At Lowe’s, our mission is to make homes and hometowns better for all.
In 2021, 82% of nonprofit organizations reported increased demand for their programs and services (Points of Light). The same year, Lowe’s celebrated its centennial by investing $10M to help communities recovering from the pandemic through a program called 100 Hometowns. As a result of its success, Lowe’s was inspired to continue using its resources and expertise for a multi-year, multi-cause initiative.
Enter Lowe's Hometowns: a five-year, one hundred-million-dollar commitment to positively impact local communities. From 2022 through 2026, Lowe's Hometowns set a goal to complete nearly 1,800 community impact projects, including 100 projects selected annually from consumer nominations and nearly 1,700 projects selected through Lowe's stores and support centers. More than renovating local communities' physical hubs and heartbeats, each project addresses critical needs in America, from food insecurity to safe and affordable housing, veterans' issues, the skilled trades gap and more. As such, the program accepts nominations from around five distinct areas.
Neighborhood housing and shelters
Public service facilities, including food pantries, senior citizen centers and youth clubs
Outdoor community spaces, including gardens and playgrounds
Cultural preservation, such as theater and memorial renovations
Facilities dedicated to skilled trades education
Through the launch of Lowe’s Hometowns, Lowe’s and PR agency FleishmanHillard set out to drive consumer nominations, build awareness for the all-new program and spotlight Lowe’s associates’ work to make homes and hometowns better for all.
The strategy to support the Lowe’s Hometowns (LHT) program was executed over nine months and three key moments in the program: the launch announcement in March 2022, the 100 selected projects announcement in June 2022 and local Red Vest Days through December 2022. The integrated campaign included tactics across earned, owned, social and influencer channels, including:
Earned
Developed and distributed news releases on the national wire for the March 2022 and June 2022 announcements.
Ahead of the March 7 announcement, conducted embargoed interview outreach resulting in a written interview with The Charlotte Observer and a live broadcast segment on Cheddar, where Berk shared his own background as a homeless youth and values around community giving.
Sustained coverage and conversation for LHT and amplified project stories through outreach to local broadcast and print publications to visit the projects in their area and speak with a spokesperson.
Social
Leveraged the star-power of LHT ambassador, Bobby Berk for two collaboration posts on Instagram, encouraging consumer nominations and announcing the projects that Berk would personally oversee.
Created and shared a surprise reaction video of nonprofit leaders being notified of their Lowe’s Hometowns grant on YouTube to Lowe’s newsroom channel.
Influencer
Recruited designer and TV personality, Bobby Berk to serve as the first Lowe’s Hometowns ambassador – lending his authentic and enthusiastic voice to speak with media and reach a wider consumer audience.
Through an ongoing partnership with the NFL, engaged eight current and former NFL stars, including Drew Brees and Justin Herbert, from the Lowe’s Home Team to lead projects in their own communities and serve as additional spokespersons to local, national and sports media.
To build awareness in priority markets from Scottsdale, AZ to Washington, D.C. partnered with micro-influencers to visit their local Lowe’s Hometowns projects – spotlighting the work and impact on their community via Instagram.
Owned
Launched an all-new landing page on Lowes.com as a trusted source for all things Lowe’s Hometowns, including the application process and a profile for all 100 signature projects.
Shared powerful multi-media features on Hometowns grantees, work completed during Red Vest days and transformational impact of the grants through Lowe’s Newsroom.
Utilized existing internal communications channels, including a weekly update from CEO, Marvin Ellison, to drive awareness and local participation with Lowe’s associates.
The first year of Lowe’s Hometowns received 1,500 consumer nominations, driven directly by social media, influencer partnerships and local media coverage. Media coverage was 100% positive and accomplished the PR goals of both spreading awareness for the program and reinforcing Lowe’s reputation as a brand that cares for communities.
Additional highlights and results from each tactic include:
Earned
Secured 635 total placements and more than 1.1 billion earned media impressions for the full campaign across local, consumer, business and philanthropy media outlets; in addition to reaching 79 DMAs, including 22 of the top 50 DMAs in the U.S., such as Philadelphia, Dallas, Houston, Boston and Tampa.
Social
Joint social post with Lowe’s and Berk generated 10.5K likes, 224 comments and a total engagement rate of 4.32% – well above Instagram’s platform average of 1.42%.
Influencer
Posts from micro-influencers, TheFunnyMomma, Lidia Salazar, TreeHouseThreadsBlog and Josh Gillett gained 136.6K views, 132.2K impressions and an average engagement rate of 2.71%.
141K Impressions stemming from the joint social post with Lowe's and Home Team player, Justin Herbert – garnering a 3.05% engagement rate
