Proud to Continue to Place Media for HUD to Assist with the Continuing Foreclosure Crisis

Mon, September 01, 2008

HUD’s Philadelphia Homeownership Center called on GA1 to develop an integrated campaign, targeting victims of the foreclosure crisis that faced losing their homes within their region (Philadelphia, New York, New Jersey, Detroit, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, and District of Columbia, Connecticut). Based on initial market research, GA1 learned that many of these hard-to-reach communities felt distraught with their situation and needed to find information to assist them in the midst of a national foreclosure crisis.  With this information, GA1 created and implemented a Homeownership Summit Tour. The tours were advertised via local radio stations, banner ads strategically placed on financial and homeownership related websites, and local community newspapers. Additionally, GA1 created collateral to share with local organizations that help families facing foreclosures. In addition, there was information distributed for first-time homebuyers. Collateral was also distributed to local churches and local radio station events. 

The summits took place in states that were heavily affected by the sub-prime crisis- Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York/New Jersey, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, and Connecticut. The summits were free to the public and provided families with an opportunity to talk face-to-face with people from HUD that provided answers or recommendations to help them with their situation. Mortgage lenders, Home-Ownership Counselors and Not-For-Profit organizations participated in the summits and held seminars on different topics to help educate attendees.  During the period of the campaign, HUD’s call centers experienced a significant increase in call volumes. Due to the success of the Homeownership Summit Tours, HUD contracted GA1 to assist them along the west coast with a similar outreach effect.