National Foster Care Month Campaign

August 2006

For the third consecutive year, True Insight has been responsible for the National Foster Care Month (NFCM) marketing and publicity campaign. By building on last year's core message that there are more ways to get involved in foster care and directing the majority of the campaign's resources at the national press, True Insight generated approximately 292 million impressions - a 102% increase over 2005.

Launched by 14 national child welfare organizations in 2003, National Foster Care Month raises awareness for the many ways in which individuals and communities can contribute to improving the lives of any of the 518.000 children and youth living in foster care in the U.S.

New Strategy

True Insight's new strategic direction for this year's campaign focused on national and regional media, while harnessing the 14 partners' own platforms and engaging constituents on a grassroots level. The three core goals were 1) augmenting the viability of National Foster Care Month by increasing overall impressions by 10%; 2) securing national (70%) and regional (30%) coverage during the month of May to heighten awareness of the magnitude and needs of the foster care system; and 3) positioning National Foster Care Month as a public call to action to increase support and showcase a number of projects initiated by the NFCM partner organizations.

National Media Coverage

The national coverage proved to be an overwhelming success. True Insight and Kitchen PR tapped into a wide variety of nation-wide media outlets, including Parade magazine, Time magazine, Dear Abby, Dr. Phil, National Public Radio, The Early Show, Ziggy and Univision's Despierta America. These campaign highlights were partly due to NFCM's committed and high profile spokespersons, such as actress Victoria Rowell (The Young and the Restless), and Tennessee linebacker Keith Bulluck and award-winning musician/producer Kashif.

Regions Proved Receptive

Exposure in the top regional media markets (New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta Miami, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco and Los Angeles) was driven by NFCM member events in the respective regions and targeted advertising. Public affairs programs and morning radio and TV shows proved to be highly receptive to foster care issues in general. Extensive discussions with editorial staff from both national and regional media revealed a strong level of interest in foster care as an ongoing subject from various perspectives (e.g. post-Katrina New Orleans), different age groups and backgrounds.

Getting Partner Organizations Involved

On a grassroots level, True Insight tapped into the wealth of knowledge and networks provided by National Foster Care Month Partner organizations by presenting at conferences and events across the country to disseminate information and to present ways in which the members could harness their own infrastructure to help spread the word on National Foster Care Month. Some of these events included the National Foster Parent Annual Meeting, the Child Welfare League of America's Annual Conference and APHSA/National Association of Public Child Welfare Directors Meeting. In addition, True Insight leveraged the company's own established relationships with business, media and public child welfare departments in New York State, Los Angeles and Texas to increase visibility and involvement for the campaign

Campaign Results

One of the campaign's original goals was to increase overall impressions of National Foster Care Month by 10% compared to 2005. By the end of the month-long campaign, True Insight achieved a ten-fold increase in impressions. Based on measured circulation and audience figures, the campaign received an estimated 292 million impressions, representing a 102% increase over last year's campaign. Web traffic to the NFCM site (www.fostercaremonth.org) attracted 27,759 unique visitors during the month of the campaign, which represents an 81% increase over May 2005.

As demonstrated by this year`s outcomes, True Insight has set a new standard for raising awareness and communicating foster care issues through a strategically focused national publicity campaign. True Insight is looking forward to building a year-round integrated marketing and publicity campaign that increases public awareness about the urgent need for citizens to get involved to help support children, families and communities across America.