Department Spotlight: Indiana's campaign to change lives
Editor’s note: This is a weekly series of Department Spotlight stories featuring unique programs and initiatives of departments throughout The American Legion. Department adjutants are invited to recommend subjects for their departments by emailing magazine@legion.org.
The American Legion Department of Indiana adopted the organization’s five-year strategic membership plan upon its release in 2013, and tackled the brand awareness priority by launching an advertising campaign that brought the Legion’s message to the airwaves and packed sporting venues.
Under the leadership of then-Department of Indiana Commander Ed Trice, the department had membership commercials on local radio and television stations, and membership booths at Indianapolis Colts football and Indians baseball games. Three years later, brand awareness has carried over with current Department of Indiana Commander James May.
May is continuing the moment Trice started with the advertising campaign in effort to uphold the department's successful efforts of informing Hoosier veterans and their families who the Legion is and what members do for communities statewide.
“We need to get back to communicating the core values and fundamentals of what our organization was founded on," May said. "This is key in turning our membership numbers around. In order to stay relevant to the newer generations of veterans and secure longevity in our organizations future, we need to continue to grow our communications methods and abilities to both our members and potential members.”
The department’s new campaign slogan for its advertising efforts across the board is “We Change Lives” – a “bold statement and one that hopefully will licit the question ‘How do you change lives?’ from potential new members,” said Department of Indiana Communications Director John Crosby. “All of our advertising that we do points back to our website that explains how we change lives.”
A few of the department’s current advertising efforts include television, Pandora Internet radio and Comcast Spotlight. For example, the department’s Legion Day event in September was highlighted on local television station CBS4 Indianapolis, and it conducted a 33-second digital commercial on Comcast Spotlight with Colts placekicker Adam Vinatieri as the spokesman.
Other brand awareness initiatives the department has engaged in include an advertisement in the 2016 Indianapolis 500 program keepsake that commemorated the race’s 100th running; a presentation of the American flag by more than 270 Hoosier Legionnaires before a Colts game last that month; partnerships with local colleges, such as Indiana University, for discounted football tickets for veterans and their families; and two Awareness Walk for Veterans that have involved more than 300 veterans, families and community members, and raised nearly $31,000 for Operation Comfort Warriors.
“We are trying to create brand awareness and create events where we can interface with the community,” Crosby said. “The digital and the television advertising is great, but when we can shake hands and show people what we do, that’s our main goal.”
“As Legionnaires, we work together to improve the lives of our fellow veterans, their families and their communities,” May said. “We work our Legion programs, provide scholarships for youth, provide free benefits assistance to all veterans, fundraise and donate to our local communities and Legion charities.
“I believe our mantra, ‘We Change Lives,’ truly embodies that in an effective and simplistic way.”