2005 Public Service Campaign- Rape Crisis Center of Dane County

Photo of a flower The Rape Crisis Center (RCC) of Dane County has been providing advocacy and education about sexual assault since its founding in 1973. While services offered through RCC are free to the public, they are in need of building community awareness of the programs offered to help victims and their families to deal with the effects of rape. The main source of community outreach comes from a 24-hour crisis hotline, 251-RAPE.

When we started our work with RCC, they were using minimal advertising to familiarize the community with their services and crisis hotline. A Web site and brochure had been developed, but they didn’t have a consistent look and feel. RCC generally gets the most media notice in April, which is sexual assault awareness month.

Our objective for this campaign was twofold. First we needed to position position the RCC as a professional organization and the first place to turn when in need of sexual assault crisis intervention. Secondly, we wanted to increase the number of phone calls made to the hotline by 25% during the duration of the public service campaign.

Although rape doesn’t discriminate based on race, ethnicity, age or gender, it is clear that the primary area of concern is for young women. We decided that the campaign must reach two target demographics; the primary target is women 18-24 and the secondary target is women 24-35.

After doing primary and secondary research on the issue, we confirmed our assumption that was at the center of the campaign; rape is a private issue and victims are experiencing many emotions as they work through a very difficult time in their lives. Often, the victim feels a sense of being alone and in despair and it is imperative to keep the messages targeted toward the victim at times when they’d most likely be alone and able to take the first anonymous step towards recovery. RCC wanted to tell victims that they didn’t have to go it alone, and although difficult as it was, a sense of normalcy could return to their lives. Out of this came the “Find Hope” campaign theme.

Our campaign consisted of the following deliverables:

Television: We created a television spot that focused on the nearly 300 emotions that rape victims feel after their attack. The goal was to make it clear to victims that the RCC knew what they were going through and that with the help of the RCC, victims could indeed “Find Hope”. The ad aired primarily late at night on both broadcast and cable television networks. Overnight television viewing is typically very low, but we felt strongly that a late-night ad could be the driving force for a victim that needs assistance during a sleepless night. Broadcast and cable television networks were selected for content and audience composition. Nick at Night, TV Land, Cartoon Network, Game Show Network, Oh!, and other “fear friendly” programming will helped to keep the message and brand compatible.

Radio: We developed a radio spot that re-enacted a rape victim making that first difficult step of picking up the phone to start the healing process. The radio ad demonstrated the hope that could be found at the other end of the phone line. We carefully selected radio stations for overnight listening 12p-5a on stations which indexed well for women.

Print: While print media is less effective for the primary and secondary target audiences, Dane County does have female-targeted publications such as Anew and Wisconsin Woman. In addition to the above, we have placed donated ads into Madison Magazine and In Business, Madison’s leading business magazine and resource. Our print ads were intended to cut through the clutter with a very simple message that required the viewer to participate in the ad and “find hope”.

Guerilla Tactics: To support traditional broad-based advertising we developed a highly targeted Guerilla effort to be exposed to victims in private. We developed “Find Hope” stickers and put them in bathroom stalls at area bars and restaurants, fitting rooms, dorm bathrooms and bus stops. We developed bookmarks and gave them to local libraries and bookstores and posters for bathrooms, bus stops, the University of Wisconsin Campus, and in parking ramps.

Results

Ad2 Madison was able to secure over $55,000 in media and vendor donations for the campaign. During our first campaign push (February through April 2006) call volume increased by an average of 23%. Sentiment at RCC was very positive, as the staff, volunteers and board were very happy to have an integrated, professional campaign that they can use again and again throughout the years.

Ad2 Madison is proud to report that 2005's campaign for the Rape Crisis Center of Dane County took first place in the National Ad 2 Public Service Award Competition after presenting the campaign at the National American Advertising Federation conference in San Francisco on June 11-13, 2006.