Boys & Girls Clubs of America | Whatever It Takes
Video Production
Qualitative Research
Marketing Strategy
Project Overview
As one of the largest nonprofits in the U.S., Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) serves over 4.3 million youth across more than 4,300 clubs - leveraging developmental programs, safe places, and mentors to ensure every youth in America has the opportunity for a great future. Yet despite boasting nearly 80% brand awareness, people don’t know what BGCA does (often it’s mistakenly equated to Big Brothers Big Sisters). In short, the brand is well-known, but not known well. This combination of high awareness + low familiarity opens the door for brand misunderstandings which can lead to declining donations. BGCA’s ask of Dagger? A big idea to communicate their brand story in a way that would break through the cluttered nonprofit landscape. No small feat to begin with, but further complicating the task was a complex matrix of eight distinct audiences ranging from parents to donors to alumni and more. To deliver on the objective, Dagger identified category conventions ripe for disruption and conducted primary research across constituent groups, revealing: 1) BGCA’s breadth and depth are unmatched in their category, yet no one outside BGCA knows how special they are. 2) BGCA has a mind problem, not a heart problem. Even current parents only equate BGCA to swim, gym and video games, signaling a perception problem originating in the mind. 3) There is no silver bullet benefit that threads all audiences. Alumni and donors believe in future benefits. However, parents are starkly grounded in present circumstances. This dichotomy greatly framed our POV, which was that BGCA didn’t need a big idea; they needed a wide idea. One that could be dimensionalized across channels and that would always communicate what BGCA does - Whatever It Takes. This was the brand truth that informed all touchpoints - Boys and Girls Clubs don’t do just one thing, they do whatever it takes for each individual kid. Whatever it takes to graduate. Whatever it takes to find her voice. Whatever it takes to end bullying. Whatever it takes to build great futures. Armed with this rallying cry of “Whatever It Takes,” we developed creative devices that cohesively united communications across OOH, broadcast, digital, social, and more. We launched the campaign with a :60 brand PSA called “Listen,” producing it entirely in-house in 36 days from briefing to broadcast delivery. The PSA reflects the uncommonly diverse skill at Dagger, as every facet of the spot - from directing, to videography, to editing, to graphics, to sound design - were achieved by members of our in-house team. With PSAs the key metric is how much media gets donated in support of the spot, and those decisions are largely based on how compelling networks find the spot to be. With “Listen,” over $30MM of media value was donated by outlets including Comcast, Cox Media, Regal Cinema, WWE and MLB. Leadership also reported the campaign was the most strongly received in the history of the organization.Client
Boys & Girls Clubs of AmericaTags
Brand Strategy
Campaign strategy
Creative direction
Video production
TVC
Non-Profit
