Protecting Movers from Fraud with a Public Outreach Campaign

Case Study - Strategic Engagement

Protecting Movers from Fraud with a Public Outreach Campaign

Posted on 12.17.22
Challenge

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration needed a better way to reach movers

After witnessing increasing instances of moving fraud, the DOT Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) launched a public awareness campaign to address the problem. The Protect Your Move (PYM) campaign provided helpful resources that taught people how to protect themselves and their possessions while moving. After realizing the campaign wasn’t having the desired effect, FMCSA partnered with Aptive to better target messages and resources to the intended audience and improve the overall success of the education initiative.

Solutions

Creative rebranding and optimized audience engagement

Aptive specializes in concept-to-execution project management, data analysis and optimized media engagement. Aptive communications experts have a unique understanding of how audiences consume media and how to reach individuals. Team members include award-winning designers, a talented video team and highly experienced project managers.

Historical data research

Before FMCSA could improve its outreach strategy, it needed a strong understanding of current web performance metrics. Aptive evaluated data from Google Analytics, social media and other search engine marketing techniques. With accurate data and a strong knowledge of industry best practices, Aptive was ready to make creative recommendations for FMCSA.

Creative campaign rebranding

With search engine performance data and input from FMCSA on creative direction, Aptive began rebranding the PYM campaign. FMCSA wanted to be authoritative but friendly. Multiple DOT stakeholders weighed in on different design options until the creative designers finalized a new look and feel that captured the campaign’s tone—a simple logo and an engaging bubble theme that FMCSA would use across all media and mediums. Aptive and FMCSA deployed the new brand across social media, the website, videos and other digital assets.

To best communicate the principles of PYM, Aptive considered various digital media options. Ultimately, the project team determined that informative videos in the style of the fresh theme would have the highest engagement with FMCSA’s audience. Therefore, each long-form video was cut into short clips for ideal use in paid ads.

To launch the new campaign, the project team developed and executed a multi-channel media strategy that included optimized content for search engines, ads, social media and strategically placed video and audio clips that would reach individuals during every phase of the moving process. In addition, continual market research and implementation of best practices allow Aptive to monitor FMCSA efforts across all platforms and ensure continued audience engagement.

Full campaign website rebrand

To unify the campaign, Aptive completely overhauled the PYM campaign website. FMCSA and Aptive transformed website language into easy-to-understand language that’s more engaging and informative for the audience. Website visitors see essential information when they first land on the page, and attractive images and graphics across the website emphasize PYM’s new, cohesive branding.

RESULTS

The award-winning redesigned Protect Your Move campaign reaches the target audience

The newly rebranded PYM campaign won multiple awards, including the 2022 Gold Hermes Creative Award for a video ad and honorable mentions for a video ad and infographic.

Since starting our support of the PYM campaign in 2020, campaign activities have resulted in more than 83.5 million impressions, 528,000 visits to the website and 57,700 resource downloads. The PYM campaign is ongoing as FMCSA strives to connect with more movers to inform them of the risks of moving fraud and what they can do to protect themselves.