $1,500,000 10%

Medium and Smaller Markets $750,000 5%

Targeted Social Media Advertising $900,000 6%

Internal Communications Support $450,000 3%

Production $1,500,000 10%

Administration and Monitoring $600,000 4%

Agency Fee $1,800,000 12%

TOTAL $15,000,000 100%

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Integrated Communications Flow Chart

Figure 10: A month-by-month campaign budget allocation in the integrated communications flow

chart, with the bulk of the spend taking place in peak intensity periods.

Note: the percentage column at the right will not add up to 100%, because the agency fee and

portions of internal communications support are not represented in this chart. Internal

communications funding will be allocated at St. Jude’s preference, and could also be applied towards

production and blogging line items.

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Creative Design & Execution

The key messages of the creative execution will be highlighting the important role

of donors, and clearly demonstrating the value of a modest donation. Where possible, we

will make a point to highlight a local or regional connection of a St. Jude Children’s

Research Hospital patient to the viewer of the creative collateral.

The creative collateral will revolve around a tagline as well as a thematic hashtag

that will underscore the impact donations have.

Campaign Tagline:

Thematic Hashtag:

#20IS

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Broadcast TV Spot

The broadcast spot will highlight the impact of a simple $20 donation, beginning in

terms that resonate with the target audience. To them, $20 may be a night out, or their

share of the electric bill. To a St. Jude, $20 can mean so much more.

For the voiceover talent, we suggest a celebrity who is known to, and admired by,

the target audience. While we recommend that this individual only provide a voiceover

track (their voice will be familiar and in many cases, recognizable to the target audience),

we can consider bringing this person on camera at the end of the spot, should they or

their representatives insist upon appearing on-screen. In the example above, we have

allowed for this scenario.

Celebrities who we suggest approaching are Emma Stone, Emma Watson, Taylor

Swift, and Katy Perry. Each of the three have significant cachet within the target audience

and a significant social media reach (Millennial Influx, 2015).

Finally, screenshots from these broadcast commercials will be adapted into display

form to help raise awareness with internal audiences within the St. Jude organization.

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This will include posters, handouts, and other printed material that will be omnipresent

not just in Memphis but at all regional fundraising centers nationwide.

Radio Spot

The radio spot will follow the same theme as the TV spot, this time with voice

actors providing the context shown in the TV spot, taking listeners through a journey that

begins with relatable subjects, and ending with the impact of donating $20 to St. Jude and

helping a child in need and critical, lifesaving research to take place.

[Younger male voice, providing an internal monologue] What can I do with $20?

Sure, there are bills to pay. Yes, that’s a lunch or two out during the work week.

I wouldn’t mind meeting my buddies for a beer on Friday. But how can I make it last? How can I make an impact?

There is St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. For over fifty years, they’ve

helped kids fight cancer. When they started, kids only survived cancer 20% of the time. Now, 80% do. But, that’s not enough. Maybe my $20 can help them get a cure for the 20% that still need a hand.

I think that’s what I’ll do with my $20. [Celebrity Spokesperson Voice] For St. Jude patients, you help make it happen. From helping today’s patients and their families battle cancer, or giving researchers they tools they need to find tomorrow’s cures, every donation goes a long way.

Donate today at StJude.org

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This script will be modified to produce a shorter version that can run on digital

radio platforms such as Pandora and Spotify.

Transit Billboards

In this format, we will seek to highlight one key fact about the services St. Jude

provides to patients, and the contributions they make the medical community.

We seek to present the facts in a very bold style, which is why we’re using the

Impact font. Impact is a typeface that is very commonly used on Internet memes, which

are very popular with the target audience (Christian Science Monitor, 2013). This

represents a subtle way that St. Jude can be more relatable, and more eye-catching, to the

target audience.

In addition, we recommend regionalizing this content to highlight patients that

have local or regional ties to a particular media market. In the example above, a patient

from Oregon would appear in transit ads that appear in the Seattle, Washington, and

Portland, Oregon markets. This will help dispel any perception that St. Jude is a distant

charity that only makes its impact in Memphis.

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Video Internet Spots

For advertising on platforms such as YouTube, Hulu, and Amazon Video, we will

create a faster-paced 15-second digital ad, retrofitted from the original broadcast TV

commercial. The spot will seek to make the most of the first 5 seconds of content so as to

discourage the viewer from skipping the ad.

