PLAN
NFC provides unique lending programs and financial assistance, including a forgivable home improvement loan, to facilitate targeted neighborhood revitalization within Des Moines. SA’s primary goal since 2006 has been to position NFC as the financial resource of choice among borrowers in these targeted neighborhoods. By identifying a key audience and making the right connections, established neighborhoods are being strengthened.
CREATE
Since potential homebuyers and potential NFC borrowers are difficult to pinpoint, SA concluded the best conduit would be Realtors, a previously ignored customer base. Based on periodic focus groups and online surveys, NFC and SA have turned around misperceptions and strengthened relationships between NFC and Realtors who sell in the designated neighborhoods. SA has led these efforts through strategic annual planning, media relations, direct mail, a map and yard signs for Realtors, outreach to several government, financial, neighborhood and real estate organizations and executive positioning of NFC staff in the community and through the media. Additionally, NFC provides training to homebuyers, to Realtors and increasingly, offers more touch points and assistance to Realtors.
ACHIEVE
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In the first year alone, NFC experienced dramatic results with overall loans increasing by more than 200% and the campaign’s media relations providing more than $121,000 in earned media value and more than one-million impressions in Des Moines.
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In the last five years, the number of loan applicants who learned of NFC through a Realtor has increased from a benchmark of 20% to more than 72% in 2010.
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NFC has also experienced record setting years for loan production and loan volume, to which it directly credits SA’s marketing.
- During a time when many mortgage banks would not comment on the housing industry or the effects of subprime lending and foreclosures, SA continues to successfully position NFC’s Executive Director Holly Olson as an expert source to address these trends in central Iowa.
