As the largest network of early childhood development resources in L.A. County, First 5 LA has supported a variety of organizations that contribute to the safety, health and early education of the County’s children.
One important bridge between this wealth of resources and the families in most need is First 5 LA’s Parent Helpline, 1-888-FIRST5-LA, where operators are available 24/7 in 140 languages to identify local resources for parents. This free and confidential resource also provides parenting tips targeted to families and caregivers of children 0-5.
Hershey|Cause developed and executed an integrated marketing campaign to promote its parent helpline among the mostly Latino residents of the “Magnolia Place” area in Los Angeles. We conducted focus groups with parents, local service providers and community health promoters to test our assumptions about how to implement this campaign with engaging messages and creative elements that would resonate with key audiences. The focus groups, which were conducted in-language in Spanish, English, Korean and Mandarin, were also used to establish awareness evaluation benchmarks for both First 5 LA and the parent helpline.
Our resulting place-based strategy combined robust grassroots efforts with vibrant outdoor advertising to resonate with residents and local providers on several levels.
We hired and trained a team of promotoras, or health promoters, to directly reach out to local preschools, daycare centers, clinics, and local businesses to promote the parent helpline. We armed them with a range of educational materials in English and Spanish, including parent helpline posters, tear-sheet fliers (for high-traffic public locations such as laundromats, hair salons, affordable housing lobbies, clinic bulletin boards, etc.), promotional business cards and white-board refrigerator magnets. The promotoras, who speak both Spanish and English, also promoted the helpline directly to people at bus stops, buses, swap meets, parks and on the streets of the community.
Parallel to the grassroots effort, Hershey|Cause bought, on behalf of the client, strategically located billboards around the Magnolia Place neighborhood along with PSAs on buses circling the area. The branding and messages on the billboards were consistent with and reinforced the campaign printed materials, strengthening both the presence of First 5 LA in the community and the overall impact of the campaign.
The campaign surpassed its goals, with the average number of calls made to the parent helpline increasing by 74.9 percent to date, with sharp increases in calls from our target zip codes. With this success, First 5 LA is now planning to expand the campaign to promote the helpline in other regions of the county.