Social Media Ads

On social media, we will seek to leverage a cadence of regular owned content to

reach followers, along with paid, promoted posts that will appear as ads within a Twitter

feed or in the right rail of Facebook’s platform.

We will heavily promote the #20is hashtag on these platforms as a way of raising

awareness for St. Jude and the incredible impact donors can have.

39

Twitter

Facebook

Finally, we will seek to leverage the accounts of our influencers, celebrities, and

corporate partners’ social media accounts to promote St. Jude initiatives and the #20is

campaign.

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Evaluation & Key Performance Indicators

The success of the Giving’s Next Generation campaign will be measured and

evaluated through several lenses: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Return on Investment.

Within qualitative, we will attempt to assess our impact in reaching the

44,732,005 Americans aged 21-30 (Marketing Charts, 2015). Ideally, we would like to

reach each and every one of these individuals multiple times. However, in practicality, we

anticipate our multiple-impression reach will be much less than this number, as we are

also trying to target those within the target audience who have the means to give.

In qualitative, we will track the audience’s reaction to our content to see if it is

resonating, or repelling the target audience. While every metric will be tracked monthly

and quarterly, it is this section within which we will seek to interpret the earliest figures,

during the first and second quarters of the campaign, and make course corrections to the

content quality if need be.

For return on investment, we will attempt to evaluate the bottom-line impact of

the campaign for the target audience. Through the power of online tracking, we will

report back precise conversion and donation numbers that emanate from digital and

social outreach efforts. We will also track the donation level within the target

demographic, and also reconvene focus groups to see how well we’ve moved the needle

amongst the target audience when it comes to the brand image of St. Jude Children’s

Research Hospital.

Costs for the tracking of these metrics and reporting and interpretation of results

will be borne from the production budget line-item as well as the agency fee of The Gura

Group, as outlined in the budget section of the communications plan.

Quantitative

Traditional Media Reach

The campaign will measure the amount of impressions and exposures of the target

audience to the collateral through the radio, broadcast and cable television, and transit

display advertising.

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Digital Reach

Digital reach through the advertising platforms YouTube, Hulu, Spotify, Pandora,

Twitter, and Facebook provide the campaign with solid metrics as to the impressions,

unique viewers, and reach of our digital content. This will encompass exposure to

collateral such as paid social media ads, audio-only digital ads, and video digital ads.

Social Networking

In this category, we will measure Twitter followers, Facebook fans, YouTube

subscribers, and YouTube video views. While this may seem like digital reach, it is not a

paid form of advertising, but rather the viewer actively seeking the content. Each of these

figures will be taken as a baseline at the start of the campaign, and an increase is

expected at certain milestones of the campaign; typically after each quarter.

By the end of this campaign, our goal is to have consistently reached 20 million of

the target audience with at least 4 impressions of the content.

Qualitative

Social Interactions

Defined as interactions that appreciate the quality of content, this includes re-

tweets and favorites on Twitter, 2-way conversations on Twitter and Facebook, as well as

likes and shares of YouTube videos and Facebook posts.

Video Consumption Rate

Through YouTube analytics, we will track how much of our videos are watched by

the average viewer. Since much of what will be published on YouTube is in some form or

fashion going to leveraged across other digital platforms or within broadcast advertising,

this can give us good anecdotal evidence as to how well the visual content is resonating.

Ideally, the consumption rate of a short-form video (under 3 minutes), should be at

least 75% for the sake of this campaign.

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Video Skip Rate

On digital advertising platforms such as YouTube, the viewer is frequently given

the option of “opting out” or “skipping” the video advertisement after the first five

seconds. We’d like to track this number as a means to measure the effectiveness of this

campaign’s digital content. Ideally, we would like a 15-second ad to be seen at least 15%

of the time. Current estimates put the industry-wide viewing rate at 6%, with 94%

skipped (Ad Week, 2014). If numbers languish well below the goal, we will seek to divert

some of the YouTube spend elsewhere into categories that do not allow for skipped

advertising content.

Return on Marketing Investment Digital Conversions

From paid and owned social media posts, as well as other digital advertising

vehicles, we will track the conversion rate of those who click on a St. Jude ad and make a

donation within the same web visit. While percentage-wise, this is often a small number,

the figure that will matter to us most in proving return on investment is the dollar figure

brought in by these conversions.

21-30 Donation Rate

The overall goal of this campaign is to increase the donation rate amongst the

target audience. In order to properly ascertain the campaign’s effectiveness, our flagship

metric will be the donation rate, as part of the entire St. Jude donor base. In the big

picture, our goal is to double the existing rate of 21-30 donors; if the rate is 5% of all

donors, then we would aim to increase it to 10%.

