Center for Education Reform – CER
Guerrilla marketing and advocacy open doors for Washington, D.C. students.
Some clients come to us with a blank canvas. Others come with an existing concept in need of elevating. For the Center for Education Reform (CER) that meant refreshing a previous guerrilla marketing effort – and making a bigger splash.
The Center for Education Reform had a well-defined goal. The organization needed to secure 3,000 signatures backing charter school operations and school choice in Washington, D.C. To garner strong support, Montage planned and executed a public advocacy campaign, Open the Door for Opportunity. The campaign featured brightly-colored, freestanding, functioning doors placed at strategic locations around the District. Montage designed and vinyl-wrapped the doors, each showcasing a series of compelling facts and statistics about local charter schools.
Open the Door for Opportunity debuted at a mid-summer Washington Nationals’ baseball game and continued for six subsequent weeks. Montage oversaw the routing strategy throughout the campaign, placing the doors at high-foot traffic locations for target audiences: families, millennials, and minority and low-income communities. The doors were staffed by Montage-recruited brand ambassadors and canvassers. The team provided reports to communicate petition signature count, visitor and location feedback, photos, and other information to help shape the remainder of the campaign.
Montage exceeded CER’s goal of 3,000 signatures. Today, increased visibility and evolved perceptions have reached the highest levels. The D.C. City Council, U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Department of Education have signatures in hand, and CER has achieved a powerful proof of concept.