Honoring veterans by helping them come home.
An annual campaign to create awareness of Citizens Bank's partnership with the Military Warriors Support Foundation.
As part of Citizens Bank's ongoing partnership with the Military Warriors Support Foundation, I led the creation of an emotional and inspiring campaign to raise awareness and celebrate the donation of mortgage-free homes to combat-wounded veterans. The campaign showcased the powerful stories of the veterans and their families, highlighting their journeys of coming home after military service.
The Challenge: Citizens Bank had been working with the Military Warriors Support Foundation since 2015 but needed to build stronger awareness of the partnership and its meaningful impact. The goal was to create an engaging campaign using social media as the primary channel to share the veterans' stories and amplify the initiative.
2016 Solution: "Coming Home"
For 2016, we focused on the Blizinski family, recipients of a mortgage-free home in Detroit, MI. The concept of “Coming Home” became the unifying theme of the campaign, emphasizing both the veteran’s return to civilian life and the deep personal connections tied to homecoming.
🇺🇸 Storytelling Through Videos: The campaign was built around a series of 7 videos released over several months, featuring both John and Nicole Blizinski sharing each other’s stories. This approach allowed us to create a deeply personal, emotional narrative that showcased the importance of family, service, and finding a home.
🇺🇸 Community Engagement: A microsite was created as the central hub for visitors to learn more about the partnership, watch the full series, and explore other stories of past recipients. On social media, we encouraged users to share their own experiences of "Coming Home," sparking conversation and participation from the audience.
In addition to promoting the videos in social media, we leveraged the personal photography the Blizinski's shared with us, creating a photo album to round out their story. Then, we asked our audience to share their story and tell us what coming home means to them.
2017 Solution: "Citizens Hero Homecoming"
As the program matured, I recognized the need to create a unique, brand-aligned identity for the partnership. I developed the "Citizens Hero Homecoming" name, which became the official branding for the initiative, complete with a custom logo to unify future campaigns.
🇺🇸 Telling the Hero’s Story: For the 2017 recipient, a humble and selfless veteran, we enlisted his friends and family to help tell his story. The series of videos, released over three months, highlighted not only his bravery but also the impact of the home donation on his life and those close to him.
🇺🇸 Engaging the Community: We invited followers on social media to share their own stories of heroes in their lives, creating a groundswell of engagement and emotional connection to the campaign.
2020 Solution: Pivoting During COVID-19
The 2020 campaign, featuring Purple Heart Veteran Bryan Cline, faced challenges due to pandemic-related restrictions. Despite these obstacles, we continued the momentum by building a content hub featuring not only Bryan’s story but also follow-up content from past recipients. The campaign focused on how the home donations made a lasting impact on these veterans' lives.
🇺🇸 A Digital Pivot: We adapted to the times by reducing the size of our production crew and shifting the campaign to digital-first storytelling. The creation of a centralized content hub provided a space to share all recipients' stories over the years, including follow-up features to show the long-term impact of Citizens’ support for veterans.
Results: The Citizens Hero Homecoming campaign has become an annual signature program for Citizens Bank, fostering deep emotional connections with our audience and bringing awareness to the bank's commitment to veterans. The campaign’s success in raising engagement and creating lasting impact stories has made it a highlight of Citizens’ broader community outreach efforts. In 2021, the campaign was recognized with an honorable mention in the 2020 PR Daily awards.
