The Client
Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is Washington’s most influential and effective conservative think tank. As a research and educational institute, it formulates and promotes conservative public policies to generate solutions for contemporary problems. Its mission is to build an America where freedom, opportunity, prosperity, and civic society flourish.
The Background
• The Heritage Foundation had a critical role in the Reagan Revolution of the 1980s and the country’s surge in conservatism. (Its extensive public policy blueprint, Mandate for Leadership: Policy Management in a Conservative Administration, was widely adopted by the administration.)
• 2008 marks the 35th anniversary of the founding of The Heritage Foundation.
• Building on its accomplishments over the past 35 years, Heritage recently launched its bold 10-year Leadership for America, seeking to convince more Americans than ever that conservative ideas are the right ones for the country.
• Because The Heritage Foundation believes in aggressively promoting its ideas, it is constantly trying innovative ways to market those ideas.
The Challenge
How to expand the breadth of Heritage membership recruitment—specifically, how to effectively connect with new sources of potential members, primarily younger conservatives.
The Research*
General, over the Past 35 Years:
• Significant change occurred during the Reagan years, especially for Baby Boomers
• The percentage of professed “Christian” population has declined; stronger in older age
groups
• 57 percent of “Conservative Republicans” are “weekly” worshippers
Surveys Specific to Heritage Revealed the Need to:
• Leverage generation insights based on profile perspective
• Continue great work among Silent Generation
• Provide values-based connection for Boomers
• Give Gen-X an opportunity to be the giving “Entrepreneurs”
• Connect Silent Generation and Young Gen-X and Millenniums
• Create feedback loops with current donors to leverage their strength of belief in specific
policy areas
• Create opportunities for Heritage members to volunteer for The Heritage Foundation
• Leverage The Heritage Foundation’s vision to connect donor giving-motives to their
values-based core motivations
How Heritage is Perceived:
• Currently: As working to apply conservative principles to key issues in Washington
• Desired: As the recognized source of “feeling better informed” about the policy areas that
affect American lives
The Solution
What Would Reagan Do? Campaign
www.wwrdheritage.org
In January 2008, as part of its Leadership for America effort, Heritage partnered with popular radio personalities Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham to launch an educational campaign about conservative principles called “What Would Reagan Do?”
With both Hannity and Ingraham being strong conservative leaders and close Heritage allies, the campaign was designed to make the most of conservative talk radio’s newest formats, massive daily audience, and overall unparalleled success.
In celebrating The Heritage Foundation’s role as a leader in the conservative movement, the campaign consists of three daily features: a 30-second Heritage ad, audio clips of President Reagan, and an in-show segment in which Hannity and Ingraham highlight the work of The Heritage Foundation.
The campaign reminds listeners of the core ideas and policies that Reagan stood for—the same ones that The Heritage Foundation believes America still needs.
Each day listeners are asked to consider, What Would Reagan Do? regarding a specific current issue and are directed to the Heritage website to cast their vote for one of three options. Their e-mail information is then captured.
Visitors to the site are presented with the opportunity to join The Heritage Foundation or to find out more. They are also offered a free pocket copy of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, which captures their mailing address.
The Results (as of June 2008)
Statistical Overview:
• 210,375 total sign-ups
• 100,337 double opt-in e-mails
• 203,873 names with address
E-mail List Size:
• Grew from 23,617 (1/15/08) to 112,977 (6/10/08)
Newsletter Distribution:
• Grew from 62,078 (2/8/08) to 113,304 (6/12/08)
Survey of WWRD Responders (Prospects) Revealed*:
The strategic question of whether a radio campaign offers the potential to draw in new sources of potential members was answered in a resoundingly positive way. The tactical use of the Hannity and Ingraham programs was determined to be a strong match with the Heritage areas of focus.
The Heritage message opportunities can be fine-tuned, based on their areas of interest.
Conclusions About WWRD Campaign Audience:
• Predominately male
• Younger and equally well-educated as Heritage members
• Christian, very conservative, and Republican
• Somewhat familiar with Heritage but need help understanding its role in influencing the
actions of Congress or conducting scholarly policy research
• All clearly associated Heritage with the radio promotion
• 83 percent heard of Heritage for the first time from one of the radio promotions
• Radio promotion is strong opportunity to tell the Heritage “story”
• Only 28 percent said they are very familiar with Heritage
In addition, the interest level in specific messages was also gauged, as was the tone for those messages.
The results laid the groundwork for developing a campaign to build familiarity with The Heritage Foundation using a variety of media.
*In conjunction with Chay McQueen, LLC