Brand Perception

To properly encourage a lifetime of contributions between this target audience and

St. Jude, to firmly establish and cultivate giving’s next generation, we have to

fundamentally change the conversation between St. Jude and millennials. Many of the

messaging pillars in this campaign will accomplish this, but to truly ascertain if we are

effective in our mission, we will hold focus group sessions in the final quarter of the

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campaign and compare those findings to that of our initial research discussed earlier in

this report. To define success, we expect to find a much more positive, and relevant view

of St. Jude amongst those we survey in the spring of 2016.

Scorecard

Each month, KPIs will be tabulated, and each quarter, evaluated to ascertain the

effectiveness of the campaign to that point. Below is a sample scorecard for tracking these

metrics.

Please note, for the “status” light indicator, we use the status definitions listed

below. As metrics stray from targets, the color changes.

Green: At or above target. No action needed.

Yellow: 1% to 9% below target. Consider taking remedial action.

Red: More than 10% below target. Remedial action required.

Gray: No figures to report.

CURRENT ANNUAL TARGET STATUS

QUALITATIVE

Total Reach 0 25M

Traditional 0 10M

Digital 0 15M

Total Impressions 0 40M

Traditional 0 20M

Digital 0 20M

Social Media Followers 0 +40%

YouTube Video Views 0 +50%

QUALITATIVE

Social Interactions 0 Baseline in Q1, 5%

increase thereafter.

Consumption Rate 0 75%

Skip Rate 0 15%

RETURN ON INVESTMENT

Digital Conversion Donations 0 Baseline in Q1, 8%

increase thereafter.

21-30 Donation Base Rate 0 Baseline before

campaign start,

then 2x from start.

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Conclusion

The marketing approach of, “let’s just run a few TV ads, print a few magazine ads,

and take off at 4pm for a client dinner” is long gone. However, some remnants of the Mad

Men era still stick with our business, just like many other industries. It is the

organizations that step boldly into the future, embracing technology, analytics, and

storytelling, that will win the hearts and minds of the millennial generation.

Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is the principle that everything in

marketing is tied together. Nothing is a “bolt-on”; nothing happens by accident. What was

once a small band of merry marketers has developed into a full-blown orchestra, and only

the foremost experts in the industry know how to properly conduct that orchestra. A

series of messages, platforms, touch points, and narratives all have to work together.

The IMC strategy proposed by The Gura Group in this presentation outlines a

holistic approach, making the most of the messaging patterns and form factors that are

most relevant with the 21-30 demographic. The major touch points: digital, social,

broadcast, display. The messages that matter: impact, relevance, a sense of making the

world a better place by donating to St. Jude.

Decades from now, this campaign will be looked back on as the moment that St.

Jude Children’s Research Hospital solved a major non-profit marketing conundrum: “How

do we make ourselves relevant to a generation so different than our current donor base?”

By telling your story, their way. By listening intently to everything the numbers are

telling you, and adjusting tactics as needed. By hiring The Gura Group to deliver Giving’s

Next Generation to St. Jude.

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References

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115acRCRD&vgnextchannel=14f291ee84376310VgnVCM100000290115acRCRD

St. Jude Children’s Medical Research Hospital. Fifty Fabulous Years: 1965. (2012). Retrieved from

http://www.stjude.org/stjude/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=d6e8095ed6d96310VgnVCM100000290

115acRCRD&vgnextchannel=14f291ee84376310VgnVCM100000290115acRCRD

St. Jude Children’s Medical Research Hospital. St. Jude Facts. (2012). Retrieved from

http://www.stjude.org/fosj/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=434d1976d1e70110VgnVCM1000001e0215

acRCRD&vgnextchannel=ee58ebc7a7319210VgnVCM1000001e0215acRCRD

St. Jude Children’s Medical Research Hospital. 2013 Annual Report. Pp. 40-41. Retrieved from

http://www.stjude.org/SJFile/annual-report-13.pdf

St. Jude Children’s Medical Research Hospital. A Legacy of Love and Hope. (2012). Retrieved from

http://www.stjude.org/stjude/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=0233f1668c976310VgnVCM100000290

115acRCRD&vgnextchannel=40b491ee84376310VgnVCM100000290115acRCRD

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital via YouTube. St. Jude Thanks and Giving. (2014, November 24).

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