Cub Scouts campaign
Story: The Old North State Council of the Boy Scouts of America was experiencing a significant decline in membership. Research revealed key insights: 1. Awareness of Scouting and its many benefits was lower than anticipated. 2. Five to seven year-olds are much more likely to be engaged in other competing activities be they sports, school or church related. 3. Traditional recruiting partnerships with public schools became limited or discontinued.
Scouting offers an extremely diverse learning experience compared with many other activities available to young boys. As part of their yearly recruitment campaign, the Old North State Council wanted parents to feel good about the activities in which they choose to let their sons participate. We knew that most boys join scouting at a young age, so Cub Scout recruitment was the goal of the campaign. We also knew that moms were the major influence at the Cub Scout age, so we had to reach moms of young boys. Because it is harder to gain access to traditional venues like elementary schools, we needed a campaign that reached these moms where they spend their time.
This required conveying that Scouting is “cool,” modern and relevant to both five to seven year-old boys and their time-starved parents. The strategic tenet of the messaging was to differentiate Scouting from other extracurricular activities by conveying the educational/learning opportunities that were available in a fun environment. The creative inspiration was delivered by the merit badge/belt loop achievement programs offered in Scouting and brought to life in the line: “Just one of 750 things your son can learn in Scouts.” The resulting campaign leveraged the individual tasks from the Scout guidebooks and conveyed the scouting experience.
We formally launched the campaign at a family concert event in downtown Greensboro. At the event we placed dozens of signs along several blocks, each communicating a different part of the learning experience available to boys who participate in Cub Scouts. Each message was relevant to its environment.
Outdoor boards placed on key routes targeted moms. We also placed hundreds of signs in places like restaurants, book stores, ice cream shops, museums, grocery stores, pediatrician offices, malls, parks, jewelry stores and other places moms frequent. Each sign again communicating a different facet of the diverse learning experience offered through scouting and linking the message to the environment in which the sign was placed. Each impression was wrapped with a line that read, “Just one of the 750 things your son can learn in scouts.” Viewers were then directed to a website where they could find the nearest pack by zip code.
The campaign achieved its objective: The decline in membership was stemmed as levels remained the same as the previous year's levels. The campaign was so successful it was run again in the fall of the next year.
Services: Creative Strategy, Conceptual Development, Art Direction, Design, Layout, Production Supervision
