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Group members:
Danielle Filippone
Cecilia Zheng
Jessie Goldberg
Creative Brief
Why are we advertising?
To raise awareness of the parks located near our target that are supported by the
National Park Foundation.
Who are we talking to?
Rational Explorers are single and like making their own decisions about how to
spend their money. They like trying new things and exploring new places with
their friends. They know national parks are valuable but feel disconnected from
them.
What do we know about them?
“I love planning weekend trips with my friends. We even have an ongoing list of
new places we want to visit in our Facebook group. I feel like most national parks
are too far away. I’m not even living in a national park area, so I don’t think
they’re relevant to me.”
What do we want them to take away?
The National Park Foundation supports parks near you.
Support:
• The National Park Foundation supports 401 park units across all 50 states.
• In 2014, the equivalent of 90 percent of the U.S. population visited a
National Park Foundation-supported park.
• Visitors aren’t always aware parks are supported by the National Park
Foundation (i.e. St. Louis Arch).
Tone:
• Inviting, motivating, enlightening
Creative sparks:
• “This is your land. Explore your land.”
• “The National Parks belong to everyone. But the special places you find
within them will always be your own.”
Mandatories:
• National Park Foundation logo
• Instagram, Twitter and Facebook social media icons

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Analysis
Introduction
Since 1967, the National Park Foundation has been the only national nonprofit
organization working directly with the National Park Service. Over the past 100
years, the National Park Service has worked with the funds and support gathered
from the National Park Foundation to safeguard the parks.
Research
Based on our research, both the National Park Foundation and the National Park
Service support 59 national parks and 401 park units across the United States.
Seventy percent of the parks are free for all visitors. According to data collected
by the National Park Service, the number of visitors in 2014 was 292,800,082,
which is equal to 90 percent of the United States population. The majority of
these visitors were Baby Boomers.
To gain a better understanding of our target and how they feel about the National
Park Foundation, we did in-depth interviews with college-aged male and female
Millennials. From our primary research, we found that they have a general idea of
what the National Park Foundation does, but they don’t know the extent of its
impact. We also discovered that the participants feel disconnected from the
National Park Foundation. They told us they understand the importance of
preserving national parks, but this issue is not top-of-mind. Our respondents also
said they would be upset if the national parks ceased to exist in the near future.
They would want to take action but wouldn’t know where to start. One participant
said, “I would be very upset… To be perfectly honest I wouldn’t know what to do
as someone who doesn’t go to national parks very often and I’m not in that
community. However, if there was some kind of big national fundraiser, I would
totally get on board.”
Our participants only linked the National Park Foundation and the National Park
Service to famous national parks such as Yellowstone and Yosemite, which they
said are far away from them. However, none of our participants were aware that
the National Park Foundation also supports parks in their community, including
historical parks, military parks, national memorials, national historic trails, wild
and scenic rivers, etc. Based on our primary and secondary research, we
realized that our target might have visited parks supported by the National Park
Foundation without knowing it, such as the St. Louis Arch. This finding led us to
our take away, “The National Park Foundation supports parks near you.”
Target
To narrow our target, we did primary research to learn about what Millennials
think about national parks and the types of Millennials that visit them. As
previously mentioned, we noticed the disconnect between Millennials and the
National Park Foundation. This led us to conclude that we need to target
Millennials who visit National Park Foundation-supported parks but don’t realize
the connection they have with them.

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We also learned that Millennials who visit parks supported by the National Park
Foundation like to travel with their friends. A majority of our respondents from our
primary research said that if they could plan a trip anywhere in the United States
and take anyone with them, they would take their friends. Based on our
secondary research, we learned that when Millennials travel for leisure they
prefer getting discounts for pre-planned trips more than frequent flyer rewards.
As a result, we decided that the Millennials we want to target are social people
and planners. They have a steady income through either full-time or part-time
employment. They make logical and rational decisions about what they do and
are careful about how they spend their money. They are in control of their lives
and do things on their own terms. After doing our primary and secondary
research, we decided to name our target Rational Explorers because, with a solid
plan in place, they enjoy traveling and exploring new places with their friends.
According to a study by Facebook, travel stories make up 42 percent of the
average user’s timeline and 81 percent of Millennials are on Facebook.
Millennials are “social travelers” and like to share photos of themselves on trips.
According to Pew Research, half of Internet users ages 18-29 use Instagram and
half of all Instagram users visit the site daily. The hashtag #travel has been used
on over 36 million photos and videos on Instagram. Due to their social nature,
Rational Explorers not only want to share their experiences with the friends they
are traveling with, but also with their friends online.
Support, Sparks, Tone and Mandatories
Buried in the National Park Foundation’s website is an interactive map of all of
the national parks separated by state. We found an existing tagline that we
thought perfectly emphasized the spirit of our take away, “This is your land.
Explore your land.” It shows the idea of ownership, inheritance and motivation to
get up and go explore the parks near you. This is supported by our tone, which is
motivational, inviting and enlightening. By using the term “enlightening,” we want
to create an “ah-ha” moment for our target. For example, they might say, “Wait,
the Ozarks are part of this foundation? I never knew that. We were just there for
Memorial Day Weekend!”
We included social media icons and the National Park Foundation logo in our
mandatories because we want to make it clear that the National Park Foundation
supports parks all over the country and not just famous national parks like
Yellowstone. If Rational Explorers like something an organization is doing, they
have the potential to share it with their friends through social media. By including
these icons, we provide them with the tools they need to share pictures and
messages about the National Park Foundation with their friends and followers.
Conclusion
Through our in-depth interviews and secondary research, we discovered the
disconnect between Rational Explorers and the National Park Foundation. We
will use social media and other channels to raise awareness of the parks in their

