Adopting Children from Foster Care

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The Adoption PSA campaign was originally launched in 2004 in collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and AdoptUSKids. Volunteer agency kirshenbaum bond senecal + partners (kbs+p) provided strategic direction and lead creative development.

PSA’s have been developed with a specific annual focus, including teens, Spanish language, sibling groups, children 9 and older and preteens. The consistent tagline, “You don’t have to be perfect to be a perfect parent," has been used tocommunicate a humorous angle to the seemingly challenging task of adopting a child from foster care, reassuring prospective parents that even if not ‘perfect,' they have the ability to provide the stability and security that children in foster care need and deserve.

Campaign Objective: To encourage the adoption of children from the U.S. foster care system and to increase the number of potential families inquiring about adoption. Children of color, sibling groups, children ages 9 and up and tweens are featured as they face more difficulty in being adopted.

Target Audience:

Primary: Prospective parents who are considering the idea of adopting from foster care but who have not yet started the process.
Secondary: General public.

Donated Media: over $335 million since 2004

Measurable Results:
Only 18 months after launch the campaign helped to inspire more than 2,400 prospective families to contact an agency to start the adoption process. An additional 6,757 families who had already registered for home studies opted to work through AdoptUSKids to take their next step in the adoption process.

A telephone fulfillment operation was already in effect prior to the campaign. In the 18 months prior to the launch of the campaign, a little over four thousand calls were received. In the 18 months after the campaign launch, well over 14,000 calls were received, representing a 336% increase. The number of unique visitors to the website increased 42%, totaling 4.5 million visitors for the same period.

While website data remained strong since the 2004 launch, January to June of 2011 saw a significant increase in web traffic due to an impressive collection of PSA assets and strong donated media. With over 1.2 million unique visitors and 32 million page views people were more motivated to learn about adoption than during any other time in the campaign’s history. Since launch, over 160 thousand inquiries have been made by phone and over 58 thousand by email.

Awards:

Has received four Gold ADDY's (judged on the basis of creative excellence) from The American Advertising Federation
Won top honors from the American Association of Advertising Agencies with a Gold Jay Chiat Planning Award in the pro bono category
2006 EFFIE recipient, awarded by the American Marketing Association for effectiveness in marketing
2011 Bronze One Show pencil for the TV spot "The Bird"