Enterprise Community Partners was looking for a way to amplify the issue of housing insecurity for renters. From naming, identity, website, content creation and campaign activation, we created an entirely new initiative called Make Room. Focused on the rental housing crisis, the initiative achieved such attention and momentum in its first year that it became its own non-profit entity.
The Challenge
With 11 million American families living one paycheck away from homelessness, we needed a way to support those whose struggle was largely happening behind closed doors.
What Matters
Housing Equity
Services
Film/Video Production
Brand Identity
Campaign Development
Narrative Messaging
Creative Asset Design
Earned Media
Overview
Enterprise Community Partners, one of the largest non-profits in the U.S. housing sector, wanted to help solve, and inspire meaningful dialogue around the rental housing crisis. We faced a number of challenges from the start: an issue that nobody talked about, a non-profit largely unknown to the public and multiple audiences and stakeholders to reach and engage.
We began by creating a new brand called Make Room, to appeal to a broader public, whose passion and interest would show policy makers this is an issue that must be addressed.
To activate the initiative, with the aim of reaching both new and familiar audiences, we created ‘Concerts for the 1st’, inspired by the movement in Harlem in the 1920s in which renters would host concerts in their homes to pay their rent. In our content series, real families shared their story in a short documentary and hosted a big name musical artist for a living room show. Each episode was released on “the 1st”. We launched on May 1st at the United Nations, revealing our first concert. All of our content drove to a website we created with essential information on the rental housing issue and ways to get involved.
Make Room
Miguel
Click To Play
While in Detroit on his national tour, Miguel took time out to lend his support to the Rollins family and the millions of renters who are a paycheck away from eviction.
54K+
Make Room Pledges
22M+
Impressions
$90,000+
Raised For Families
850
News stories in less than 12 months
With top musical talent, the media started paying attention, Make Roomwas featured in NPR, Politico and Rolling Stone. 54,000+ Americans signed Make Room’s Pledge on change.org to get renters on the nation’s agenda. The campaign has received over 22 Million impressions and was featured in over 850 news stories in less than 12 months. This incredible exposure resulted in a 36.4% lift in awareness vs. a 12.7% industry standard benchmark.
Make Room was created to help millions of families in America, but also helped individual families too. Our concert in Paterson, NJ saved our host family from eviction and over $90,000 was raised for families across the series on crowdrise.
Make Room
Carly Rae Jepsen
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Watch Carly Rae Jepsen sing ‘Call Me Maybe’ and ‘I Really Like You’ in an L.A living room of a family in need.
Make Room existed as its own non-profit for four years and had September designated as ‘National Month for Renters’ with bipartisan support in the House of Representatives and Senate.
Make Room
Timothy Bloom
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See this soulful performance from Timothy Bloom, benefiting the Montgomery family and raising awareness for rent-stressed households.
