CASE STUDY
Make Room USA
OVERVIEW
Enterprise Community Partners has been described by board member Edward Norton as the most influential nonprofit you’ve never heard of. Their goal is to make housing in the US more affordable and end the rental housing crisis through construction, programmatic support, and changing public policy. For over two years, they worked with us at Matter Unlimited, where I helped create and launch a sub-brand “Make Room” and the subsequent campaign, Concerts for the 1st, which premiered at the UN Media for Social Impact Summit. The idea was to unhide this issue through music, bringing big-name musical artists to the homes of struggling families. The result was a content series of concert footage and short documentaries about each family, all released on the 1st– the day rent is due– as a monthly reminder that the rental housing crisis affects 11 million families.
CLIENT
Enterprise Community Partners
DATE
2014-2016
MY ROLE
Creative Director
TEAM
Mike Howard, Writer
Yuan Ma, Developer
Chloe Harlig, Designer
Paul Bozymowski, Director
Jon Seale, Director
Andrew Ellis, Director
Jon Kasbe, Director
Jenny Turner, Producer
Souki Mehdouhi, Producer
Ashley Jamieson, Producer
Rob Holzer, Executive Producer
Alexandra Gordon, Managing Director
PROJECT WEBSITE
Awards
Webby Nominee
Press
NPR
Rolling Stone
Vibe
Huffington Post
Politico
USA Today
Slate
Pitchfork
Billboard
Wall Street Journal
Enterprise Community Partners needed more support of their work with 11 million rent-unstable families.
To promote it, we first named it “The Rental Housing Crisis.”
And built a brand around it.
Including full brand guidelines.
Then we needed an idea to take the non-profit budget and use earned media to carry enough content for a year.
We profiled families across the country to tell their story and host a concert.
