Planning for the fourth quarter of life

One in five Americans aged 70 and older say they can’t live independently or accomplish daily tasks without assistance. To accommodate this ballooning U.S. population, more than 1.3 million new paid caregivers are needed to meet demand by 2027. With more than 765 home services agencies in Illinois (500 non-medical) how does one company distinguish itself? Open Arms Solutions (OAS), a home care agency based in Chicagoland, turned to Ballast Group to help build its brand.

Since 1959, the Publicity Club of Chicago has been recognizing outstanding communications campaigns in the Midwest with golden and silver trumpet awards due to detailed planning, immense creativity and thoughtful execution that gets results and solves problems.

At this year’s 59th annual awards for the most prestigious PR award in the Midwest, our team was awarded a Golden Trumpet for our integrated marketing communications campaign called “The fourth quarter of life.”

What drove this award-winning campaign? One of the first objectives for “The fourth quarter of life” was to build the brand to be top of mind for hiring and retaining qualified caregivers in a very crowded marketplace and with an expected shortage of caregivers. Then we had to convince adult children of the importance of professional home care for mom or dad. Once families understood the importance, they needed to be influenced to choose OAS from hundreds of other agencies in Illinois.  

With a blended paid, earned, shared and owned (P.E.S.O) media approach, our campaign: successfully targeted over 55,000 people and 38,000 potential caregivers through four Facebook ad campaigns; averaged a 35-percent open rate for 12 email campaigns enabling more qualified caregivers to apply; reached more than 525,160 readers daily during the week and 313,000 impressions online monthly with a Daily Herald column focused on aging at home; and landed a front-page business section story read by up to 748,000 Chicagoans with 19 million online impressions monthly in a Sunday Chicago Tribune story featuring a 91-year-old who ‘saved his whole life to be able to age in place at home.’

What can be learned from this campaign? Several things:  

• Take time now to prepare for your or your parents’ fourth quarter of life.
• Remember as PR pro’s our first obligation is great storytelling no matter the channels used. Like Steve Jobs’ words in his 2005 Stanford commencement speech: “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” AKA always be curious and don’t be afraid to take risks.
• Build a great team because you cannot achieve success alone.