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communities. We hope Rational Explorers will continue to explore the parks near
them, venture to new parks and take ownership of these parks.
Briefing the Team
We would begin briefing a creative team by asking the question, “Have you been
to a national park?”
If they say yes, we would ask them where they went. If they say no, we will move
on.
Next we will ask them, “Have you been to any of these places?” We will have
pictures of famous places supported by the National Park Foundation that are
located near our creative team. For example, when briefing our class we will use
the St. Louis Arch, the Lake of the Ozarks and the Lincoln Home National
Historic Site because they are in Missouri and Illinois so most people in our class
have either been to them or have heard of them.
St. Louis Arch
Lake of the Ozarks
Lincoln Home National Historic Site

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We will then say, “Do you know that all of these places are supported by the
National Park Foundation?”
If they don’t know, we will explain that our target doesn’t realize that either.
Discussion Guide:
What is your name? Age?
• What was the last trip you took like?
o Probe for: where? what did you see?
• Tell me about your most recent experience out in nature.
o Probe for: How did you feel? Were you by yourself or with others?
• What are the first few words that come to mind when you hear “National
Park”?
o Listen for: emotional connections, attitudes
• Have you ever been to a national park?
o Probe for: If yes, tell me about your experience. If no, would you
consider it?
• Name a charitable organization that you feel a strong connection to
(through monetary support, volunteer, know someone, etc.).
o Probe for: why do you feel this connection?
• What philanthropic activities, if any, have you been involved with in the
past year?
o Probe for: Did social media play a role in your experience in any
way?
• Do know what the National Park Foundation is?
o Probe for: explanation of why/why not
• Assume all national parks ceased to exist as of today. Write an obituary
for the parks.
o Listen for: relevance in daily life
• How would you feel if all national parks disappeared five years from today?
How do you think it would impact your life?
o Probe for: possible actions, thoughts and feelings
• If you could plan the perfect trip, with no financial limitations, in the U.S.,
what would it be like?
o Probe for: With who? Where? What activities? For how long?
o Listen for: kind of trip, nature role (yes or no?)

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Works Cited
"Annual Visitation Summary Report For: 2014." National Park Service Annual
Visitation Summary Report. National Park Service, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2015.
Barton, Christine, Julia Haywood, Pranay Jhunjhunwala, and Vikrant Bhatia. Rep.
“Traveling With Millennials.” The Boston Consulting Group. 18 Mar. 2013.
Web. 13 Mar. 2015.
Davidson, Jacob. "10 Things Everyone Spends Their Money On... Except
Millennials." Time. Time, 16 July 2014. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.
Fung, Derrick. "Millennials Don't Travel Like Other Generations, and It's Creating
Major Business Opportunities." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com,
5 Mar. 2015. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.
Mintel. “Marketing to Millennials - US - February 2015.” Mintel. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.
National Park Service Fiscal Year 2015 Budget Justifications (2013): n. pag.
National Park Service. The United States Department of the Interior, Mar.
2013. Web. 14 Mar. 2015.
Pew Research Center. “Millennials in Adulthood.” Pew Research Center. 7 Mar.
2014. Web. 9 Mar. 2015
"Social Media Update 2014." Pew Research Center’s Internet American Life
Project. 9 Jan. 2015. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.
Tandun, Atul. “Millennials: A Force Non-Profit Leaders Cannot Ignore.” The
Huffington Post. 27 Oct. 2014. Web.10 March 2015.
"These are your parks. Explore them." National Park Foundation. National Park
Foundation, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2015.
"United States Census Bureau Population Clock." Population Clock. United
States Census Bureau, n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2015.