Oregon Housing and Community Services Foreclosure Prevention Awareness Campaign (Brand Building)
The Oregon Department of Housing and Community Services (OHCS) selected FISH Marketing through a competitive RFP process to design and implement a comprehensive outreach and awareness campaign utilizing paid media, earned media and grassroots marketing to raise awareness about foreclosure avoidance resources available to homeowners.
The need for the campaign was created by the passage of new laws designed to protect homeowners and recognition of the fact that homeowners were overwhelmed by the number of programs available to them and the lack of a trusted, central “hub” for government-sponsored resources.
FISH Marketing was asked to develop and implement a campaign using a data-driven approach and ensuring that messaging did not alienate stakeholders, specifically the banking industry. FISH Marketing performed a variety of services for OHCS for this campaign, including but not limited to:
Brand Identity
Working with OHCS and a stakeholder committee, we developed multiple logos and a brand to represent state-sponsored housing resources and the consortium of nonprofit housing counselors available to assist homeowners throughout Oregon.
Website Development
We developed the first comprehensive online resource center for distressed Oregon homeowners and housing counselors. Recognizing that available lists were inconsistent, out-of-date and difficult to find, we created a “find-a-counselor” tool. This tool allowed homeowners and referral agencies to easily identify the level of services available to them at different housing counseling locations. The entire website was developed in both English and Spanish.
Online Foreclosure Counseling
Working with OHCS and their nonprofit counseling partners, we developed a full series of original interactive online web videos, worksheets and tests, in order to reduce the burden felt by counseling agencies and to provide homeowners the opportunity to learn in the comfort of their own homes.
TV, Print, Radio and Digital Advertising
Despite a modest budget, FISH Marketing helped OHCS deploy a multi-faceted advertising campaign, identifying low-cost production and placement opportunities with the highest potential for reaching distressed homeowners. We filmed TV commercials and recorded radio spots in both English and Spanish, using actual housing counselors to lend authenticity and a sense of ownership for stakeholders.
Digital Ads
728×90
300×250
160×600
TV Advertising
Grassroots Marketing Materials
The OHCS outreach campaign benefited greatly from the presence of a robust and dedicated group of nonprofit partners across the state. We worked with OHCS and those partners to create a wide variety of digital and physical materials for them to distribute within their own communities.
Outreach Poster
Doorhanger
Goals
Goals for this campaign were both broad (awareness) and narrow (improvements within foreclosure counseling delivery). Primary goals include:
- Develop a state-sponsored online “hub” for foreclosure programs to support distressed homeowners and advocates, within 3 months of the legislative funding appropriation to OHCS.
- Develop a series of online counseling workshops to reduce the time homeowners need to spend with a counselor, and make workshop information consistent between nonprofit providers.
- Educate Oregon homeowners eligible to claim a portion of the National Mortgage Settlement.
- Include stakeholders throughout both the campaign development and the implementation processes.
- Design tools that do not require a significant budget to maintain in the future, given the tenuous nature of the legislative appropriation
Audiences
The primary audience for the campaign was, and continues to be distressed homeowners seeking information and/or resources. However, there are a variety of additional audiences for the campaign, including:
- A statewide network of foreclosure counseling agencies
- Legal Aid representatives
- State agencies and legislative staff making constituent referrals
- 211 representatives
Results
The foreclosure avoidance campaign has been extremely successful in raising awareness for available resources and providing housing counselors across the state with the tools they need to market and enhance their services. Specific results from the ongoing campaign include:
- 3rd in Nation: claim rate among states with 8,000+ potential National Mortgage Settlement claims
- +10,000: times the “Find-a-Counselor” tool has been used
- +850 at-risk homeowners that have used online counseling workshops
- +77,000 website visits since launching program website